Offerton Hall near Hathersage in Derbyshire, seen from the road above the house. It bears the date of 1658, but the heart of the house goes back to the 16th century, and the site is associated with the Eyre family, who could trace their ancestry back to Agincourt and even the Norman invasion in 1066. Charlotte wrote parts of Jane Eyre while staying in Hathersage.
Introduction
On a dark road near Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre has caused a stranger’s horse to shy and throw its rider, a big, frowning and far from good-looking man. He brushes her offers of help away, but she hangs around all the same, prompting her to wonder why she feels so comfortable with this gruff traveller.
HAD he been a handsome, heroic-looking young gentleman, I should not have dared to stand thus questioning him against his will, and offering my services unasked. I had hardly ever seen a handsome youth; never in my life spoken to one. I had a theoretical reverence and homage for beauty, elegance, gallantry, fascination; but had I met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I should have known instinctively that they neither had nor could have sympathy with anything in me, and should have shunned them as one would fire, lightning, or anything else that is bright but antipathetic.
If even this stranger had smiled and been good-humoured to me when I addressed him; if he had put off my offer of assistance gaily and with thanks, I should have gone on my way and not felt any vocation to renew inquiries: but the frown, the roughness of the traveller, set me at my ease.*
Compare Marianne Dashwood’s first encounter with Mr Willoughby in Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’, in Swept off her Feet.
Questions for Critics
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate her ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Précis
Jane Eyre feels strangely comfortable in the company of a gruff gentleman injured on the road, and wonders why she feels so uncharacteristically inclined to offer him help despite his repeated refusals. She concludes that had he been handsome and courteous, she would have felt shy and out-of-place, whereas she felt that she belonged with plain looks and plain speaking. (60 / 60 words)
Jane Eyre feels strangely comfortable in the company of a gruff gentleman injured on the road, and wonders why she feels so uncharacteristically inclined to offer him help despite his repeated refusals. She concludes that had he been handsome and courteous, she would have felt shy and out-of-place, whereas she felt that she belonged with plain looks and plain speaking.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, besides, must, not, otherwise, unless, whether, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Bright. Dare. Gay.
2 Look. One. Traveler.
3 I. Reverence. Stand.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
x
0
Add
Your Words ()
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Picture: By Johannes Moreelse (?1602-1634), Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted February 24
