Mental Floss shows how some great authors used 'literally' in a figurative sense (and got away with it).
5. Charlotte Brontë // Jane Eyre
“Mr. Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union; perhaps it was that circumstance that drew us so very near, that knit us so very close: for I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand. Literally, I was (what he often called me) the apple of his eye.”
In the final chapter of Brontë’s debut novel, Jane describes her life after she returned to Thornfield Hall and married Edward Rochester, who had lost his sight and right hand in a fire during the years after her departure. She says “literally” to draw attention to the fact that he could not see and had to rely on Jane’s sight.
Brontë also used literally in the figurative sense in her novel Villette: “[S]he took me to herself, and proceeded literally to suffocate me with her unrestrained spirits.” (Anastasia Rose Hyden)
A columnist from
Torbay Weekly on reading
Jane Eyre for the first time:
My best-loved course at degree level was Literature and Christianity; unsurprisingly, perhaps, it included content such as 'The Pilgrim's Progress' - a beautiful allegory. But we also studied 'Jane Eyre', whose clean, pared-down language was soothingly reminiscent of the simplicity of prayer. (Vicky Ewan)
Big Think mentions the early reception of
Jane Eyre. EyreBuds devotes its latest episode to a rewatch of
Jane Eyre 2006.
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