A student finished reading Jane Eyre and talked to me about the book.He said, "Although the ending is quite satisfactory, I don't know why I feel quite depressed after reading it."I said, "Because the story is too realistic."The student looked puzzled. So I compared Jane Eyre to Pride and Prejudice: the baseline of both novels revolves around women (Jane in Jane Eyre and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice) breaking through class barriers and finding true equality in love.Although both stories end with a lover eventually married, "Pride and Prejudice" is more romantic.After being rejected, Mr. Darcy began to change for Elizabeth's sake, he put aside the privilege of wealth and status, the arrogance of the nobility, faced Elizabeth as an equal in psychology and action, and was no longer critical of her family, but tried to understand and accept.Therefore, the final love between the two is indeed as Elizabeth yearned for, even if there is a class gap, it is equal.
After the students listened, they were even more confused, "But didn't Jane also get equal love?" "Instead of answering his question directly, I reviewed Jane Eyre with him.Rochester, as the owner of the manor, was extremely shocked and contradictory when he found out that he was in love with Jane, the governess.(Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice goes through the same psychological struggle.)Although the two later broke free from the shackles of class ideas and decided to get married, Jane chose to leave because of the appearance of Rochester's crazy "ex-wife".(For Jane's departure, I personally think the "crazy wife" incident was just the trigger, and the real reason was Rochester's concealment.)In essence, the inability to be honest with each other is completely contrary to Jane's self-esteem and equal view of marriage.）
“但是罗切斯特也因此后悔万分，后来还四处寻找简。他不也在改变吗？”学生困惑地问到。然后我和他一起复盘了简和罗切斯特再次相遇的部分。之后，我问他，“罗切斯特寻找简多时，为什么直到罗切斯特的庄园尽毁、身心皆饱受摧残之后，两人才听到了彼此心灵的呼唤？”学生一时语塞，看着我摇摇头。“因为当所有外在的堡垒崩塌之后，罗切斯特终于能够以平等的姿态去面对简了。”我说。
The students still didn't understand, "Could it be that Jane's so-called equality is Rochester's nothing?" I replied, "Jane said in the book, 'It is said that people in love can be humble to dust, but the sacrament of marriage cannot be ignored, and self-respect and equality are faith, the bottom line.'"In fact, Jane and Elizabeth were pursuing the same thing—equality, but the difference between Rochester and Mr. Darcy was that Darcy voluntarily let go of the superiority that class gave him, while Rochester did not.Rochester learned to be at eye level with Jane and love Jane as an equal after being deprived of his privileges by reality.The reality is that many of us are Rochester rather than Mr. Darcy.”
The student was lost in thought, so I asked him, “If one day you meet a girl who needs you to give up everything you've worked for ten years to be together, would you be willing to do that?” The student was stunned for a few seconds, he shook his head, his eyes full of helplessness. I said, “This is the reality. It's not a choice anyone has the courage to make, whether it's for love or for dreams.”
Know an English training teacher, mainly for the direction of English training. Ten years of practice, the ability is obvious to all, in the industry reputation is very good. However, when her career reached a small peak, she suddenly quit to join the start-up company, switch to online courses, lectures on the English original reading class. She says it has always been her dream to tell the original story.
But a year later, she quit the startup. She said that one year she experienced more than 30 years of life was questioned, denied, always optimistic and strong she secretly shed a lot of tears. At one point she even questioned whether she had made the right choice. After she resigned, she said, “When I thought I was going to have a bad fall, I was lucky to have an off-line teaching job to catch me. I got a few job offers right after I quit my job so I could get back into my field, rebuild my self-confidence, and finally make the same amount of money as I did before I quit my job... In the future, online reading classes will do a little bit more, but only as a way to get back to work. The cost of starting from scratch is simply too great.”
I still remember the relief in the teacher's voice when she said“Luckily,” and all her anxiety and confusion during that time seemed to dissipate in the instant she uttered the word“Luckily.”. There is no doubt that she is lucky. However, not everyone is as lucky as her, there is a“Trial and error” opportunity.
One day, while chatting with my friend, I threw the same question to my student. Without thinking, he said, “I think if two people really love each other, what does it matter if life is zero?” I smiled at my friend's still childish face and asked, “If you were me, would you be willing to trade this decade's hard work for a fresh start without knowing the future?” This time, the friend did not immediately answer. After a silence, he said, “I don't know.”
This is the question I've been asking myself lately, "Do you dare to zero out and start over?" "Before, I thought that the reason for my hesitation was that I had some nostalgia and reluctance for the current state of life.But it wasn't until I heard the English trainer say "fortunately" that I finally understood that what really made me hesitate about "dare or not" was not reluctance, let alone being unable to let go, but afraid that I couldn't afford to lose.I'm afraid that if I do fall from a height in the end, I won't have a chance to say "fortunately".I don't know if I was strong enough to accept a life of failure.
The friend threw the question back at me, "What's your answer?" Somehow, I suddenly remembered the phrase from The Moon and Sixpence, "To chase dreams is to chase one's own doom, and in the streets full of sixpence, he looked up and saw the moonlight."I replied half-jokingly, "I don't know."However, at the end of the novel, Strickland, who is suffering from leprosy, retreats in Tahiti to focus on his creation.At that time, his eyes and heart were full of moonlight.