Assignment: Please address one of the following questions clearly and concisely, focusing your discussion on a single theme or idea (at least 2 typed, double-spaced pages total).

March 29: Martineau, Eastern Life, Past and Present

1. Martineau, in her description of an Egyptian "hareem" (harem) seems particularly critical of the practice of polygamy (and slavery) she sees as prevalent in the East. How does she judge polygamy? Why is she so critical of the practice of having more than one wife? Is she at all sympathetic to the women who live in the harem? How does she compare the marriage practices of her own culture with those of the East? What are her own view on marriage and on women in general? How do her comparisons of East and West reveal her own position on the role of women in her own culture? Discuss Martineau's attitudes toward the social practices of the harem and her comparisions with the practices of her own British culture.
 

March 31: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Read to Chapter 8)

1. Both at Gateshead and at the Lowood School, the young Jane Eyre meets with harsh disapproval and punishment, yet she seems to remain a particularly willful person. How do Jane's "superiors" at Gateshead and Lowood attempt to discipline her behavior? What does she do that they find so unacceptable? How does Jane react to the harsh treatments of her superiors? Why does she refuse to be a "good little girl? Discuss Jane's' crimes, her punishments, and her resistance to those punishments in the beginning of Jane Eyre.

 
April 2: Holiday, no class

 
April 5: Jane Eyre (Read to Chapter 16)

1. By Chapter 16, Jane Eyre has grown into a young woman of eighteen. How does she define herself as a young woman by the time she moves to Thornfield? How has the harshness of childhood determined her personality at eighteen? Has Jane learned anything since her days as a willful young girl? Is Jane as just as rebellious as she was as a child or has experienced changed her outlook on life? What has the example of Helen Burns taught Jane, if anything? What motivates her to seek a position outside of Lowood? Discuss Jane's expression of her own identity as a young woman.
 

April 7: Jane Eyre (read to chapter 20)

1. As a governess, Jane's social status is somewhat uncertain. More than a servant, yet not quite an equal to Rochester and his social circle, Jane moves uneasily between. How does Jane's position as a governess limit her within the Thornfield house? How does her position give her a freedom and potential not given to servants and others in the house? Why does Miss Ingram and her ilk treat Jane the way they do at Rochester's soiree in Chapters 18 and 19? How does Jane's uncertain social status affect her relationship with the "master," Rochester? Discuss Jane's social position as a governess.

 
April 9: Reading Day, no class.

 
April 12: Jane Eyre (read to Chapter 27)

1. By Chapter 27, after a strange courtship, Jane and Rochester finally plan to marry, yet the wedding day reveals the mystery that Rochester had kept locked up in his mansion. How is Bertha Mason depicted in the novel? When she is finally released at Jane's wedding, what is Jane's attitude about Bertha? Is Jane sympathetic to a woman who has been physically caged by her own future husband? What is Jane's reaction to Bertha as a colonial woman? What is Rochester's reaction to his (first) wife? How does he justify his actions toward Bertha? What are we meant to think of Bertha? Discuss the depiction of the colonial women, Bertha Mason, upon her entry onto the stage of Jane Eyre.
 

April 14: Jane Eyre (read to Chapter 30)

1. After Bertha's entry into the novel Jane is forced to leave Thornfield but not after a long account by Rochester giving the details of his life with Bertha. Bertha in many ways seems to represent--in character, behavior, and predicament--an "anti-Jane." How is the character of Bertha contrasted with what we know about Jane? How do their intellects compare? Their outward dispositions? Their physical presence? Their roles as wives? Are they similar in any respects? Does Jane feel empathy for Bertha or does Jane see her as a problem to be overcome, a rival to the hand of Rochester? Compare/contrast the character of Jane Eyre with Bertha Mason in the novel.
 

April 16: Jane Eyre (read to Chapter 34)

1. After leaving Thornfield, Jane finds a new home, a new life, and a new man, St. John Rivers. Why does she feel she needs to leave Thornfield and Rochester in the first place? What kind of life does Rochester, who wants her to stay, envision for Jane at Thornfield? Why does she refuse this life? Why does she refuse all offers of aid or alternative living arrangements from Rochester? Why does she simply walk out into the cold with nothing and no prospects? Since Bertha is clearly not a true wife for Rochester, why shouldn't Jane just live with him as his actual wife? Discuss Jane's departure and her reasons for doing so in the novel.

 
April 19: Jane Eyre (read to end)

1. At the end, why does Jane ultimately make the romantic choice she makes? Why does she choose Rochester and not St. John? Why does she find St John's offer of love and marriage to be unacceptable, yet Rochester's somehow suddenly becomes acceptable? Is it simply because Bertha is out of the picture or does Jane see a change in Rochester that allows her to come back to him? Why can she be with Rochester at the end of the novel, when she could not be with him before? Discuss Jane's choice and the circumstances that surround her final choice of men at the very end of the novel.