The narrator's effect on the reader in Jane Eyre
The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was published in 1847. In the
original publication, it was titled Jane
Eyre: An Autobiography, which had been edited by Curer Bell, a pseudonym
Charlotte Brontë worked under. This historical insight already envelops the
reader with a sense of realism and creates the feeling that the eponymous main
character is a real person and not just a character in a work of fiction. Even
Jane herself calls the novel an autobiography, “But this is not to be a regular
autobiography: I am only bound to invoke Memory where I know her responses will
possess some degree of interest:” As readers we begin to trust in
Jane’s judgment already from the beginning of the novel.
The entire novel is written in first
person narrative, told from Jane’s perspective. However, we do not see actions
at the same time as they are happening, rather Jane is looking back on her life
and can thus give a more balanced view to the events of the story. Jane is
narrating the events of the book ten years after she ends her story. In this
style of narrative, it is often easy to forget that there are two versions of
the same character, the narrator, the one who is looking back, and then the
character that is experiencing the events firsthand. In this novel, Jane is
quick to remind readers of this. She will often interrupt herself in order to
add some reflection of her past. This happens for the first time in chapter two
when Jane is locked in the red-room, “[At] this
moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon
penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this
stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head.
I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood,
a gleam from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn[.]” Firstly, the thoughts and fears of Jane as a child are evident in this quote,
but then older Jane comments with a more rational explanation for the strange
light. The wisdom that is often thought of as coming along with age, convinces
readers to accept older Jane’s reasoning.
Because Jane is looking back on her
own life, she can choose which parts of her story to share. Readers are not
given everything, we are only told what Jane thinks is worth telling. For
example, Jane decides to pass over most of her life at Lowood with a few bare
sentences, “Hitherto I have recorded in detail the events of my insignificant
existence: to the first ten years of my life I have given almost as many
chapters […]
therefore I now pass a space of eight years almost in silence: a few lines only
are necessary to keep up the links of connection.” This can be taken in
one of two ways: either Jane is highlighting parts of her life that had a big
role in her development, or she could be purposefully leaving details out. That
she might be concealing some facts of her life, only make her seem more
realistic. Often, when Jane is speaking of place names she will cut them short,
or only give vague descriptions of where she is, “I learn in what count I have
lighted: a north-midland shire, dusk with moorland, ridged with mountain: this
I see.” If Jane Eyre really were an actual person who had released
such a romantic autobiography of her life, it would be doubtful that she wished
readers to seek her out.
Jane tends to occasionally speak
directly to the reader. This creates a feeling of intimacy and even friendship
between Jane and the reader. The reader is thus pulled toward accepting Jane’s
narrative voice more and more. A famous example of this in Jane Eyre occurs
right at the beginning of the last chapter when Jane states, “Reader, I married
him.” The reader, when addressed as such, feels like Jane’s
confidante. Again, this enhances the reader’s trust for Jane.
Throughout the novel the reader is
drawn more and more towards Jane. The only disadvantage with first person
narrative is that we only see the story from one point of view. Without meaning
to, Jane creates a biased basis for the story. Every character she describes
one-dimensionally also is a complete person, with a full backstory of his or
her own. Due to the trust the reader has gained in Jane, her descriptions of
people and places are neither questioned nor examined critically.
-Laura
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