Today’s Blogger:
(Who is typing today?)
Today’s Facilitator:
(Who is leading the discussion today?)
Important Events:
(List the important events from each chapter of the reading you did for today. Talk about the significance of these events.)
Ch. 33
Ch. 34
Ch. 35
Important Passages:(List at least one important passage from the reading you did for today. Talk about the significance of this passage.)Focus Questions:(Discuss the questions below. Record your discussion for all three of the following questions.)
1. Explain how Jane is related to Diana, Mary, and St. John. Did you suspect this? Discuss the coincidences that have occurred in the book so far. Are these occurrences too coincidental for you or are they satisfactory and/or needed?
2. Characterize the similarities and differences between St. John’s offer of marriage and Rochester’s. How are the men alike/different? Why does Jane refuse St. John when she is willing to accept a life with him in India? Couldn’t she grow to love him? How does her response fit in with what we know about Jane as a character?
3. Does Jane’s near surrender to St. John Rivers, stopped only by “the voice of Edward Fairfax Rochester” speaking to her “in pain and woe,” diminish her strength of character? Why would Bronte have slipped again into the realm of the supernatural if Jane had enough strength in her own convictions?
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Today’s Blogger: Sam
Today’s Facilitator: Katherine
Important Events:
Ch. 33 – Jane find out that she is related to the Rivers family.
Ch. 34 – St. John proposes to Jane, she turns him down.
Ch. 35 – Jane hears Mr. Rochester’s voice and goes to find him.
Important Passages:
(p.437) “I scorn your idea of love, I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer: yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it.”
1. Jane is the Rivers’ cousin, a plot twist our group somewhat anticipated. Coincidence is a perfectly legitimate plot device, as it makes a book more interesting to read by allowing for more plot twists.
2. Both St. John and Rochester suggested that Jane run away with them. Jane’s response to St. John shows her natural stubbornness, a trait which has surfaced throughout the book.
3. Jane’s response to Rochester’s voice reveals the strength of their love for each other. Perhaps the “realm of the supernatural” was the best way Bronte found to describe it.
Today's Blogger: Claire
Today's Facilitatior: Tess
Important events:
Chapter 33
-Jane finds out that she is related to the Rivers, and that her uncle left her 20,000 pounds.
-She wants to split the money with her cousins
-Decides to continue teaching untill a replacement is found
-Mr. Rochester put ads in the newspaper about her
Chapter 34
-Jane spends the holidays with the Rivers
-St. John asks her to study a new language with him, starts having a lot of power over Jane
-He asks her to be his missionary wife, but she refuses because she doesn't love him.
Chapter 35
-St. John still asks Jane to marry him.
-Diana says that it would be a bad idea.
-Jane is almost convinced to marry St. John, but then 'hears' Mr. Rochester calling her.
Important Passages:
"Merely to tell you that your uncle, Mr. Eyre of Maderia is dead; that he has left you all his property and that you are now rich-merely that-nothing more."
1. Jane is their cousin. We suspected that something good would happen to get Jane out of her rut. It is a little too coincidential, but it doesn't change the book too much.
2. St. John offers marriage because he just needs a wife to go with him and he thinks Jane would be a good missionary, but Mr. Rochester actually loves Jane. Jane refuses St. John because she doesn't love him. St. John never talked to her like Mr. Rochester did. This shows that Jane wants a more emotional connection to someone that she will marry.
3. Yes, because she is trying to be strong in her troubles. It reminds the reader that Jane still loves Mr. Rochester.
Today’s Blogger:
(Who is typing today?)
Today’s Facilitator:
(Who is leading the discussion today?)
Important Events:
(List the important events from each chapter of the reading you did for today. Talk about the significance of these events.)
Ch. 33
Ch. 34
Ch. 35
Important Passages:(List at least one important passage from the reading you did for today. Talk about the significance of this passage.)Focus Questions:(Discuss the questions below. Record your discussion for all three of the following questions.)
1. Explain how Jane is related to Diana, Mary, and St. John. Did you suspect this? Discuss the coincidences that have occurred in the book so far. Are these occurrences too coincidental for you or are they satisfactory and/or needed?
2. Characterize the similarities and differences between St. John’s offer of marriage and Rochester’s. How are the men alike/different? Why does Jane refuse St. John when she is willing to accept a life with him in India? Couldn’t she grow to love him? How does her response fit in with what we know about Jane as a character?
3. Does Jane’s near surrender to St. John Rivers, stopped only by “the voice of Edward Fairfax Rochester” speaking to her “in pain and woe,” diminish her strength of character? Why would Bronte have slipped again into the realm of the supernatural if Jane had enough strength in her own convictions?
Today's Blogger: Reilly!
Today's Facilitator: Cassandra
Important Events:
1. Jane finds that she is a cousin to the Rivers. She also inherits 20,000 pounds from her uncle John. St. John asks her to "marry" him so that she can be a missionary to India with him.
Important Passages:
"Yes, you rich-- quite an heiress." (407) St. John tells Jane that she is now rich.
Focus Questions:
1.Uncle John is related to both the Rivers and Jane. We didn't expect this at all. We think that they are too coincidental for real life, but not for a book.
2. St. John's proposal was mainly just for her to go to India with him; while Rochester's was out of love. Rochester really likes women and St. John really likes god. She refuses to love St. John because she is still in love with Rochester. We don't think she will grow to love St. John either. Once again, she rejects a man because she is too independent.
3. No, we think its just her heart speaking to her what is right and wrong. Jane had to hear Rochester's voice to make her decision not to be with St. John.
Today’s Blogger:
Jackie M
Today’s Facilitator:
Shannon P
Important Events:
Ch. 33:
1. Jane, Mary, Diana, and St. John are related. The inheritance is split between the four of them.
Ch. 34:
1. St. John becomes angry with Jane for using all of her time for housework and school work. He tells her to do something with her life.
2. St. John invites Jane to go to India to be his missionary wife. Jane refuses.
Ch. 35:
1. There is tension between St. John and Jane as he continues to pressure her to be his wife.
2. Jane hears voices from Mr. Rochester and decides she must seek him and find him again.
Important Passage:
Pg 449
“Jane! Jane! Jane!” –nothing more.
“O God! What is it?” I gasped.
I might have said, “Where is it?” for it did not seem in the room, nor in the house, nor in the garden; it did not come out of the air, not from under the earth, nor from overhead. I had heard it- where, or whence, for ever impossible to know! And it was the voice of human being – a known, loved, well-remembered voice- that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently.
This passage might possibly be foreshadowing for a meeting between Mr. Rochester and Jane in the future.
Focus Questions:
1. We did not see the relation between Jane and Diana, Mary, and St. John. They are all cousins and will share the fortune of their dead uncle. The coincidents in the book are needed for excitement and twists in the story.
2. Rochester’s marriage proposal was for love and St. John’s was because he wanted a partner to travel with to India. Although Jane does agree to travel with him to India I don’t think she can grow to love him. I believe she will always love Mr. Rochester and will be unhappy until they meet again.
3. It is a moment of weakness for Jane but makes her realize she must go back and in the end makes her stronger.
Today’s Blogger
McKenzie
Today’s question reader
KIM
Events:
-Jane reveals herself to be Jane Eyre, but St. John already knows because he took her signature off of her drawing paper
-Jane receives 20,000 pounds from her uncle John, the same uncle to the Rivers siblings. Therefore they are all cousins.
-Jane splits the money so that they all have 5000 pounds each
-St. John convinces Jane to give up German to learn Hindustani, reader discovers he has great power over Jane
-St. John wants Jane to marry him for moral and Christian faith reasons, but she says no
-St. John keeps insisting, Jane keeps saying no, almost gives in, but then a voice of reason, in the voice of Mr. Rochester, tells her not to marry him and finally breaks St. Johns spell over Jane
Important Passages:
”And it was the voice of a human being – a known, loved, well-remembered voice – that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently. ‘I am coming!’ I cried. ‘Wait for me! Oh, I will come!’”
1. -St. John, Diana and Mary are Jane’s cousins
-yes, we suspected that they were related in some way
- It was very coincidental that she happens to fall on the doorstep of her cousins
2. St. John wanted to marry Jane not for love, but simply because they should. Mr. Rochester however was deeply in love with Jane and wanted to be with her forever. Jane is willing to accept a life with John in India because the morals are all there but the love is missing.
3. No, her decision to not marry John does not diminish her character in any way. It actually adds to her character and proves that she will not marry simply because it is the acceptable thing to do. It proves that she truly was in love with Rochester and will not simply give into the next man that comes a long.
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