Jane Eyre does deserve the hype as a classic feminist novel

Fine Books & Collections features the current temporary exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: Defying Expectations. 

The exhibition of more than twenty items of the writer’s wardrobe is the culmination of six years of research by its curator Dr. Eleanor Houghton, who specializes in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century costume, literature, and social history and is writing a biography of Charlotte Brontë revolving around the importance of her clothing. She also acts as an historical costume consultant for film and television productions such as the BBC/HBO drama Gentleman Jack and has explored the clothing of George Eliot in a similar fashion for the Exploring Eliot project in 2021.
“My research has revealed that seismic changes in Charlotte’s life and circumstances are clearly reflected in her surviving clothing,” said Houghton. “And although those that remain make up just a portion of those owned and worn by the novelist throughout her lifetime, these varied and often surprising items are able to offer a unique insight into both her ordinary and extraordinary lives. The items tangibly demonstrate that the prevailing preconception that Charlotte Brontë remained entirely unaffected by the fast-changing world of which she was part is untrue.”
Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, said: “When I first started working here, we couldn’t actually display some of the items included in this exhibition as they were so outlandish that people simply wouldn’t have believed that they belonged to the family. Just seeing the personal items these young women wore reminds us that that these globally significant writers were also human.” (Alex Johnson)

This contributor to Her Campus would do well to reflect on the opening line of L.P. Hartley's novel The Go-Between: 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there'. You can't impose 21st-century values on books written in the past and mock them for not matching up to your standards. You can discuss, etc., but actually judging and criticising solely based on that is wrong and leads nowhere. It's the perfect example of the absurdity of cancel culture. For her, The Bell Jar, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Jane Eyre are 'Classic “Feminist” Novels [which] Do Not Deserve the Hype'.

Following a seemingly faultless heroine, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte (sic!) is another “feminist classic” fraught with racism. It also seems to be an early development of “white feminism,” flaunting a morally upright, white female protagonist. Referring to Mr. Rochester’s dressing in black-face, Brönte describes him as a “shockingly ugly old creature… almost as black as a crock.” Furthermore, Brönte’s characterization of Bertha, a Creole woman, presents a stark contrast with that of Jane. She describes Bertha as “savage,” with “red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of linaments.” Though Brönte offers a female heroine, she juxtaposes Jane Eyre with a fellow woman formulated on the basis of racism. 

Though it is horrifying to accept that countless celebrated “feminist” staples are antifeminist and prejudicial, we must recognize such failures. We stunt ourselves from progressing towards equality by ignoring or discounting blatant discrimination. These novels perpetuate harmful ideologies that stymie advances in women’s rights. As such, we should read them with discretion rather than accept them as simply “classics.” (Kylee Kropf)

It's hard to accept her argument when she can't even spell the author's name properly. The concept of actually learning from past mistakes by actually knowing about them seems to be way beyond her, too. Similarly, trigger warnings (and the one used for Jane Eyre) are discussed in The Times.

Booktopia (Australia) recommends Wide Sargasso Sea and one of '6 must-read novels about forgotten women from history and myth'.

Wide Sargasso Sea

by Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys astonished readers with her passionate and heartbreaking work. In it, she reimagines one of fiction’s most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Set in the Caribbean, Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman, is sold into marriage to the prideful Rochester. Rhys portrays her amid a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind. (Olivia Fricot)

Marquette Wire reviews Hulu's Fresh.

[Daisy] Edgar-Jones hits the mark as Noa.

Unlike the well-known introverted, Jane Eyre-esque performance Edgar-Jones brings to Marianne from Hulu’s television adaptation of “Normal People,” she steps into an independent, girlboss “final girl” as Noa. (Alexandra Garner)