简爱读后感英文版
编辑：李老师高考志愿助手
篇一：简爱读后感英文版
I first read "Jane Eyre" in eighth grade and have read it every few years since. It is one of my favorite novels, and so much more than a gothic romance to me, although that's how I probably would have defined it at age 13. I have always been struck, haunted in a way, by the characters - Jane and Mr. Rochester. They take on new depth every time I meet them…and their's is a love story for the ages.
Charlotte Bronte's first published novel, and her most noted work, is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story. Jane is plain, poor, alone and unprotected, but due to her fierce independence and strong will she grows and is able to defy society's expectations of her. This is definitely feminist literature, published in 1847, way before the beginning of any feminist movement. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the novel has had such a wide following since it first came on the market. It is also one of the first gothic romances published and defines the genre.
Jane Eyre, who is our narrator, was born into a poor family. Her parents died when she was a small child and the little girl was sent to live with her Uncle and Aunt Reed at Gateshead. Jane's Uncle truly cared for her and showed his affection openly, but Mrs. Reed seemed to hate the orphan, and neglected her while she pampered and spoiled her own children. This unfair treatment emphasized Jane's status as an unwanted outsider. She was often punished harshly. On one occasion her nasty cousin Jack picked a fight with her. Jane tried to defend herself and was locked in the terrifying "Red Room" as a result. Jane's Uncle Reed had died in this room a little while before, and Mrs. Reed knew how frightened she was of the chamber. Since Jane is the narrator, the reader is given a first-hand imPssion of the child's feelings, her heightened emotional state at being imprisoned. Indeed, she seems almost like an hysterical child, filled with terror and rage. She repeatedly calls her condition in life "unjust" and is filled with bitterness. Looking into the mirror Jane sees a distorted image of herself. She views her reflection and sees a "strange little figure," or "tiny phantom." Jane has not learned yet to subordinate her passions to her reason. Her passions still erupt unchecked. Her isolation in the Red Room is a Psentiment of her later isolation from almost every society and community. This powerful, beautifully written scene never fails to move me.
Mrs. Reed decided to send Jane away to the Lowood School, a poor institution run by Mr. Brocklehurst, who believed that suffering made grand people. All the children there were neglected, except to receive harsh punishment when any mistake was made. At Lowood, Jane met Helen Burns, a young woman a little older than Jane, who guided her with vision, light and love for the rest of her life. Jane's need for love was so great. It really becomes obvious in this first friendship. Helen later died from fever, in Jane's arms. Her illness and death could have been avoided if more attention had been paid to the youths. Jane stayed at Lowood for ten years, eight as a student and two as a teacher. Tired and dePssed by her surroundings, Jane applied for the position of governess and found employment at Thornfield. The mansion is owned by a gentleman named Edward Fairfax Rochester. Her job there was to teach his ward, an adorable little French girl, Adele. Over a long period the moody, inscrutable Rochester confides in Jane and she in him. The two form an unlikely friendship and eventually fall in love. Again, Jane's need for love comes to the fore, as does her passionate nature. She blooms. A dark, gothic figure, Rochester also has a heart filled with the hope of true love and future happiness with Jane. Ironically, he has brought all his misery, past and future, on himself.
All is not as it seems at Thornfield. There is a strange, ominous woman servant, Grace Poole, who lives and works in an attic room. She keeps to herself and is rarely seen. From the first, however, Jane has sensed bizarre happenings at night, when everyone is asleep .There are wild cries along with violent attempts on Rochester's life by a seemingly unknown person. Jane wonders why no one investigates Mrs. Poole. Then a strange man visits Thornfield and mysteriously disappears with Mr. Rochester. Late that night Jane is asked to sit with the man while the lord of the house seeks a doctor's help. The man has been seriously wounded and is weak from loss of blood. He leaves by coach, in a sorry state, first thing in the morning. Jane's questions are not answered directly. This visit will have dire consequences on all involved. An explosive secret revealed will destroy all the joyful plans that Jane and Rochester have made. Jane, once more will face poverty and isolation.
Charlotte Bronte's heroine Jane Eyre, may not have been graced with beauty or money, but she had a spirit of fire and was filled with integrity and a sense of independence - character traits that never waned in spite of all the opPssion she encountered in life. Ms. Bronte brings to the fore in "Jane Eyre" such issues as: the relations between men and women in the mid-19 century, women's equality, the treatment of children and of women, religious faith and hypocrisy （and the difference between the two）， the realization of selfhood, and the nature of love and passion. This is a powerhouse of a novel filled with romance, mystery and passions. It is at once startlingly fresh and a portrait of the times. Ms. Bronte will make your heart beat faster, your pulse race and your eyes fill with tears.
篇二：简爱读后感英文版
After reading Jane Eyre, I think Jane Eyre is a great woman. Through a serious of troublesome situations between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, the author set up a great female image before readers: insisting on maintaining an independent personality, pursuing inspanidual freedom, advocating equality of life and being confident before hard conditions.
Her early life at Gateshead was terrible, everyone seems harsh on her. She survives her parents at an early age, and has to live with her ugly aunt and three cousins. She suffers large quantities of bad conditions that others may not experience. However, she does not give up in despair, she does not destroy herself mentally, instead, Jane Eyre is filled with unlimited confidence, and she is a strong spirit, a victory over the inner personality.
She is then forced to send to Lowood Institution, unfortunately, life there turns out to be terrible, too. She is still under physical and spiritual punishment. Mr Brocklehurst insults her to be a liar before all pupils and teachers. But there she meets one sincere friend Helen Burns and one sincere teacher Miss Temple. They always treat her well. She then behaves very well and get many people’s recognition. Six years later, she makes a teacher there.
After two years teaching life at Lowood Institution, she plans to leave there to pursuit her own life and happiness. She was in a position of governess through a letter from Thornfield. Her life was totally changed after that. There she met a lovely girl, Adele and her master, Mr. Rochester. She has a special feeling about them. With the development of the plots, Jane Eyre succeed a large sum of money from his uncle, and through all bitter things which was caused by Rochester’s wife in Thornfield, Jane Eyre and Mr.Rockester finally get married and lead an ideal life.
I think Jane Eyre is an autobiography of Charlotte Bronte. Although the story is made up, the heroine and people's life and the environment in the story were taken from the details of real people around and experience. Charlotte Bronte described a young girl’s struggling life to exPss her inner thought: everyone is equal regardless of his or her gender. The uniqueness of Jane Eyre is not only lies in its truth and the strong artistic appeal, but also lies in the particular female image. (www.gkzzy.com)The love story of Rochester and Jane Eyre vividly shows the fire of passion and sincere heart strongly reveals their notions of love. She looks down upon the upper class who only use their power to do what they intend to do and laughs at their stupid to show her independent character and beauty dream.
In the actual fact, she wasn’t Ptty, even herself knows that, and of course, the ordinary appearance make others have bad opinion on her, even her own aunt dislike her. And some others even thought that she was easy to look down upon and tease, but she was totally much more than “the plain and ugly tutor”。 And as a little governess she said to her master: “Do you think my poor, obscure, plain, and little has led me to be a soulless and heartless person? You have done a wrong thing!”Underneath these lines sees the equality of human in Jane Eyre’s mind. She has affection towards her master, Mr. Rochester, but when she finds that he has already had a wife, she leaves him and her love place without consideration. Although God did not grant her a beauty and wealth person, instead, God gave her a kind mind and a thoughtful brain. Her idea of equality and self-respect imPssed us extremely much and make us feel the power inside her small body.
In my mind, a person’s beauty on the face can only make others feel that he or she is attractive or charming, if his or her mind isn’t the same noble as the appearance, beauty of this kind cannot last for a long time, because other people will one day find that the beauty which had charmed them was only a superficial one, it’s not sincere, they will not like the person any more. For a long time, only a person’s great virtue, a noble soul, a beautiful heart can be called as an everlasting beauty, just as Albert Einstein said: “A person must be held accountable for their biological survival or all of the meaning or purpose, from an objective point of view, I think it is ridiculous. Everyone can have a certain ideal, which determines the ideal and his efforts to determine the direction. In this sense, I never easy and the enjoyment of life as an end in itself, the ethical basis of this, I call it the ideal pigsty. I lit up the road, and continue to give me new courage to face up to the pleasure of the ideal life is good and the beautiful and true. If it were not for like-minded between the warm feelings, but focus on the objective world, the arts and sciences in the field of work will never reach the target, and then it seems to me that life would be empty. There are efforts to pursue the goal of the vulgar - property, vanity, luxury living, I think it is despicable.”
Now I get a better understanding of what real beauty is, as we are all human-beings, so we should distinguish whether a man is noble or vulgar.
Jane Eyre’s story makes me thinking about our future life and I learn much from her experiences, I know everyone will have a better tomorrow if one holds his beliefs, regardless of one’s status and the situation he is in.
篇三：简爱读后感英文版
The novel is rich in poetry, symbolism and metaphor. It does not fit easily into a definite pattern, being neither a novel of “manners” in the tradition of Austen, or a straightforward Gothic Romance in the style of Mrs Radcliffe. What Charlotte Bronte did was to create a work which cleverly blends elements of the two styles, and which remains uniquely independent of them at the same time, since it addresses issues which were at the time rather controversial.
The novel is written in the first person, and thus magnifies the central character - the reader enters the world of Jane Eyre and is transported through her experiences at first hand. This at once makes the work subjective, especially since we know that Charlottes Brontes own life and experiences were so closely interwoven with the heroine's. As well as this we learn only at the end of the novel that the events are being related to us ten years after the reconciliation with Rochester - thus the narrative is RETROSPECTIVE （looking back）。 CB is clever in blending the narrative so that at times Jane seems to be speaking as an adult with adult hindsight , while at others she she is “in the middle” of them, as a child or young woman. The indecision which is a central issue in the book, is heightened by this device. We never know, as readers, whether to be entirely trustful of Janes actions and thoughts, because we are never sure wheher she is speaking impulsively or maturely.
This intensifies the readers dilemma as to what is “right” and “wrong” in the dramatic relationships which are part of JE's life. Can we believe what the heroine says, or is she deceiving herself? The novel is primarily a love story and a “romance” where wishes come true but only after trials and suffering. The supernatural has its place, as do dreams, portents and prophesies. The heroine begins poor and lonely and ends up rich and loved; the orphan finds a good family to replace the wicked one; all the basic ingredients of classic romantic fairytale are Psent.
The romantic element is Psent in two forms in Jane Eyre; the “family” aspect is dealt with in the Gateshead, Lowood and Moor House episodes, which involve the exchanging of the wicked Reed family for the benevolent Rivers one; and the Love romance is dealt with in the Thornfield and Ferndean episodes. Both aspects are, of course linked and interwoven throughout the novel.
There is also a strong element of realism in the novel, which, married to the romantic aspect, enhances the novel's strength.The sense of place is very strong; we are able to experience both exterior and interior settings with startling clarity throughout the story, in a series of vivid deive passages. The central characters are also realistic and their confrontations and sufferings change them in a believable way.
Even the unlikely is made plausible, with a unique blend of high drama and perceptive low comedy （the attack on Mason, for instance）
The more fantastic romantic aspects; (www.gkzzy.com)the coincidences; the secrets; the supernatural occurrences, are balanced by the realism, and this is of course a major strength.
The Gothic influence cannot be ignored, although CB has refined the technique considerably from the “authentic” Gothic of the 1790's. In the original genre, the heroine would typically be abducted and threatened with seduction, or worse!. There would be a lover - a respectable, well-bred young man - who would endeavor to rescue the heroine and would succeed after many trial. the seducer would be a brigand “Know that I adore Corsairs!” and he would lock the girl up in a remote castle.
There was little freedom for middle class women during the period of the Gothic novel, and this was still the case in the time of CB. Marriage especially was often a bargain, whereby fortunes were secured by using the female as a pawn. A woman's value largely depended therefore on her sexual purity and she was guarded and secured as a result. Men, on the contrary, were potent and free; lovers and mistresses were common. Ironically the women who provided their services were social outcasts as a result.
In Jane Eyre we see elements of the Gothic romance, in that Thornfield Hall and Rochester are described very much in the brigand/castle style BUT Jane Eyre is not abducted by R. On the contrary she chooses to go there of her own free will. AND she is clear in her determination to have Rochester as a husband. Neither is there a gentleman rescuer; St John Rivers may look like a Greek God, but he is neither kind nor benevolent; driving Jane back to Ferndean, not rescuing her from it.
The trials which the hero is supposed to undergo in a Gothic romance are in fact undergone by the heroine in Jane Eyre. The bandit Rochester is only skin-deep. Underneath the brooding exterior is a sensitive soul, which a WOMAN frees. In this way we see that CB created rather a daring departure from conventional fiction, although there are still many aspects of the novel which remain true to Victorian convention.!
I first read "Jane Eyre" in eighth grade and have read it every few years since. It is one of my favorite novels, and so much more than a gothic romance to me, although that's how I probably would have defined it at age 13. I have always been struck, haunted in a way, by the characters - Jane and Mr. Rochester. They take on new depth every time I meet them…and their's is a love story for the ages.
Charlotte Bronte's first published novel, and her most noted work, is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story. Jane is plain, poor, alone and unprotected, but due to her fierce independence and strong will she grows and is able to defy society's expectations of her. This is definitely feminist literature, published in 1847, way before the beginning of any feminist movement. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the novel has had such a wide following since it first came on the market. It is also one of the first gothic romances published and defines the genre.
Jane Eyre, who is our narrator, was born into a poor family. Her parents died when she was a small child and the little girl was sent to live with her Uncle and Aunt Reed at Gateshead. Jane's Uncle truly cared for her and showed his affection openly, but Mrs. Reed seemed to hate the orphan, and neglected her while she pampered and spoiled her own children. This unfair treatment emphasized Jane's status as an unwanted outsider. She was often punished harshly. On one occasion her nasty cousin Jack picked a fight with her. Jane tried to defend herself and was locked in the terrifying "Red Room" as a result. Jane's Uncle Reed had died in this room a little while before, and Mrs. Reed knew how frightened she was of the chamber. Since Jane is the narrator, the reader is given a first-hand imPssion of the child's feelings, her heightened emotional state at being imprisoned. Indeed, she seems almost like an hysterical child, filled with terror and rage. She repeatedly calls her condition in life "unjust" and is filled with bitterness. Looking into the mirror Jane sees a distorted image of herself. She views her reflection and sees a "strange little figure," or "tiny phantom." Jane has not learned yet to subordinate her passions to her reason. Her passions still erupt unchecked. Her isolation in the Red Room is a Psentiment of her later isolation from almost every society and community. This powerful, beautifully written scene never fails to move me.
Mrs. Reed decided to send Jane away to the Lowood School, a poor institution run by Mr. Brocklehurst, who believed that suffering made grand people. All the children there were neglected, except to receive harsh punishment when any mistake was made. At Lowood, Jane met Helen Burns, a young woman a little older than Jane, who guided her with vision, light and love for the rest of her life. Jane's need for love was so great. It really becomes obvious in this first friendship. Helen later died from fever, in Jane's arms. Her illness and death could have been avoided if more attention had been paid to the youths. Jane stayed at Lowood for ten years, eight as a student and two as a teacher. Tired and dePssed by her surroundings, Jane applied for the position of governess and found employment at Thornfield. The mansion is owned by a gentleman named Edward Fairfax Rochester. Her job there was to teach his ward, an adorable little French girl, Adele. Over a long period the moody, inscrutable Rochester confides in Jane and she in him. The two form an unlikely friendship and eventually fall in love. Again, Jane's need for love comes to the fore, as does her passionate nature. She blooms. A dark, gothic figure, Rochester also has a heart filled with the hope of true love and future happiness with Jane. Ironically, he has brought all his misery, past and future, on himself.
All is not as it seems at Thornfield. There is a strange, ominous woman servant, Grace Poole, who lives and works in an attic room. She keeps to herself and is rarely seen. From the first, however, Jane has sensed bizarre happenings at night, when everyone is asleep .There are wild cries along with violent attempts on Rochester's life by a seemingly unknown person. Jane wonders why no one investigates Mrs. Poole. Then a strange man visits Thornfield and mysteriously disappears with Mr. Rochester. Late that night Jane is asked to sit with the man while the lord of the house seeks a doctor's help. The man has been seriously wounded and is weak from loss of blood. He leaves by coach, in a sorry state, first thing in the morning. Jane's questions are not answered directly. This visit will have dire consequences on all involved. An explosive secret revealed will destroy all the joyful plans that Jane and Rochester have made. Jane, once more will face poverty and isolation.
Charlotte Bronte's heroine Jane Eyre, may not have been graced with beauty or money, but she had a spirit of fire and was filled with integrity and a sense of independence - character traits that never waned in spite of all the opPssion she encountered in life. Ms. Bronte brings to the fore in "Jane Eyre" such issues as: the relations between men and women in the mid-19 century, women's equality, the treatment of children and of women, religious faith and hypocrisy （and the difference between the two）， the realization of selfhood, and the nature of love and passion. This is a powerhouse of a novel filled with romance, mystery and passions. It is at once startlingly fresh and a portrait of the times. Ms. Bronte will make your heart beat faster, your pulse race and your eyes fill with tears.
篇二：简爱读后感英文版
After reading Jane Eyre, I think Jane Eyre is a great woman. Through a serious of troublesome situations between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, the author set up a great female image before readers: insisting on maintaining an independent personality, pursuing inspanidual freedom, advocating equality of life and being confident before hard conditions.
Her early life at Gateshead was terrible, everyone seems harsh on her. She survives her parents at an early age, and has to live with her ugly aunt and three cousins. She suffers large quantities of bad conditions that others may not experience. However, she does not give up in despair, she does not destroy herself mentally, instead, Jane Eyre is filled with unlimited confidence, and she is a strong spirit, a victory over the inner personality.
She is then forced to send to Lowood Institution, unfortunately, life there turns out to be terrible, too. She is still under physical and spiritual punishment. Mr Brocklehurst insults her to be a liar before all pupils and teachers. But there she meets one sincere friend Helen Burns and one sincere teacher Miss Temple. They always treat her well. She then behaves very well and get many people’s recognition. Six years later, she makes a teacher there.
After two years teaching life at Lowood Institution, she plans to leave there to pursuit her own life and happiness. She was in a position of governess through a letter from Thornfield. Her life was totally changed after that. There she met a lovely girl, Adele and her master, Mr. Rochester. She has a special feeling about them. With the development of the plots, Jane Eyre succeed a large sum of money from his uncle, and through all bitter things which was caused by Rochester’s wife in Thornfield, Jane Eyre and Mr.Rockester finally get married and lead an ideal life.
I think Jane Eyre is an autobiography of Charlotte Bronte. Although the story is made up, the heroine and people's life and the environment in the story were taken from the details of real people around and experience. Charlotte Bronte described a young girl’s struggling life to exPss her inner thought: everyone is equal regardless of his or her gender. The uniqueness of Jane Eyre is not only lies in its truth and the strong artistic appeal, but also lies in the particular female image. (www.gkzzy.com)The love story of Rochester and Jane Eyre vividly shows the fire of passion and sincere heart strongly reveals their notions of love. She looks down upon the upper class who only use their power to do what they intend to do and laughs at their stupid to show her independent character and beauty dream.
In the actual fact, she wasn’t Ptty, even herself knows that, and of course, the ordinary appearance make others have bad opinion on her, even her own aunt dislike her. And some others even thought that she was easy to look down upon and tease, but she was totally much more than “the plain and ugly tutor”。 And as a little governess she said to her master: “Do you think my poor, obscure, plain, and little has led me to be a soulless and heartless person? You have done a wrong thing!”Underneath these lines sees the equality of human in Jane Eyre’s mind. She has affection towards her master, Mr. Rochester, but when she finds that he has already had a wife, she leaves him and her love place without consideration. Although God did not grant her a beauty and wealth person, instead, God gave her a kind mind and a thoughtful brain. Her idea of equality and self-respect imPssed us extremely much and make us feel the power inside her small body.
In my mind, a person’s beauty on the face can only make others feel that he or she is attractive or charming, if his or her mind isn’t the same noble as the appearance, beauty of this kind cannot last for a long time, because other people will one day find that the beauty which had charmed them was only a superficial one, it’s not sincere, they will not like the person any more. For a long time, only a person’s great virtue, a noble soul, a beautiful heart can be called as an everlasting beauty, just as Albert Einstein said: “A person must be held accountable for their biological survival or all of the meaning or purpose, from an objective point of view, I think it is ridiculous. Everyone can have a certain ideal, which determines the ideal and his efforts to determine the direction. In this sense, I never easy and the enjoyment of life as an end in itself, the ethical basis of this, I call it the ideal pigsty. I lit up the road, and continue to give me new courage to face up to the pleasure of the ideal life is good and the beautiful and true. If it were not for like-minded between the warm feelings, but focus on the objective world, the arts and sciences in the field of work will never reach the target, and then it seems to me that life would be empty. There are efforts to pursue the goal of the vulgar - property, vanity, luxury living, I think it is despicable.”
Now I get a better understanding of what real beauty is, as we are all human-beings, so we should distinguish whether a man is noble or vulgar.
Jane Eyre’s story makes me thinking about our future life and I learn much from her experiences, I know everyone will have a better tomorrow if one holds his beliefs, regardless of one’s status and the situation he is in.
篇三：简爱读后感英文版
The novel is rich in poetry, symbolism and metaphor. It does not fit easily into a definite pattern, being neither a novel of “manners” in the tradition of Austen, or a straightforward Gothic Romance in the style of Mrs Radcliffe. What Charlotte Bronte did was to create a work which cleverly blends elements of the two styles, and which remains uniquely independent of them at the same time, since it addresses issues which were at the time rather controversial.
The novel is written in the first person, and thus magnifies the central character - the reader enters the world of Jane Eyre and is transported through her experiences at first hand. This at once makes the work subjective, especially since we know that Charlottes Brontes own life and experiences were so closely interwoven with the heroine's. As well as this we learn only at the end of the novel that the events are being related to us ten years after the reconciliation with Rochester - thus the narrative is RETROSPECTIVE （looking back）。 CB is clever in blending the narrative so that at times Jane seems to be speaking as an adult with adult hindsight , while at others she she is “in the middle” of them, as a child or young woman. The indecision which is a central issue in the book, is heightened by this device. We never know, as readers, whether to be entirely trustful of Janes actions and thoughts, because we are never sure wheher she is speaking impulsively or maturely.
This intensifies the readers dilemma as to what is “right” and “wrong” in the dramatic relationships which are part of JE's life. Can we believe what the heroine says, or is she deceiving herself? The novel is primarily a love story and a “romance” where wishes come true but only after trials and suffering. The supernatural has its place, as do dreams, portents and prophesies. The heroine begins poor and lonely and ends up rich and loved; the orphan finds a good family to replace the wicked one; all the basic ingredients of classic romantic fairytale are Psent.
The romantic element is Psent in two forms in Jane Eyre; the “family” aspect is dealt with in the Gateshead, Lowood and Moor House episodes, which involve the exchanging of the wicked Reed family for the benevolent Rivers one; and the Love romance is dealt with in the Thornfield and Ferndean episodes. Both aspects are, of course linked and interwoven throughout the novel.
There is also a strong element of realism in the novel, which, married to the romantic aspect, enhances the novel's strength.The sense of place is very strong; we are able to experience both exterior and interior settings with startling clarity throughout the story, in a series of vivid deive passages. The central characters are also realistic and their confrontations and sufferings change them in a believable way.
Even the unlikely is made plausible, with a unique blend of high drama and perceptive low comedy （the attack on Mason, for instance）
The more fantastic romantic aspects; (www.gkzzy.com)the coincidences; the secrets; the supernatural occurrences, are balanced by the realism, and this is of course a major strength.
The Gothic influence cannot be ignored, although CB has refined the technique considerably from the “authentic” Gothic of the 1790's. In the original genre, the heroine would typically be abducted and threatened with seduction, or worse!. There would be a lover - a respectable, well-bred young man - who would endeavor to rescue the heroine and would succeed after many trial. the seducer would be a brigand “Know that I adore Corsairs!” and he would lock the girl up in a remote castle.
There was little freedom for middle class women during the period of the Gothic novel, and this was still the case in the time of CB. Marriage especially was often a bargain, whereby fortunes were secured by using the female as a pawn. A woman's value largely depended therefore on her sexual purity and she was guarded and secured as a result. Men, on the contrary, were potent and free; lovers and mistresses were common. Ironically the women who provided their services were social outcasts as a result.
In Jane Eyre we see elements of the Gothic romance, in that Thornfield Hall and Rochester are described very much in the brigand/castle style BUT Jane Eyre is not abducted by R. On the contrary she chooses to go there of her own free will. AND she is clear in her determination to have Rochester as a husband. Neither is there a gentleman rescuer; St John Rivers may look like a Greek God, but he is neither kind nor benevolent; driving Jane back to Ferndean, not rescuing her from it.
The trials which the hero is supposed to undergo in a Gothic romance are in fact undergone by the heroine in Jane Eyre. The bandit Rochester is only skin-deep. Underneath the brooding exterior is a sensitive soul, which a WOMAN frees. In this way we see that CB created rather a daring departure from conventional fiction, although there are still many aspects of the novel which remain true to Victorian convention.!
