August 17, 2009

• For The Bookworms (I’m back, by the way)

  Not that anyone really reads this, anyway; however I’m back in the swing of school work, and therefor back to xanga.

  One of our first assignments is over the novel ‘Jane Eyre’.  Many of you may have read this quite against your will in college; a select group may have read it for pure enjoyment.  While delving into the book WARNING SPOILERS! , I noticed some characteristics shared between this book and ‘Petals on the Wind’, the second in the ‘Flowers in the Attic’ series published by V.C. Andrews. 

  In ‘Jane Eyre‘, our narrator falls madly in love with the much older Mr. Rochester.  They follow ‘proper’ measures, however engagement is inevitable.  On the day of their wedding, a dramatic scene ensues in which Mr. Rochester is accused of having a previous, lunatic wife.  This is proved with the evidence of the hidden Mrs. Rochester, locked away in a forbidden wing.  Jane does not want to become involved in polygamy and, despite her love for Mr. Rochester, runs away to live in solitude.  She is taken in by cousins (as we discover later in the story) and stays faithful to the man she feels she can never attain, despite desperate measures and come-on’s delivered by her male cousin.  Unsettled, she decides to return to Thornfield Hall to discover the current condition of Mr. Rochester.  She learns that he has become a blind, crippled man as the result of a fire that destroyed his home and the fire’s starter – Mrs. Rochester.  Jane tracks down the now single Mr. Rochester, and they get married and have children and live happily ever after etc. etc.

  Upon untruthful information that her fiancee’, Dr. Paul, is currently married, Cathy in ‘Petals on the Wind’ immediately gives in to the ploys of an emotionally unstable suitor.  Cathy marries Julian the day of the discovery, without so much as consulting the wrongly-accused Dr. Paul.  Quite a Scarlet O’Hara move of her – but bringing in another novel is too much for one night…after becoming pregnant with Julian’s child, Cathy flees from his abuse to the asylum of Dr. Paul.  This drives Julian over the edge, and upon Cathy’s return, he breaks her ballerina toes and kills himself.  Cathy then gives birth to his child, and instead of using this chance to return to the man she loves and impulsively betrayed (Dr. Paul), she pursues her mother’s husband in revenge.  This ends with the death of Bart (her mother’s husband) in a fire started by her enraged mother, as well as the birth of another fatherless son.  By this time, Cathy has wasted not only the best years of her life, but some of the last years of Dr. Paul.  She now marries him, but he has suffered strokes and dies within the first few years. 

  Here’s where I had to stop and think:  Cathy went on impulse and gave in to revenge and another suitor over discovering the truth and staying faithful.  This cost her a happy marriage with the man she really loved, and gave her in his stead two illegitimate children.  Jane, on the other hand, sought proof before taking action; remained faithful even in absence; and never forsake either her morals or her love.

  And the catastrophic fires in both stories is sort of another interesting bit…

   

  Any thoughts?

   

  - May

  • 8:52 pm
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