The Insight of Charlotte Brontë

I recently finished reading Jane Eyre for the first time (get it for free here). A handful of sentences that Charlotte Brontë threw in there made me think, ooh I like that, and so I thought I'd share them with you.

Reading and reflecting on thoughts written in a widely read, well-respected book that's survived for over 150 years is important and offers a bunch of opportunities for self-improvement for four reasons, among others:

• They can help us to be grateful for changes in society
• They can remind us of certain problems in society that aren't going away and that we could, perhaps, do something about
• They're often written in a novel and memorable way
• They can give us a glimpse into ourselves through the perspective of a 19th Century fictional character

Have a read through them and, by all means, pay attention to my personal reflections, but please don't leave it there! Why not take some time to consider what you could do as a practical response to any thoughts they trigger, and, if you like, why not read the book yourself?!

The Quotes

Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; [...] poverty for me was synonymous with degradation.

This was written a long time ago, but it's still easy to be swayed by talk of "strivers and skivers."

...it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.

This attitude, demonstrated by Jane's friend, Helen Burns, makes her well able to deal with injustice and yet means that she will not take action to overturn it. It strikes me that endurance is a good quality alongside visionary action.

Externals have a great effect on the young.

I think it's fair to say they have a great effect on everyone; a sunny day, a clean house, and a deliciously-wrapped birthday present can all make us feel happy, although it's better to have a deep satisfaction that circumstances cannot affect.

Take one day; share it into sections; to each section apportion its task: leave no stray unemployed quarters of an hour, ten minutes, five minutes—include all; do each piece of business in its turn with method, with rigid regularity. The day will close almost before you are aware it has begun; and you are indebted to no one for helping you to get rid of one vacant moment: you have had to seek no one's company, conversation, sympathy, forbearance; you have lived, in short, as an independent being ought to do.

I liked this practical illustration of a worldview filled with activity. It feels like a bit of a lonely life, but if some of those time slots were filled with interaction, then this is a wonderfully intentional way to live.

He who is taken out to pass through a fair scene to the scaffold, thinks not of the flowers that smile on his road, but of the block and axe-edge.

A little reminder to take joy in the little things in life, regardless of anxiety over what might, or even what will, happen.

We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence.

It's interesting how a glimpse into our tinyness in comparison to the ever-so-deep universe somehow increases our understanding of something even greater still.

An ordinary beggar is frequently an object of suspicion; a well-dressed beggar inevitably so.

Similar to the opening quote, how easy it is for us to blame a beggar for evil acts...and how much easier to suspect wrongdoing in one who seems so out-of-place. I'm reminded of the way many in the west have treated the idea of welcoming immigrants from Syria, who were held in positions of great respect in their home country and yet struggle to even get a home in our countries.

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

Now this one struck me as interesting. Without the power of (good quality) education to help us understand how we are all the same despite our differences, it's far easier to categorise people based on limited understandings.

Inward content...should be the reward of every Christian and sincere philanthropist.

I did like this thought that doing good should make us most deeply happy.

Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive.

A clarion call to all introverts everywhere: Find a way to talk about your feelings!

Oh, that gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!

A good reminder to every leader everywhere.

My Overall Conclusion

A lot of Jane Eyre is linked to the time at which it was written. Particularly towards the end of the book, the attitude towards foreign missionary work and the role of a wife is something that is talked about in relatively positive terms, and at worst, as something neutral. I can't imagine a character like St. John Rivers being presented in a modern story as anything less than an evil, fundamentalistic chauvinist!

But quite apart from those elements and the strict class divides, I couldn't help feeling that so much of the story is directly applicable to modern life. A lot of Jane Eyre's worldview and character can be seen in the stereotypical millennial outlook, and the way that her life is so affected by circumstance reveals just as much about the human condition as it does about the attitude of certain 19th century British social classes.

Everything has changed, and yet so little has changed. How about we all get to work today with being the change we wish to see?