Bridget Jones and Jane Eyre?

I've just seen Bridget Jones's Diary - once again and for the 20th time in my life. I wanted to spot scenes from Pride and Prejudice so as to revisit the book in a fun way, but I found something interesting which i'll do some research on. By the end of the film, Bridget changes the name of her diary 'Bridget Jones's Diary' for 'Diary of Bridget Jones: Spinster and Lunatic' and I think that this might be an allusion to Jane Eyre. In a very similar masochist act by the middle of the novel, Jane Eyre paints a portrait of herself - a representation of her inner and outer self - and gives it the title 'Portrait of a lady, disconnected, poor and plain.' I think that we can find a parallellism not only between the autobiographical nature of both Bridget and Jane's work - their diary and portrait respectively - but also between the grammar used in the titles of both objects. I-m not sure whether this is a blink to Charlotte Bronte's novel but I'll try to find out and discuss this with BJ's fans.

Exploiting ITCs, Characterisation

Mall World is a game on Facebook which I love, I could spend a looot of time in front of the computer changing my doll's outfit and make up and I wish I had had this game when I was a child! (It's way better than playing with Barbies!) Anyway, one day I came up with an idea, I thought "Wouldn't it be fun to do character description in Literature using another approach?" When we read, we shape characters in our minds according to the information the author provides us and being able to put such idea into image is truly pleasant. Applications such as Mall World are wonderful tools to do this, and a lot can be learnt in the process. Adding a justification of why we characterised characters in this or that way may also be a great exercise.

Jane Eyre, Eva Luna, Pride and Prejudice, G. B. Shaw and Fairy Tales,

Just like Jane Eyre, Eva Luna travels from town to town meeting new characters and their lifestyles. After each journey, a new stage in Jane and Eva's lives begins and their personalities evolve.
Along their lives they create life, their lives, and they create the world, guided by their inner force, that force which B. Shaw talked about. But they create two worlds which are miles apart, one is in the north hemisphere and the other one in the south. However, they grow up in a similar way, experiencing similar feelings and learning to fight and defend themselves from those who are prejudiced against them.
When talking about prejudice we cannot help alluding to Elizabeth's clash with Lady Catherine and Mr. Darcy and so we can infer that prejudice against women must be something taking place around the globe.
Although Isabel Allende must have read Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen's novels, I don't think she was inspired in such stories when telling about Eva Luna at all. Yet, the similiraties in all the women in these works are there, quite explicitly displayed. This might indicate that women's experience are basically quite the same regardless their age, nationality or ethnicity. We can even compare these characters to those of fairy tales and other short stories, all of them suffer from prejudice: the princess who loves whistling, Cinderella for being an orphan, Belle for being a bookworm, the little mermaid for being a day dreamer who will not settle for life under the sea, Desiree for being thought not to be purely white, the Wife of Bath for being considered a slut :P, etc. Now, talking about fairy tales and short stories, the difference between them basically is that one is aimed to allow for identification, and the other is not.
But can we help feeling identified with these women at any extent? We might feel tempted to sort of force the similarities between our lives and these heroines' but somehow, those similarities are there and can be seen.
Reading all these works and further that I have read, after these years of Language and Literature and the years before which I spent reading without academic purposes, this brunch of literary criticism which I was so prejudiced against, which is feminist criticism, seems to me now a most fascinating world and wonderful way of reading allowing for identification to take place.


Way more than readings allowing for identification.

Jane Eyre Reading Journal | Post N°2

Unfortunately I must write that as Jane grew up my interest in the story declined :( The abundant instances of Romanticism are fading away and the visual images are becoming gloomier, leaving space for the Gothic to appear, with its supernatural features and its creepy tone. However, the story is keeping me on the edge of my....bed - i read a lot in bed lately - and the only thought of - so far - Grace Poole's laugh freaks me out. Well...perhaps the story is not that scary, but it frightens me all the same.

Jane Eyre Reading Jornal | Post N°1

I've tried to write an introduction to this reading journal but there are too many things I'd like to have a record of and too many ideas I can't really connect so I'll just write about random thoughts here. In the next post I'll write about the things that came to my mind as I read, in chronological order.

|Ch. 6|

You May Say I'm a (Day) Dreamer, but I'm Not the Only One

"- I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatterly; I seldom put, and never keep, things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn m lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements. (...) One strong proof of my wretchedly defective nature is, that even her (Miss Temple's) exposulations, so mild, so rational, have not influence to cure me of my faults; and even her praise, though I value it most highly, cannot stimulate me to continued care and foresight. (...) your thoughts never seemed to wander while Mis Miller explained the lesson and questioned you. Now, mine continually rove away; when I should be listening to Miss Scatcherd, and collecting all she says with assiduity, often I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream. Sometimes I think I am in Northumberland, and that the noises I hear round me are the bubbling of a little brook which runs through Deepden, near our house; - then, when it comes to my turn to reply, I have to be awakened; and having heard nothing of what was read for listening to the visionary brook, I have no answer ready."

"-Yet how well you replied this afternoon."

"It was mere chance; the subject on which we had been reading had interested me. This afternoon, instead of dreaming of Deepden, I was wondering how a man who wished to do right could act so unjustly and unwisely as Charles the First sometimes did; and I thought what a pity it was that, with his integrity and conscientiousness, he could see no farther than the prerogatives of the crown. If he had but been able to look to a distance, and see how what they call the spirit of the age was tending! Still, I like Charles - I respect him - I pity him, poor murdered king! Yes, his enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed. How dared they kill him!"

I am very identified with this aspect of Helen's personality, "I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements" Uhh so clever! This is my new favourite quote. I liked seeing these feelings in written because if I ever had to explain why I am the way I am, I could never say it so well. Helen's day dreams when she's not interested about what some lessons are about and her reflections upon other subjects that do interest her have a lot to do with what I feel, think and do in class ever since I was a child. A

J.E, Don't Ever Change.

"... If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way, they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should - so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again."

I've found many instances of rebellion in this book so far. I dare say that Jane Eyre seems a true rebel. I like that and I specially liked the quotation above. The awful way in which Jane is treated by Mrs. Reed and her children is so well portrayed by the author that it actually hurts the reader, rather, it actually hurt this particular reader. The way she confronts her antogonists, however, fills one with pride and makes one really want to go on reading to find out whether she will go on being as contestatary as she is when she's a child.

Miss Scatcherd, a Symbol Standing for Society.
"Neat, punctual and particular" is the way Helen Burst describes Miss Scatcherd, whom might well be a symbol of British Society and expectations by that time.