I have only known Jane through the books and haven't seen the movies, meara, so I can speak to the appeal in that sense.
I think what makes Jane, as a character, super appealling is that she operates with a deep core of righteousness. She is remarkably unconcerned with what is popular or with what is acceptable. Instead, she does what she thinks is right, whether it is stand up to Mrs. Reed (and eventually forgive her as an adult) or leave the man she loves.
She has a sense of herself that is unusual for Victorian heroines. What she wants is to be able to live with her decisions and herself and not be bullied, though she so often is. She knows that she deserves to be treated with respect and care, though she rarely has been, and seems to demand it of others.
Most of all, she remains true to herself, to her sense of rightness in a world that was trying every day to make her somebody else.
I love the book.
I'm with Kat.
I think for me, too, the fact that she turns down St. John can be read too easily as her rejecting him because she still loves Rochester. But I firmly believe she wouldn't have accepted him at any time, because while so many other women of that era would have taken the chance to be a wife (and therefore ensured of food and shelter, etc.), she didn't love him.
That's the kind of righteousness I admire in her. She never looks for the easy way out.
Her still loving Rochester may have played into her rejection of St. John, but more from a "I have too much honor to marry him if I cannot marry him with a whole heart."
Also, St. John was kind of an ass. I know he's supposed to be this deeply religious man whom Jane admires a lot - but he's such a no-fun prig. Every time I read the book, I really dislike him. At least Rochester had a sense of humor.
I also think his desire for an assistant is much greater than his desire for love. And he squashes any joy out of his life. IOW, Maysa, AGREED.
Pix - I just finished the Fevercrack and I blame you!
And it was totally cracktastic.
BTW Katha Pollitt loves the new JE movie.
Upon reread (I hadn't read JE since my teen years) I was mostly struck by how much of a selfish manipulating a**hole Rochester was. Also, I apparently blocked out much of the St. John stuff since I had no memory of it being almost a third of the book.
I was mostly struck by how much of a selfish manipulating a**hole Rochester was.
Well, yeah. He was within minutes of committing bigamy before Jane learned the truth about his wife. Not exactly a fine, upstanding human being.
