Episode 201 An Analysis of The Confession Scene in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre Emma's ESL English

Yesterday I read a famous scene from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Today let's review the vocabulary and meaning of some of the conversation.

I'm particularly interested in the part about 'You think I am an automaton, a machine without feelings.' Let me give you a little historical timeline:
British Industrial revolution 1760-1830
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was released 1818
Jane Eyre was released 1847

So the industrial revolution had been going on for almost a hundred years at this point. Certainly there were machines and Charlotte Bronte would have seen them. She did live in the countryside, but she also had some experience travelling, she travelled and lived in Brussels and she travelled to London to stay with her writer friend Elizabeth Gaskell, so she would have seen machines.

However, this idea of an 'automaton' is much more likely to have come from Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein. This book is widely recognised as the invention of Science Fiction. Charlotte and her sisters would definitely have read it. Although Mary originally published the book anonymously, sometime after 1821 the Bronte's would have found out the writer was a woman and they were probably very excited and inspired by Mary Shelley, who lived quite an unusual and exciting live and whose mother is widely recognised as one of the founders of modern feminism. So, it's very likely that this word 'automaton' and this idea of a machine without a heart comes from Frankenstein.

I think it's very cool to think about these historical writers, who would have inspired them and who were their friends. How did they connect their stories to the cultural stories of the time?

#englishpodcast #englishlisteningpractice #janeeyre #charlottebrontë


Vocabulary continued from Episode 200

'Trampled on' - To be stepped on or treated badly

'Glimpse of Communion' - Remember 'communion' means having a deep conversation so she's seen a little bit of having good conversations.

'What I reverence' - something we deeply respect

'Automaton' - Something that doesn't think or have a heart

'Morsel' - A small amount

'Snatched' - taken forcefully

'Dashed' - knocked from your hand

'through the medium of custom, conventionalities or even mortal flesh' - She recognises that what she's saying goes against what's normal in their positions, in society and even as man and woman.

'Passed through the grave and stood at God's feet' - At this point British people were still very religious so she's talking here of them dying and going to heaven, and there she believes they are equal.

I would scorn such a union - Scorn means to hate and

don't struggle so, like a wild, frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in desperation - this means to pull out the birds feathers

I am no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will - ensnare means to catch in a trap and 'independent will', means she has her own mind and makes her own decisions.

which I will now exert to leave you - she's now going to use her own will to leave him

farce - a play or a joke

little sceptic - someone who is always suspicious and doesn't believe what they're told

'What me? I ejaculated, beginning in his earnestness and especially in his incivility, to credit his sincerity' - I said, starting to believe he was telling the truth (sincerity) because he seemed so honest (earnest) and he was starting to get annoyed (incivility).

Countenance - just means facial expression.

'I do. And if an oath is necessary to satisfy you, I swear it.' - oath is a promise



God pardon me. He subjoined ere long and man meddle not with me. I have her, and I will hold her.

'Subjoined' - to say at the end of something else, so this is an extra thing he's saying, not so much to her, but to the world or universe.

'ere long' - before long

'meddle not' - don't interfere, don't get in my way