Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1899-06-16

laugh that haunts the corridors NJ
Thornfield hall! The mad wife who
goes on all fourS In q secret upnep
chSmber and makes occasional noctur
nal sallies to burn the bed curtains or
cut the threats OF conveniently accessi-
bic and unsuspiclous guestsi The on
perfume condolences by virtue OF which
Jane, when running away from Thorn
field and Rochester wanders through
fen and over moor till she chances upon
q solitary cottage, Is taken in by the
inmates and nursed back to life from
her half-starved exhaustion and finds
at length In her rescuers her only liv
ing relatives. with whom she ultimately
shares tidy fortune which q long-lost
uncle has died to leave her! All these
highly colored incidents and all this
audacious manipulation of the world
order may we'll jar on reader who has
been trained In the strict modern school
OF loyalty to the commonplace.
Yet If he be a reader of dscernment
not so will he leave the matter. These
irritating or amusing characteristics Of
Jane Eyre" Will more and more pass
out OF note and he will be more and
more, as he dwells on the work, i'm
pressed with its Vigor, Its courage its
strenuous swift movement, its origin
ality. It's intense emotional truth and
Its frequent lyrical beauty. Jane Eyre
Is the greatest work of art that Char
lotte Bronte has left us. 1t has not
the variety. the Iowa BILE humanity the
humor and gayety of heart and the
charm of subject and material to be
found in "Sh:Ilsy.' But 1t has an imag-
NATIVE unity. Coresightcdness of de-
| velopment. Il gic power, d fatal in
evitablcness that Shirley" cannot pre-
| tend to and that mark II as having
been. like all great art. necessary
growth in a deeply poetic nature. The
story gains its power from its sincere
| and intensely vivid portrayal OF a sin
gle tragic complication-the apparently
| fate-thwarted passion OF Jane Eyre
and Rochester. All the subordinate de-
| tails merely serve in some way or other
to bring out more impressively and ir-
| resistibly the infinite need of these two
| Tor each other. James lonely girlhood
| her courageous struggle against all
sorts of adversely under the cruel tute-
laGe of her guardian in the gloomy
boarding school of Lowooo ma later as
q governess, fix In the readers magma
ton more and more deeply q sense of
the heroine's tender loyal passionate
nature, of her sterling integrity, of her
| capacity for devotion Very Quaint
| she is with her dim brown exterior and
| her nervous restraint and severely con-
| trollcd RIGHTEOUSNESS of nature There
| Is something not quite canny about her.
| She steals along" before us, Rochester
! himself declares. as If she were a
| dream or Il shade" Yet whatever she
| may seem to strangers because of her
| shyness and her nervous birdlike ways
| she is known, after many chapters, to
with pc thetic stores OF vivid magma
| tive feeling and of passionate devotion.
rms brief sketch OF Jane Eyre" can
not at all bring home to the reader the
imaginative power OF the story, but it
may at least make clear its singleness
| OF aim and its concentration of interest
| upon the cruel fostering and wrecking
| OF passion in the lives OF Jane and
Rochester: There Is something of the
essence of really great tragedy in the
| hlRnGCG ri -
with which the apparently hopeless con-
ilict In these two lives develops before
the reader-something Of the ruthless
| irony of fate in the unconscious on
going OF both lovers toward their great
disaster. Everything conspires under
the euise of good fortune to involve the
heroine in Il mighty conflict between
| passion and duty-between what her
selfish happiness demands and what Is
exacted by regard for the social code
and the moral law. The conflict. too.
Is the more perplexing because poor
Jane might fancy that through refus-
ing 10 yieid to hor love for Rochester
she was destroying the sole chance OF
| rescuing that distorted and wiliful M
| lure from It's woe and despairing impo-
fence. Moreover. the poignancy OF the
CONNECT, as Charlotte Bronto portrays
! II, is perhaps all the greater In its effect
| on the render because there is none NJ
the philosophical balancing OF pros and
cons that George Eliot would have
| rhduc her heroine indulge In. There La
| no attempt 10 escape from the haggard
| personal woe through recourse to alb
stractions about duty. no tendency in
| me story to relieve the tension of feel
| ing by casuistry and calm theorizinp
Jane and Rochester nre as naive as
peasants In their complete immersion
| In their own mesery and hopelessncss.
| ana this simplicity and sincerIty-the
siXle meanwhile being rarcruIIy free
from rant and sentimental rhodomon-
tade-increases perccptibly the power
lul impression the reader gets of the
cruei destiny in which the lovers are
involved. One can really almost hear
at times in the story the fate-motlf of
Tristan and Isolde" sounding family
and unappeasably. To give us now and
then this sense that we are dealing
with destiny Is the great triumph Of
the writer OF fiction.
Note-This story will be concluded
Monday. June 90.
EXAMINATIONS AND CERTIFY.
GATES.