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"Reader, I married him."

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It's one of the most iconic lines
in all of English literature.

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Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's poor,
orphaned, neglected heroine, has

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finally married the man she loves,
Rochester, and on her own terms.

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As a teenager, and
a debut novelist myself at 16,

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I was intrigued by Jane Eyre.

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Like many millions of readers
before me, I immersed myself in her

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world of loss and suffering,
striving and redemption.

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Charlotte Bronte's heroine got
everything she wanted,

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and without compromising
her principles.

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Or did she?

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Revisiting Bronte's
classic novel now,

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my reaction couldn't
be more different.

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I find the book
so much more disturbing

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and darker than
my teenage memory of it.

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'In this film, I want to go back
to Charlotte Bronte's original

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'manuscript,
examine early writing...'

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Oh, my God!

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'..and uncover personal
correspondence which reveals

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'experiences that shape
the book's narrative.'

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You can almost tell
that the hand is clenched.

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'And I want to test out
my ideas about the book

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'and its central character
with experts.'

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Actually, Jane Eyre is
revolutionary in her demands.

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Oh! I don't agree at all.

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Well, I think you're right that
Jane Eyre isn't just a love story.

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It's full of violence,
frustration and repressed desire.

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As a protagonist, Jane Eyre is one
of the great literary characters,

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but I want to know,
how much of a heroine is she?

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"I am glad you are
no relation of mine.

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"I will never call you aunt
again so long as I live.

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"I will never come to see you when
I'm grown up, and if anyone asks me

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"how I liked you and how you treated
me, I will say the very thought

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"of you makes me sick, and that you
treated me with miserable cruelty.

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"How dare you affirm that,
Jane Eyre?

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"How dare I, Mrs Reed? How
dare I? Because it is the truth."

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I love that.

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Jane Eyre was only ten years old
when she finally snapped

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and confronted Mrs Reed,

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the cruel aunt who turned a blind
eye to Jane's bullying cousins.

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When I first read the novel, I loved
this orphan girl who was angry,

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outspoken, and
acutely aware of injustice.

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I admired her emotional independence

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and her total determination to make
her own way in the world, even

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when she was sent away to
a brutal boarding school.

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At 18, Jane Eyre becomes a
governess at Thornfield Hall.

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It's where the central love
story of the novel begins -

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Jane's relationship with
the master of the house.

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Her employer is the mercurial
and tormented Edward Rochester.

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Charlotte Bronte describes
"his stern features,

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"his heavy brow, his
considerable breadth of chest."

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This was my first copy of Jane Eyre
from when I was a teenager,

53
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and to prove it to you...
there you go,

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October 1996 with a vintage doodle
from my teen years.

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And this is my teenage bedroom,
where I read Jane Eyre

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for the first time, on that bed.

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And not only that but,
looking through it now, I see that

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I clearly went through it
highlighting all of the dirty bits!

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"You examine me, Miss Eyre,
said he, Do you think me handsome?"

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But she goes, "No, sir."

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She refuses to compromise or
demean herself even though it's

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quite obvious that
she's attracted to him too.

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As a young reader,
I was rooting for her all the way.

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I got just as wrapped up

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in the love story element
of the novel as she did.

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When Charlotte Bronte
wrote her great love story

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between Jane Eyre and Rochester,
she wanted her writing to be judged

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on merit, and not with
any reference to her gender,

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not least because she was writing
frankly about female desire.

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'Bronte was 30 years old when
Jane Eyre was published in 1847,

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'under the guise of an autobiography
edited by Currer Bell -

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'a pseudonym adopted
by Charlotte Bronte.

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'The book was an overnight
sensation.

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'Today, the British Library has
the only surviving manuscript.'

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I can't believe that we're
sitting in front of an original

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manuscript of Jane Eyre written
by Charlotte Bronte herself.

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The handwriting is so precise,
the whole thing seems immaculate

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and neat, as though this
is all very thought through.

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She would hesitate to choose
the right word, or the right

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expression, just to get it right.

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I'm just astonished that these

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pages do give off a kind
of atmosphere, don't they?

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Yeah, they do, definitely.

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It's beautifully, beautifully neat,

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and this is the fair copy
of the manuscript.

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We know that she would start out
writing in pencil on lots

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of little sheets and then
she would work from those

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and produce the fair copy, which
is what the publishers were sent.

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Bronte's manuscript shows
how careful

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and considered she was with
the writing of her novel.

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But intimate letters survive that
reveal a far more emotionally

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unrestrained side to the author.

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One of the most significant periods
in Charlotte Bronte's life

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was in the early 1840s, when
she travelled to Brussels to

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study languages,
and we know that she fell in love

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with Monsieur Heger.

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He was the married professor
of literature who taught

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Charlotte Bronte.

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Heger was the first man outside her
family who'd actually recognised

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her genius and she responded
to him in a very passionate way.

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It's a really formative
period in her life.

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And before I cast my eyes
upon this letter,

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I just have to know,
was it reciprocated?

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No. No.

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From the first paragraph,
it says it's been six months

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and she's going over the date of her
last letter that she wrote him.

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They came to an agreement that
she would only write one letter

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every six months,
and when she kept that agreement,

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and he still didn't respond,
she would fire back with quite

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an angry, passionate
sort of pent up letter.

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Yeah. You can almost tell
that the hand is clenched,

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the writing hand
is absolutely clenched.

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Well, I don't think I can puzzle
out any more of the French,

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because it's so tiny.

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This is a translation of the letter.

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"I will tell you candidly
that during this time of waiting
I've tried to

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"forget you, and when one has
suffered this kind of anxiety

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"for one or two years" - years! -
"one is ready to do anything

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"to regain peace of mind."

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This is her first
sort of crush, really.

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I think it's more than a crush.

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"When a dreary and prolonged
silence seems to warn me

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"that my master is becoming
estranged from me,

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"I lose my appetite and my sleep -
I pine away."

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The thing that strikes me
immediately is that she refers

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to him as "my master", which
is exactly what Jane Eyre... Yes.

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..does to Edward Rochester. She
calls him "my master" throughout.

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Heger played a huge part in the
shaping of Rochester's character,

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and the relationship between Jane.

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But does he torment her
deliberately in a way that...

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I think he did.

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Yeah, he was aware of his power
over his pupils,

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and particularly over
Charlotte Bronte.

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How long did it take her
to write Jane Eyre?

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It took her... From starting it
to actually sending the fair copy

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to the publishers, it was 12 months.

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And it was not long
after the Brussels period.

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We know the Thornfield
section of the novel

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was completed in three weeks.

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So it seems like
she was very confident.

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And that this was coming
from very deep inside?

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Coming from very deep
inside her, yeah.

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This passion for her teacher
in Brussels clearly inspired

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the writing of Jane Eyre.

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But for Bronte's
fictional love story,

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she would choose a much grander
setting suited to the melodramatic

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reworking of her own
emotional experiences.

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Bronte's novel is famously
set against the epic backdrop

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of the Yorkshire moors.

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And this fortified manor house
has been used as a film location

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for many dramatised
versions of the book.

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In my imagination, and that of
countless readers and film goers,

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this could be Edward Rochester's
ancestral home, Thornfield Hall.

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It's the perfect stage for
Charlotte Bronte's Gothic story

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of fairytale, horror
and magical revelation.

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Part of the power of the book
lies in the way Bronte combines

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these disparate genre styles
with realistic storytelling.

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Re-reading the book now,
the darkness seems much more

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oppressive, widespread
and disturbing.

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Far from the heady romance I read as
a teen, I now see the relationship

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between Rochester and Jane Eyre
as an extremely abusive one,

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especially in the way he exploits
his position of authority over her.

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Throughout the novel, Rochester
refers to Jane as "little".

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And she submissively
calls him "master".

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Ultimately, she's presented
as accepting of his aggression

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and of her own dependence
and emotional subordination.

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Bronte writes,

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"His presence in a room was more
cheering than the brightest fire.

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"Yet I had not forgotten
his faults - indeed,

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"I could not, for he brought
them frequently before me."

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And there's nothing romantic about
Rochester's marriage proposal

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to her. He says,
"Jane, will you marry me?

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"You - poor and obscure, and small
and plain as you are - I entreat

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"you to accept me as a husband".

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These are words that
the self-effacing Jane has used

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to describe herself
to Rochester before.

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And she replies to him,
"Are you in earnest?

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"Do you truly love me?

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"Do you sincerely wish me
to be your wife?"

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But then all her dreams
come crashing down -

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Rochester's already married.

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He's been lying to her throughout
and he's hidden his mad wife,

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Bertha, in the attic.

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Jane faces a stark choice -
stay with Rochester

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and be his mistress or follow her
convictions and her dignity,

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even if it means letting
go of the man she loves.

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Jane flees Thornfield - she's
by herself and she has nothing.

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Jane says, "I may be poor and plain
and alone, but I care for myself."

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She's aware that if she
becomes Rochester's mistress,

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she loses not only her
respectability but her self-respect.

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'This is where I wished Jane
had stayed strong

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'and seen the last of Rochester.

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'Although an unexpected inheritance
brings her financial independence,

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'she chooses to return to him
a year later.

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'But the novel is not
so kind to her former master.

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'As his home is engulfed in flames,

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'he's crippled
and robbed of his sight.

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00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,160
'It's as though Bronte has
given him his karmic punishment.'

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00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:14,640
Rochester's blind and
he's been maimed trying to save

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00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:18,080
Bertha from the devastating fire
she caused at Thornfield.

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00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:24,000
Bertha dies, leaving Rochester
free to finally marry Jane.

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00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,400
'With fairytale neatness,
it's all very convenient.

203
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,760
'Not only is Bertha
out of the way forever,

204
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:38,000
'but Jane's fortunes have risen
while Rochester's have fallen.'

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00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:42,200
Many readers see
an equality between Jane

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00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,120
and Rochester
by the end of the novel.

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00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,760
But I'm afraid
I don't accept that at all.

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00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:54,720
She revels in serving this man and I
think she exults at Bertha's demise.

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00:14:56,560 --> 00:15:00,760
'I want to take Charlotte Bronte
and her creation, Jane Eyre,

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'to task, and find out more about
the heroine who has resonated

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00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:09,800
'with so many readers, but
has left me with so many doubts.

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00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,360
'I've come to the lifelong home
of the Brontes,

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00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:15,880
'in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

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00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,440
'It's where Charlotte lived with her
literary sisters, Anne and Emily,

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00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:25,680
'and where she completed Jane Eyre -
her most successful novel.'

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00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:34,120
One of the things I've always
loved about Jane Eyre is her anger

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and she will answer back to anyone
who mistreats her, and I feel almost

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that when she gets to Thornfield,
she becomes curiously submissive.

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I am disturbed by the...
I see you wincing in pain there!

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..as soon as she gets to Thornfield,
because in sweeps Mr Rochester,

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00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:56,120
and from then on I feel like
she is sort of magnetised by him,

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and he begins to torment,
tease, flirt with her,

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00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:05,280
and I'm reading it thinking, where
is that child that stood by herself?

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Well, I think first of all,
this is an education novel.

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You know, it's a bildungsroman
and so it is about a character

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00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:18,280
changing and maturing, and I
think that the whole thing is that

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00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:20,720
she's not just going
to give into her anger.

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00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,840
When it comes to Mr Rochester,
it's not just a love story,

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it's really about her
asserting herself

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and refusing to submit
to someone else's will.

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00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:33,800
I mean, he might call her
his little bird,

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00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:35,560
but she resists him all the time.

233
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:37,000
Oh, I don't agree at all.

234
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:41,480
Jane strikes me as this completely
damaged, broken individual

235
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,640
and I think that's what happens
when you've grown up

236
00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:49,440
and nobody has shown you
even a shred of love... Yes, yes.

237
00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:52,440
..and it's this that leads her
into this very sadomasochistic

238
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:53,880
relationship with Rochester.

239
00:16:53,880 --> 00:16:57,080
One of the first things she likes
when she meets Rochester

240
00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,280
is he falls from the horse
and she helps him up and she says,

241
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,440
"I felt glad... I wasn't... My
existence had become less passive,

242
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:06,200
"I was doing something to help him."

243
00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,880
And that was her big gripe about
19th century lives for women.

244
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:13,400
But you see, but, but that, to me,
is the ultimate in female masochism,

245
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,560
which is,
"I love him because he needs me."

246
00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:17,840
That's - you've just
said it right there.

247
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,200
And at no point does Jane
really judge Rochester.

248
00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:24,920
But she also says,
"I won't be a slave in your harem,

249
00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:27,560
"I will be stirring up the slaves
to liberty."

250
00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:30,640
I mean, this is a theme
about her character

251
00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,400
striving for a kind of mental
equality with a man.

252
00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,760
And it was so unusual that after
about a year of people saying,

253
00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:40,800
"Isn't this a fantastic novel?"
people starting saying, hmm,

254
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:43,520
this is the sort of same
kind of mind-set which created

255
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:48,760
the 1848 revolution, Chartism, this
sort of overturning of barriers.

256
00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,440
This is what creates
revolution all over the world.

257
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,840
And, yes, actually, Jane Eyre
is revolutionary in her demands,

258
00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:00,040
and I think she maintains that
despite being very,

259
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,600
very attracted to Mr Rochester.

260
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:04,560
This is a mould breaking heroine.

261
00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:11,240
'So, maybe I'm not giving
Charlotte Bronte enough

262
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,520
'credit for challenging convention

263
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:18,120
'and pushing for female identity
and passion to be taken seriously.

264
00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:23,440
'And there was a radicalism
too in the style of the book.

265
00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:26,600
'The intimate first person

266
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:29,920
'autobiographical voice
was itself pioneering.

267
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,520
'Its interior perspective
would inspire later

268
00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:36,840
'generations of novelists.

269
00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,760
'But one aspect of Bronte's
writing which still raises many

270
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:47,120
'questions for me
is her attitude to race.

271
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:50,680
'As a child, she grew up
during a time when slavery

272
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:53,680
'in the British Empire
was nearing its end.

273
00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,360
'I'm keen to know how the debate
that raged around the trade

274
00:18:59,360 --> 00:19:01,840
'might have informed her
literary imagination.

275
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:08,440
'The British Library has some
rare examples of Bronte's early

276
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:12,600
'writing, which show how she first
imagined life in the colonies.'

277
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:18,920
So, this is the manuscript
of The Foundling.

278
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,640
It's one of Charlotte Bronte's
juvenilia.

279
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,760
But, but you're being
so careful with it,

280
00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,760
makes me think
it's incredibly fragile. It is.

281
00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:32,800
This is absolutely amazing.

282
00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:36,840
This tells me that Charlotte Bronte
was really ambitious,

283
00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:40,440
to be published out in the world
with a proper book. Yes, certainly.

284
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:43,800
And you can tell that by the sheer
exuberance of her signature.

285
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:47,040
I mean, that's the biggest thing
on this first page.

286
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:48,160
Verdopolis.

287
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:53,840
That was the name of this
African colonial state where

288
00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:55,640
many of the stories were set.

289
00:19:55,640 --> 00:19:57,760
So it's incredibly
politically charged.

290
00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:01,560
Yeah, I mean, I think the way
she presents a colony is very much

291
00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:04,280
in line with the way she would
have read about the colonies.

292
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:05,480
I'll just turn the page,

293
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,480
because I think you get
a better sense then of it.

294
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,640
Oh, my God! Are those real...

295
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:13,760
That really is really tiny writing.

296
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,840
..letters. It's so small,
it's sort of like ants marching

297
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,720
across the page. And yet each
letter is perfect. Yes. Oh, yes!

298
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:24,880
I find it completely fascinating
that this teenager, really,

299
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:26,960
is writing at a time

300
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:32,040
when in the outer world there is
a huge amount of social change

301
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,440
happening around the abolition
of slavery and this seems to

302
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:39,760
have filtered through to the young
Charlotte Bronte in this story.

303
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:43,600
Yeah, I think what you will see
here, if we just turn the page,

304
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:48,040
is that you have a description
of this, of Verdopolis, of this...

305
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:49,520
This colonial state.

306
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:51,960
..this colonial city,
which she describes here as

307
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,880
"that splendid city with such
graceful haughtiness."

308
00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:59,640
So, she's really taking on
the role of the coloniser?

309
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,280
Yes, I think she definitely
portrays this world

310
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,520
probably in a way that
she would have read about it

311
00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,000
in the Victorian period
in which she grew up.

312
00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:11,480
Do you think there's much
of a social conscious in this?

313
00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:14,360
I'm feeling that she's rather on
the side of the colonials

314
00:21:14,360 --> 00:21:16,800
who were going over to
civilise the heathens.

315
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:18,440
In The Foundling, in particular,

316
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:22,840
there isn't a huge amount from the
perspective of the native residents

317
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:26,360
of Verdopolis, but I think she
certainly has an awareness of them.

318
00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:29,320
So, there's that kind of
involvement with colonial life.

319
00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:33,480
But I don't think it's always
clear exactly what her view is.

320
00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:40,320
While a clear view on colonialism

321
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:44,360
and race may be absent from
the writing of the young Bronte,

322
00:21:44,360 --> 00:21:49,160
in my mind, the view revealed by
the adult Bronte is much clearer.

323
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:59,880
When I re-read Jane Eyre,
one of the most marked differences

324
00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:03,560
was in my reaction to
the treatment of Bertha,

325
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:07,320
Rochester's infamous
mad wife in the attic.

326
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:10,880
As a young reader, I didn't
see her as anything other than

327
00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,120
an obstacle to the happy
conclusion of Jane's love story.

328
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:18,000
The thought of Bertha locked up

329
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:23,680
didn't excite any sympathy in me
or, frankly, in Jane herself.

330
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:29,480
Nor did I question that Rochester
may have used Bertha for her money.

331
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:31,960
Bertha came from a wealthy family,

332
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:35,240
and Rochester met her
in the West Indies.

333
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:46,880
Bertha is Creole, we're not sure
if she's black or mixed race,

334
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,640
but she's described as dark skinned,

335
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:54,040
something which has negative
connotations throughout the novel.

336
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:58,960
When Jane first lays eyes on her,
her description is vivid

337
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:00,680
and extremely telling.

338
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:03,720
She says that Bertha is,

339
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,880
"Fearful and ghastly with a
discoloured face, a savage face.

340
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,480
"The lips were swelled and dark.

341
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:15,200
"Black eyebrows widely raised
over the bloodshot eyes."

342
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:22,680
The way Bronte kills Bertha off
couldn't be more violent.

343
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,760
She has her jumping to her death
from the fire that she

344
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,520
herself caused at Thornfield.

345
00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:42,400
Years before her demise
at Thornfield,

346
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,440
it's likely that Bertha and
Rochester's journey from Jamaica

347
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,160
would have ended here
in Liverpool - a city

348
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,320
with a long and contentious history
of trading with the colonies.

349
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:58,440
Something I realised when
I was re-reading Jane Eyre is

350
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,720
I didn't read it as
a love story this time.

351
00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:02,520
To me, it was about race
and foreignness,

352
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,480
particularly in the depiction
of Bertha Mason,

353
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,480
the first wife who's been
locked up in the attic.

354
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,280
Well, I think you're right that
Jane Eyre isn't just a love story.

355
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,160
I mean, I think it is a love story,

356
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:14,920
but like, like all of Bronte's

357
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:20,800
novels, it's full of violence and
frustration and repressed desire.

358
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,360
But it's true that
the novel's attitudes to Bertha

359
00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,080
I think are very ambivalent.

360
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:27,880
Do you think that the novel

361
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:30,240
is coming down on the side
of colonialism?

362
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,120
Oh, yes, we know that
Charlotte herself was a deeply

363
00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:35,160
conservative woman, she was a Tory.

364
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:36,800
Her father was a Tory.

365
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,920
Her father was an Anglo-Irish
Anglican parson who was

366
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:41,480
a Conservative.

367
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,000
So, I'm quite sure that in terms
of her own politics, that would be

368
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,440
true, that she would not be
critical of colonialism at all,

369
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:52,240
but novels are delicate and
ambiguous and slippery things.

370
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,600
And what novelists themselves
believe may not always be identical

371
00:24:56,600 --> 00:25:00,000
with what they show
and what they dramatise.

372
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,880
So, I think that, yeah,
she would have, she would have,

373
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,200
she would have approved
of colonialism,

374
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,520
but themes of subjugation -
not least the subjugation of women -

375
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,080
themes of victimisation,
exploitation,

376
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:14,400
are rife throughout the novel.

377
00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,520
She does, of course, show the image
of an exploited woman in Bertha.

378
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:21,920
Even if she doesn't see her
that way, we can see her that way,

379
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,480
which gives us a very different
view of the situation.

380
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,520
I'm very interested in the idea
of Charlotte Bronte's conservatism

381
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,880
because, throughout the novel,
she's going on about how

382
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:33,280
she demands equality,
she wants to be seen as a person.

383
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:37,120
And yet, all her politics,
all her ferocity, actually fail

384
00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:40,400
when it comes to talking about
international matters and slavery

385
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:44,280
and colonialism, even though she is
acutely aware of women's suffering.

386
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,480
Well, I'm not sure one would,
that it would be reasonable

387
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:52,360
to expect a 19th century
governess like Jane, you know,

388
00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:55,560
or even Charlotte, to be
aware of that wider world.

389
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:59,600
But she sure is aware of
the politics on her own doorstep.

390
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,080
Bertha does in a way
represent a lot of guilt

391
00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,360
and a lot of exploitation and a
lot of frustration and desire which

392
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:09,960
are there in English society as a
whole, and Bertha's the monstrous

393
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,080
incarnation of all this,
which in one sense is repellent,

394
00:26:13,080 --> 00:26:16,600
because that society doesn't
want to acknowledge its roots

395
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:18,640
in colonial exploitation.

396
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:23,160
On the other hand,
there's something about the exotic,

397
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:24,920
the dark the unknown,
the adventurous...

398
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,320
As ever! Oh, these, well,
these are classic notions...

399
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:30,360
..which of course is very effective.
These are classic notions.

400
00:26:30,360 --> 00:26:33,280
Absolutely. If you're saying that
Bertha is a hideous stereotype,

401
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,040
for sure, I mean, no argument.

402
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:38,400
I don't think you're
necessarily misreading Bertha.

403
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,760
I do think you're rather
concentrating too much on her,

404
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:43,440
cos she's one element
in a very complex novel,

405
00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,240
and I don't think the novel can
be reduced to its pretty odious

406
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,960
treatment of Bertha, yes,
because there's something in that

407
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,920
kind of madness, in that kind of
female madness in particular, which

408
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,880
calls very deeply to Charlotte,
I think, and to, and to Jane.

409
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:05,520
'When I started out,

410
00:27:05,520 --> 00:27:10,400
'I was really questioning how
much of a heroine Jane Eyre is.'

411
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,200
I'm now not just beginning
to mellow towards her,

412
00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,200
I have to admit,
I actively admire her.

413
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:22,120
Bronte gave voice to
a female desire and sexuality

414
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:27,240
in a ground-breaking and influential
literary form, conveying Jane Eyre's

415
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,880
experiences through a captivating
and original, personal perspective.

416
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:39,360
I must admit, though, I am still
horrified by the depiction

417
00:27:39,360 --> 00:27:44,800
and treatment of the character
of Bertha, but maybe that's me

418
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:50,600
judging Charlotte Bronte by my
21st-century politicised values.

419
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,360
'While I realise that Bronte
was reflecting

420
00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:57,720
'some of the prejudices of her time,

421
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:03,560
'the novel still allows for multiple
nuanced readings, and at its heart

422
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:07,800
'is a radical plea for women to
have greater equality with men.

423
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:14,160
'It's been so rewarding exploring
this novel and its ambiguities,

424
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,800
'teasing out what it is
that keeps pulling me back.

425
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,240
'And the answer is the same now
as when I first read

426
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:25,520
'the book as a teenager -
the complex character of Jane Eyre.

427
00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,240
'The moral dilemmas of her world

428
00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:33,160
'are so convincingly brought
to life that her story continues

429
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:39,320
'to both inspire and provoke, nearly
two centuries after it was written.'

430
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,400
To dig deeper into
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre,

431
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,680
and the other books in this series,

432
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:54,520
a free app from the Open University
is available to download. Go to:

433
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,320
..and follow the links
to the Open University.