Emulating Jane Eyre

This columnist at Christianity Today has a question:

I couldn’t think of a lot of protagonists from classic literature whom I wanted anyone to emulate, except in the most vague way—because they learn lessons and grow up and so on.
I posed this question to my students, because I didn't (and don't) have an answer. We came up with a few answers: Ulysses (but not the gods); Jesus (but not a lot of the patriarchs, at least not halfway through their "stories"); Paul, maybe; sheriffs in old Westerns; superheroes, at least in the early days; Founding Fathers. (Jane Eyre, maybe, but . . . maybe not.) But I brought up the fact that Lizzy Bennet and Emma Woodhouse are not people we ought to emulate, nor are a lot of Biblical characters, nor Shakespeare protagonists, nor many, many, many protagonists from classic literature, especially in the nineteenth century. (Alissa Wilkinson)

This Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist thinks that,

Had Charlotte Brontë stretched out on Dr. Sigmund Freud’s couch, she might have reduced Jane Eyre’s traumas to a psychological exercise instead of writing the lush novel that’s become a classic. (Bob Hoover)

Cosmopolitan is quite surprised that people like writer Anna Todd read and enjoy the classics.

In high school, Todd loved reading the books we're all forced to read in English class. Whether for school or pleasure, she only read classic novels like Pride & Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, and when she found a book she liked, she'd read it over and over again. "Most people in my class were like, 'This is terrible,' but I got really, really into it, and I loved it." (Amy Odell)

Sveriges Radio's Kulturnytt (Sweden) finds that Núria Amat's El país del alma is

en kärlekshistoria som skulle kunna vara skriven av systrarna Brontë eller varför inte Emily Dickinson, och ett porträtt av en stad  i mentalt sönderfall. (Fredrik Wadström) (Translation)

Fantasymundo (Spain) reviews the book Cielos de ira by María Martínez Franco and thinks that the Brontës wrote 'garden tragedies'.

Quizá la historia podría adaptarse perfectamente al formato de serie televisiva española, tan de moda hoy en día, con bonitos trajes y preciosos decorados pero, al menos en la novela, la autora no consigue mantener el interés necesario y pasamos demasiado bruscamente de un Forsyth o Le Carré o la tragedia de jardín de Austen o Brontë. (Alberto Muñoz) (Translation)

2 Paragraphs finds what Kate Middleton and Charlotte Brontë have in common. And two reviews of Wuthering Heights stage productions: Pagan Spirits on Aquila Theatre's and Creative Drinks on shake & stir theatre co's. The Reviews posts about Jane Eyre 2011.