Jane Eyre reaction post, part 1

I never read Jane Eyre for school. It was one of those books Everyone Has To Read that somehow missed my entire education, like Romeo and Juliet. I did read Jane Eyre just because I felt like it, I think when I was a teenager. I must have liked it because I didn't remember hating it, never watched any of the movies, never got around to re-reading it...until now. I'm able to spend part of each workday listening to my headphones and I've been working my way through a lot of audio books. And last week I decided to re-read Jane Eyre. I remembered all the main plot points, but not so much of the details. Thoughts in roughly chronological order:

Jane's aunt and cousins are hell on wheels. I wanted to start cheering when, just before Jane goes to school, she reams out Aunt Reed--excuse me, "Mrs. Reed"--about how Jane will never call her "aunt" again and will tell the entire world in detail about what a terrible person Mrs. Reed. I don't have a paper copy or ebook checked out from the library right now, so I can't quote, but my jaw dropped behind my face mask (I have to work at the office) when I listened to that speech. And then Mrs. Reed leaves the room! She's scared and runs off!

Mr. Brocklehurst can also drop dead. I know the general outline of Charlotte Bronte's biography, and I feel like his character is one of the ones where Charlotte must have drawn heavily from people she met in real life, and used this book as an excuse to absolutely roast them.

Helen Burns IS the trope embodiment of "too good for this sinful world."

I like Mrs. Fairfax so much! She's so kind and welcoming when Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall.

More reactions to come later, when I have more time for blogging.