Skip to main content

Mr. BrockleWORST

Mr. BrockleWORST (#5)

Elena Rehberg

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is a novel set in England that closely depicts ideas that arose in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Within chapter seven of Bronte's text, she is describing the encounters between Mr. Brocklehurst and Miss Temple and subliminally commenting on society while doing so. 

 The author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, uses irony in describing Mr. Brocklehurst's family in the second passage. She does this within Mr. Brocklehurst's dialogue as he says with outrage, "And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly - here in an evangelical, charitable establishment - as to wear her hair one mass of curls?" (Bronte). This is ironic because he claims to be a religious man with a home revolving around Christianity, yet does not find it to be acceptable that Julia Severn has curly hair, yet it is naturally this way. The author likely does this to display the unruly, constant contradictions that Mr. Brocklehurst makes of himself in front of his own family, and to highlight the lack of conformity he is capable to make to the religion which he claims to follow. The bigger picture of this for the text's location is the ideas Bronte is attempting to relay within the character of Mr. Brocklehurst. Having this character contradict himself in the way he does comments on his social class in England that he naturally falls into, and essentially criticizes the mindlessness of the people within it the same realm. 

 Charlotte Bronte contrasts this description with Mr. Brocklehurst's lecture to Miss Temple to provide social commentary on perceptions of class during this time. She does this throughout as she develops his outrage over what would be likely considered a small issue of the time period. As he becomes more upset about Julia's hair, he says "Miss Temple, that girl's hair must be cut off entirely: I will send a barber to-morrow" (Bronte). He states this to Miss Temple just before a few more ladies walk into the room, and all of them also have curly hair. This is where the social commentary becomes most clear. Bronte is making a point about the contrast in the social status of the women to Julia as she says, "They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs... the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls" (Bronte). Mr. Brocklehurst very clearly has a problem with Julia's hair being curly due to its meaning within English society as being a sign of wealth and high social status, but when it comes to the three women, there is no issue. The contrast in his reaction to the two types of women is the ultimate message about how England's social statuses were defined within Bronte's time period, shown through her use of juxtaposition when Mr. Brocklehurst sees these women. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It was

It Was... By Elena Rehberg It was the spark of a flame everlasting in the embodiment of passionate individuals. Individuals that were taught how to become a part  of more. To work coherently  in the face of adversity. We grew and we challenged, our thoughts and our peers. We took the depths of our minds and  expanded them. It was a beautiful spark of curiosity, igniting the flame of controversy. We looked beyond what we knew, and focused in on  what we didn't. We listened and we were heard. The stress couldn't begin to compare to the smiles and relationships created. It paid off, and provided us a community we couldn't have found elsewhere. Some could say: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." And we know this has molded us in a way like no other. After all it was only IB.
3 comments
Read more

Meta Translation

Metamorphosis Translation By: Elena Rehberg The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka was originally published in German but when it was translated to English, it still contained themes of the absurdity of existence, although not to the degree of hopelessness. It's important to recognize the impact of translation, as it can alter the author's original intention or make it lack cohesiveness.  Kafka's first line of  Metamorphosis  sets the tone for the remainder of the text, and the English translation provides a simplistic introduction. What Can Be Lost in Translation? Translation #1: " Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug." The first translation is a moderate length and contains words that are easy to understand, perhaps alluding that this book is about a common man, or an average person. The imagery provided in this line is worrisome as "uneasy dreams" hold neg...
Post a Comment
Read more

Storytelling

Storytelling By Elena Rehberg (Pd. 3A) https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter The TED Talk I watched was called "If I Should Have A Daughter.." given by Sarah Kay in 2011. In this discussion, she talks about the power of a story when it comes from a dedicated author, and the power of spoken word poetry. In her talk, she highlights three key steps to her success with writing spoken word poetry. The first she identifies is deciding that she can, which was her inspiration in knowing she was able to create poetry that all different people would be capable of relating to. The second was her deciding she will , in that she will continue to write poetry in hopes of connecting with people and helping them understand they're not alone. The final step in her success was her recognition that her writing could be whatever she wanted it to be, and that it didn't have to mimic what other's have been good at. In all of this, Sarah Kay is seekin...
2 comments
Read more