Eyes in Jane Eyre: A Quiz - Guest post by Nan

I love the richness of detail in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë weaves Jane’s inner life and her outer surroundings into a tapestry of emotion, physical sensation and contrast. The themes that run throughout the story are both subtle and strong, resulting in a coming-of-age / gothic horror / love story / portrait of integrity that I return to again and again. One theme is that of insight and blindness. Brontë describes many of her characters’ eyes in great detail. Take this quiz to see if you can match the eyes with the character. Who has:

1. “…two inquisitive-looking grey eyes which twinkled under a pair of bushy brows….”

2. “…large and blue, with brown lashes…blue, pictorial-looking…unceremonious directness, a searching, decided steadfastness in the gaze….”

3. “…eyes shaped and coloured as we see them in lovely pictures, large, and dark, and full; the long and shadowy eyelash with encircles a fine eye with so soft a fascination….”

4.. “…black eye-brows widely raised over the blood-shot eyes.”

5.. “…[his or her] eye was large and well cut, but the life looking out of it was a tame, vacant life….”

6. “…brown eyes, with a benignant light in their irids, and a fine penciling of long lashes round, relieved the whiteness of [his or her] large front [forehead]….”

7. “…dark, irate, and piercing…great dark eyes, and very fine eyes, too: not without a certain change in their depths sometimes, which if it was not softness, reminded you, at least, of that feeling.”

(Scroll down for correct answers!)

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Answers:

1. Brocklehurst. Inquisitive I can agree with, but twinkling? Doesn’t that only apply to someone jolly, like Santa?

2. St. John. No good clues there, sorry.

3. Rosamond Oliver, the classic beauty. (Did you think Ms. Ingram? Provoking puppet!)

4. Bertha Mason, the vampire.

5. This is a trick question – it’s Mason, who is also described later as having a lazy eye.

6. Miss Miller, Jane’s beloved teacher.

7. Edward Fairfax Rochester himself, the greatest Byronic hero of our time, forever and ever, AMEN.


Rate yourself:

1-2: What the deuce?! Go read it again. Immediately.
3-5: Team Rochester cheerleader
6-7: Team Rochester Varsity (the Thornfield Skylarks)!

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What are your guesses? There is a list of options, but I'll save that a little to see how you get on. The correct answers will be revealed later in the week!

This post was brought to you by guest blogger Nan, who regular readers of this blog should know by now, as she's written a handful of guest posts here about Jane Eyre (including a review of the 2011 adaptation, posted back in May), and I love each and every single one of them. Nan lives in North Carolina and works as a consultant, designing education and training for public health nutritionists, and at home she has a husband and two young girls.

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