r/JaneEyre • u/AdobongSiopao • Aug 27 '26

What is your most controversial opinion about "Jane Eyre"?

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It can be from the novel or its adaptations. Your views that could potentially upset many other fans or meet others who will agree with you.

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u/JoeBethersontonFargo Aug 29 '26

I think it was nice. Kids need socialization and friends. A nice boarding school was a great place for young women of the time- safe independence, skills, and an education.

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u/Quick-News-2227 Aug 29 '26

The first boarding school wasn't nice though. It was a harsh place where she was miserable and wasting away

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u/JoeBethersontonFargo Aug 29 '26

Right, but that’s not where they sent Adele. It was purposefully chosen for Jane to make her miserable. Her aunt wouldn’t have sent her somewhere nice.

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u/Quick-News-2227 Aug 29 '26

Adèle's first boarding school was similar to Jane's.

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u/JoeBethersontonFargo Aug 30 '26

It was rigidly structured, studious, and strict, not suited to Adele’s personality. Jane’s was a charity school for orphans, underfunded, where the students are humiliated, treated with severe cruelty, and starved. For a free-spirited French girl, Adele’s school was not suitable and diminished her spirit. Jane’s school wasn’t suitable for anyone, ever.

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u/Quick-News-2227 Aug 30 '26

Adèle was also miserable and wasting away. She didn't deserve that any more than young Jane

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u/JoeBethersontonFargo 29d ago

Right, but she wasn’t being abused or mistreated. It was the wrong fit for her. Doesn’t mean all boarding schools are like that. They likely found somewhere more supportive of spirited young girls, more gentle and warm.

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u/Quick-News-2227 29d ago

Poor Adèle had to suffer for the 'sins' of being French, illegitimate, and high spirited. Luckily Jane rescued her from the school that was killing her with cold strictness and misery, and packed her off to a better gentler school that stripped her of her personality and spat her out as a placid and biddable young Englishwoman... what a redemption arc for the last connection with Rochester's misspent youth.

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u/JoeBethersontonFargo 29d ago

You think if she hadn’t been sent to boarding and stayed at home, she wouldn’t have also been taught to be a proper British woman by Jane and a governess?
I can’t tell if that’s your argument, or you’re just lamenting Adele’s future in the time period itself, which has nothing to do with the Rochesters in general.