Written Task

Dear Bessie,
             I',m  writing you from my new home, here at Thornfield. Just few day ago I met the owner of the house, Mr. Rochester. He is single and have this big house full of people working on it and a girl that she adopted called Adele (the one I have to teach). Also I feel that Mr. Rochester is kind a mysterious in this way of acting, I mean, all here is very spooky, I listen things at night that scary me and some things or people are very strange.
             Maybe I exaggerated the situation, but I prefer to be aware of any strange things that disturbs the normal life that I have finally reached, away from the past. Yes Bessie, my life experiences have affected my in considerable way, and nowadays I have be thinking about it. You might think why I didn't tell you this when we met at Lowood School, but I don't have a clear reason to response to that question, I only now that now I feel comfortable to write you about it.
              From the beginning my life started wrongly, I mean, my fathers die and I was send to the Reed's family. Being in that family, I can say, is the worst thing that have happened in my life, I'm simply not compatible to the Reed's and they might think the same about me. In that house the only person that was good and kindly with me was you Bessie and also Mr. Reed in his moment, but the rest, they were a group of abusers that feel superior to the rest of the people that were at the house (including me, of course). The thing is that they agree to make my stay at Gateshead a terrible experience, and believe, they reach their objective. As I tell to Mrs. Reed once, I'm glad that they are no relation of mine. The only thing that I never turned, was to make public the miserable cruelty to which I was subjected at Gateshead.
                Later I leave Gateshead, to start a new life at Lowood School for girls, in which I thought it will be a good experience, but the time will show me that my thoughts were completely wrong. At Lowood School I learned what is the hard life and I also met bad people that make me the life as terrible as at Gateshead. Time at Lowood was eternal, and the routine was something that upset me physically and psychologically. The only thing that I rescue from my experience at Lowood is that I met two incredibly persons: Miss Temple and Helen. The first one is like you Bessie, a role mole of my childhood, one of the only kindly persons,  that I met when I was a child (including you also).

                Now, as I told you at the beginning, I’m at Thornfield, with the objective to be a role model to Adele, as you and Miss Temple were my role model during my childhood. Going back to what I told you first, I feel that strange things are taking place here at Thornfield. For example, few days ago, when I met Mr. Rochester, I was at the street and I saw a dark shape of a horse walking to me, and I immediately thought that it was a Gytrash. Yes Bessie, a Gytrash, those spirits from your stories that frighten belated travelers. Hopefully it was Mr. Rochester in his horse. But the fact is that the atmosphere in the street or in the house is very mysterious, I mean, the fog is always present, and darkness combined with this strange sounds that are inside the house. Is like something has this place, something that I can understand or I haven’t seen it. 

                I insist that maybe I’m exaggerating all this situations. Maybe I need more time to adapt myself to this new home that I have, because leaving is not an option for me. Any little sound or strange moment are better than what I have leaved at Gateshead or Lowood School, believe me. And another reason that attracts me to this place is that I think that Mr. Rochester is very handsome, and it’s important that as I said before, he is single! But I have to be realistic, I’m not a kind of women that Mr. Rochester will take in consideration, he might be looking to some rich girl from a novel English family to get marry. I have to assume it, that is what our society establishes, and it’s very difficult to change how things are established by the society. It’s sad, but it the reality in which we lived.

                Well Bessie, that’s all that I have to tell you in this moment, but I promises you that I will write you again as soon as I have new things to tell you. For now I will continue with my job of teaching to Adele and also I will try to know more about the owner of this big house, and I will try to above all these strange aspects that I tell you before.

Sincerely 

Jane Eyre.

RATIONALE

             I decided to write a letter in which Jane Eyre tell her feelings and impressions about her new life at Thornfield, because I thing that a letter is something more personal and type of text that let express the feelings in a better way, because we suppose that the people involved in the letter  have a closer relationship. Also during the letter I put a very important element: Jane’s childhood, in which Jane describe the awful life that she lives during her stay at Gateshead and Lowood School for Girls. Another important thing is the mention of the mysterious atmosphere that it’s presented in the history.

            The audience is adults or young people I think, because this is a very complex novel of the Victorians times , so for children it might be difficult to understand.

            About the language,  I used a formal language, trying to represent the language that Jane might used in the case she wrote a letter to Bessie. Formal language, because in the Victorians times the way they write was very formal, without jargon or informal expressions that are very common nowadays.

             In summary the idea was to represent a letter of the Victorians times, wrote by a girl (Jane Eyre) in which she released all what she is feeling and what she have lived.

Reflection and Chapters 5-6-7-8

The video shows how students were punished at school during the Victorian times. This teaching methods aren´t accepted nowadays, because, as I said in another entry, the laws nowadays are very strict about how to treat boys in the school, and also in the house (not physical punishment it's allow).

Questions 

• Imagine that you are falsely accused of stealing someone’s wallet at school. Your accuser is a credible witness, believed by your peers. Do you insist on your innocence and try to prove it? Do you confront your accuser? How do you live with the disapproval of your peers? Is the knowledge of your innocence enough to sustain you? Write a reflection statement referring to these questions.
• What is your opinion of Mr Brocklehurst’s philosophy of education?
• Compare Jane Eyre to other mistreated heroines from children’s stories (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White). Knowing that Jane Eyre is the novel that broke many rules about how a mistreated heroine should act, compare and contrast them to Jane.

Answers

1) Obviously I will insist on my innocence and I will try to prove it by any way. I mean, I will don´t assume something that I haven´t done (it's something logic I think).

2) I don't accept that philosophy of education. For those times, maybe it was acceptable, but nowadays I think that many people will agree with me and thing that Mr. Brocklehurst philosophy of education is barbarism.

3) The  main difference is that Jane Eyre it's alone with her problems compared with the others heroins that they have some 'magic help'.

Film adaptation and Question Chapters 3-4-5

• What liberties do you think the director took in adapting the novel into a film?
• What criticisms can you offer to the portrayal of Victorian Times presented in the film?
• In a contemporary context, how would society manage the constant abuse and bullying against a child within the heart of his/her family?

ANSWERS:

1) The director can interpretate the novel as he want's, so in the film adaptation she might put the elements that he thinks that are importante, maybe missing some elements that appear on the book, or presenting them in a different way.

2) Criticisms to the social structure of the Victorian times. Also directed to the authoritarianism of the time (abuse from the Reed's to Jane).

3) Laws are very strict about bullying in families or schools, so those atittudes aren´t accepted nowadays.

CHAPTER 3-4-5

1. How would you describe the relationship between Jane and Mr Lloyd? How do you think this affects her?

Mr. LLoyd is very kind with Jane Eyre, and it's very important to her because her life at Gateshead is very difficult (Reeds bullying).

2. How did Jane’s character changed in her confrontation with both Mr Brocklehurst and Mrs Reed?

She gets very angry about what Mrs. Reed said, and she responses later with a very interesting phrase that meets all the things that she have to resist in her time at Gateshead (many years).

3. What is your first perception of Lowood School? What do you predict for Jane’s future at Lowood?

My first perception was that Jane was going to have a good time at Lowood School, but later I realize that this it's completly contrary.

In search of the Brontes

1. Who is said to have influenced the sister’s lives and WHY?

The father. He wanted that her girls became writters, so since they were young, he shaped her minds.

2. What tragedy struck the Brönte family?

Mother death, and later the sister also death and the fathe have to live with the sadness.

3. What’s the Brönte father’s background?

The father studied at Cambrige. His family had a very good economic situation.

4. How is it said that Emily Brönte coped with homesickness?

She expressed all her emotions in her poems.

5. What is Haworth described like in the times the Bröntes lived there?

In those times, was taking place the Industrial Revolution, and also the biuldings were usually gothics.

6. What is a recurrent theme in Charlotte’s writing (based on her experience as a child)?

The death of her mother and the problems before.

7. How did the Brönte father try to salvage the situation with his family after his wife’s death?

He try to find another wife (he married 3 times), to find a woman role model to her 3 daughters.

Image analysis: Charlotte Brönte's Landscape

The images shows the scenery that surrounded the Bronte family: Yorkshire Landscape. The big lonely fields gives us the impresion of a sad, gloomy or dark atmosphere. Also in the images, they show some churches and graves, that reinforces the idea that I just said. Now that I have read some chapters of the book, I can said that the tone or atmosphere presented in Jane Eyre, is kind a similar to the tone of the novel: dark, sad, etc.