Impossible de prévoir, en recevant ce prénom de l'institutrice de primaire pour la classe d'anglais, qu'un jour je le chérirai si fort.
Oui, parce que Jane, ce n'est pas de l'eau de rose ou de l'essence de fleur bleue. Ce n'est pas non plus le romantisme d'une jeune fille enfermée en famille dont la seule délectation est l'écriture. Jane Eyre, c'est la sentence de Simone: On ne naît pas femme, on le devient. Une petite femme chétive et laide qui entretient avec ténacité son intelligence, car elle sait qu'elle sera son seul outil dans la conquête de l'indépendance. Jane Eyre n'est pas une révolutionnaire flamboyante, une libertaire sans concession, une impudente provocatrice. Mais elle supporte aussi patiemment que possible la soumisson à laquelle la force sa fortune, comme Jean-Jacques soupire sous ses habits de laquais en attendant de trouver ses frères humains qui le connaitront comme tel. Elle est inflexible comme il est intransigeant, et au coeur même du passage le plus débordant de tension amoureuse, Jane dit sa liberté, son égalité essentielle:
"'I tell you I must go!' I retorted, roused to something like passion. 'Do you think I can stay and be nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? - a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? - You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: - it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal - as we are!'
[...]
'Jane, be still; don't struggle so, like a wild, frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.'
'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.'
Another effort set me at liberty, and I stood erect before him."
Jane Eyre est complexe et fascinante. Rochester fait certes rêver les jeunes filles en fleur, mais c'est pour voir la victoire de Jane sur Edward ("Reader,
I married him."), pour voir les rôles s'inverser, pour voir une femme aussi dure que le plus dur des hommes, que j'ai continué la lecture du roman de Charlotte Brontë avec passion, et que je vous le recommande maintenant.
~°~ Interlude ~°~
"I tired of the routine of eight years in one afternoon. I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing." Chp10, Vol.I
"How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind."
"It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world: cut adrift from every connection; uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted." Chp11.
"How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?"
Moralité, Bob Dylan a peut-être lu Jane Eyre.