Sunday, November 5, 2017
Why does religion get the last words of the novel?
I watched the BBC radio podcast of Jane Eyre. There were a lot of good things about this podcast: the hosts went in depth on a lot of themes in the book, the hosts had a lot of knowledge of the book, the hosts thoroughly through the last part of the book. On the contrast, they did a few things wrong: they gave away the end of the book, they would go on a different tangent sometimes, their accent was a little difficult to understand at times. The one thing that peeked my interest was the talk about religion in the novel. Religion is a big theme in the novel. The first glimpse of religion was at Lowood, and the story ended with religion. I was more interested on why the book ended with religion. To my prospective, I believe that the book ended with religion because everyone could relate to religion in those times. Everyone went to church and everyone was to follow strict rules in following God. In this, I believe that Bronte put a religious ending to relate with everyone at the time and religion was a lot more strict at the time. What do you think?
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I agree with you on how religion does play a big role throughout the novel. Throughout the book, Bronte shows religions importance in the class system and it started when Jane started in Lowood. I think that part of the reason women were treated differently than men was because of religion. I think that the podcast really brought great points to the table, but I don't think religion was the most important theme/idea in the novel.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. I feel like religion was always there, but I feel like it was really shown in the ending of the book more then the beginning. I don't think that religion was the overall theme because there wasn't a lot of mention of it in the beginning. I also do agree that it ended like that because everyone at that point could relate to it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I also feel you are missing a point. At that time,most people learned how to read with the Bible. Think to how many authors write similar to what they read. Bronte would have wrote something in similar to that. It isn't a large theme, it is just a partial theme. I feel she ended in way almost like how Dickens ends the Christmas Carol,"God bless us, everyone" with Tiny Tim. Religion is just how things were tied together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your reasoning. In the Victorian Era, religion played a huge role in people's lives, including Bronte's, so it makes sense that she would include this in the novel. As a child, Bronte also experienced a lot of religion since her father was a clergyman and she attended a religious school. Another reason she may end the book with religion is to contest the book's reputation as a purely Gothic novel.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Religion was not optional in the Victorian era. Often there were a lot of people who insulted people with the use of religion. For example, When Rochester first met Jane, he accused her of being a witch. In that day and age being anything other than a good christian was very bad. I think this is why Bronte never brought it up a lot throughout the novel because religion was always prominent in anything written back then.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you but to contrast you, when Jane was at Gateshead she was referred to as the devil child and this ties into religion as well as when Mr. Broklehurst mentioned the psalms. This was her introduction to Lowood and religion. From the beginning of the book there is religion. Also, Charlotte Bronte could have ended the book with religion because the people of her time could have seen Jane Eyre as a too gothic novel. Ending with religion helps balance the religion and gothic themes in the book.
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