Meeting the Other

Extract

[...] Meeting the Other My presentation will deal with the theme meeting the other. In the major parts of literature's pieces, the characters are researched in a psychological way so that the readers recognize themselves into them and learn valuable lessons about life in general. The example of the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and the poem the white man's burden by Kipling illustrate the notion meeting the other by their complex characters. Meeting the other refers to the relationships between the protagonists but also to the relation between the writer and the readers by the presentation of the novel's characters. [...]

[...] Even when they first met each other their love was intense. Charlotte Brontë was one of the first novelist to focus on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development through an intimate first- person narrative, where actions and events are coloured by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the 'first historian of the private consciousness'. In this way, in Jane Eyre it is the interpretation of the other (the characters) that influence the reader's understanding of the novel. II. [...]

[...] The vision of Rochester seems really macho about Antoinette contrary to the Rochester in Jane Eyre. Bertha is described as a lonely character who is cut off from her roots which makes her vulnerable as she became exploited. But here she is given the voice that she does not have in Jane Eyre and her mother appears as a victim and not as a mad woman. The setting too is really different in these two works, in Jane Eyre it evokes imprisonment whereas in Wide Sargasso Sea the nature takes an important place as for the ‘lost trees'. [...]

[...] The background information about both the protagonists makes them contrast. For example, Rochester appears as a confident and rich man whereas Jane is more of a lost person. Although Jane is the narrator, the main speaker is Rochester which makes him the dominant figure. Rochester is defined as authoritarian with the use of exclamative sentences ‘I dare say' but also kind of ironic with ‘my experience has been heavenly'. Rochester seems imprisoned in his marriage ‘under watch and ward' and he looks like a victim. [...]

[...] The novel's setting is in the north of England, late in the reign of George III. It was written during the Victorian age which is a period of profound changes with a lot of social reforms such as those for helping the situation of women. This extract is about Jane, an orphan who asserts her independence as a woman and works as a governess but falls in love with her master. Then, they decide to get married but at the wedding ceremony it is said that he is already married to a mad woman. [...]