Volume 1: Jane Eyre

You should be able to discuss any and all items with references to text. I recommend using post-it notes to mark your text and jot down reminders. We will not be able to cover all of this in class if your conversation probes text with appropriate depth, insight, and analysis.

For this text, I am most interested in looking at whole passages with depth and examine HOW Charlotte Brontë develops ideas through her writing.

You can obviously reference things not on this list—these are obvious things in the novel, but I would be happy to hear about things you would like to comment on, especially if they garner intellectual thought.


Monday, April 11th, 2011.
• In class: SRD, Volume 1, Preface & Chapters 1-9 (p.1-91)
• Homework Due: Prep for SRD, chapter questions.
Chapter 1
• Analyze how each character is described – Jane, Mrs. Reed, John, Georgiana, Eliza.
• Analyze the exchange between John and Jane when John attacks Jane for her ‘imprudence’ at the end of the chapter. Examine this scene on as many literary levels as possible—character analysis, symbols, allusions, significance to plot, etc.
Chapter 2
• Analyze how each character is described – Bessie, Abbot.
• Examine the “Red Room” on as many literary levels as possible. A close reading of passage here would be helpful.
Chapter 3
• Analyze how each character is described – Mr. Lloyd.
• What is the most important paragraph in this chapter from the narrator? Why?
Chapter 4
• Analyze how each character is described – Mr. Brocklehurst.
• Examine the exchange he has with Jane. Examine this scene on as many literary levels as possible.
• Examine the following symbols throughout the novel so far. Locate and trace the evolution of these symbols from chapter 1 through 4: Books, The Color Red, Bird Imagery, Nature (as it represents Jane’s mind). Continue to examine any of these symbols as they appear throughout the novel.
Chapter 5
• Analyze how each character is described – Miss Temple?
• Analyze the significance of “Let your light shine so before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.”—St. Matt. V. 16.
Chapter 6
• Analyze how each character is described – Miss Scatcherd, Helen Burns.
Chapter 7
• Analyze how each character is described – Julia Severn, Mr. Brocklehurst.
Chapter 8
• Analyze how each character is described – Miss Temple.
Chapter 9
• Analyze how each character is described – Mary Ann Wilson.
• Analyze the significance of “Her grave is in Brocklebridge Churchyard: for fifteen years after her death it was only covered by a grassy mound; but now a gray marble tablet marks the spot, inscribed with her name, and the word ‘Resurgam’.”

Wed., April 13^th, 2011

• In class: SRD, Volume 1, Chapters 10-15 (p. 91-156)
• Homework Due: Prep for SRD, chapters 10 – 15, terms listed below.
1. What is Romanticism? What is a Romantic Character?
2. What is a Byronic Hero?
3. What is Gothic? What is a Gothic novel?