The mountains are calling

The plot summary of Jane Eyre never encouraged me to read the book. Besides, it seems almost superfluous when threads and themes from the story have infiltrated every corner of the gothic novel genre since. Sad governess? Check. Creepy house? Check. Somewhat (okay, a lot) dysfunctional love interest? Sigh. 

However, after watching the 2011 movie version, I am intrigued by a different theme — superstition. Jane has a traumatic early experience with a supposedly haunted room, her best friend is of a decidedly ethereal bent, and everyone insists on telling ghost stories all the time. Then the creepy house business gets started and it would be fully reasonable for Jane to give way to assumptions of the supernatural. However, she remains stubbornly rational in the face of Rochester’s purple prose and the general atmosphere. 

Arguably part of her behavior is explained by repeated setbacks and disappointments. Still, she is perhaps one of the most disciplined characters in fiction. Despite the setbacks and misbehavior of her peers, she remains perhaps the most professional governess in existence. “My employer keeps flirting with me? I remain professional. My employer is flirting with someone else? I remain professional.” 

I also am eternally delighted by Judi Dench as the housekeeper, whose face perfectly predicts each looming cataclysm but she is too respectful of Jane to do anything beyond giving very cautiously phrased good advice.