
 | Attraction, desire and sex were not proper
subjects for a nineteenth century novel and Charlotte Brontë’s clear and open
handling of all three in Jane Eyre was shocking, exciting and
revolutionary.
Jane Eyre - a small, plain-faced, intelligent and honest English orphan is abused by her aunt and cousins as a child, acquires role models during her education at Lowood Academy, becomes the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; spends time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End and Morton, where cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and is finally reunited with and marries her beloved Rochester at his house of Ferndean. |