I fell in love with the book when I was fourteen and I've been obsessed with it ever since. I genuinely believe that a surefire way to combat libfem brainrot/ the scourge of bimbotok would be to make Charlotte Bronte's magnum opus required reading for all girls in high school. The book is more of a feminist text than half the crap that passes for Y.A literature these days.

One of the reasons why I love Jane Eyre so much is because of how despite being written in the nineteenth century, Rochester embodies so many of the red flags seen in men in this very day and age. So many of the tactics he uses to try ensnaring Jane into becoming his mistress are things that I can totally see (and have seen) guys of today doing. Like when Jane and Rochester get engaged and he insists on buying her a crap ton of jewels and dresses she doesn't want in a manner eerily reminiscent of lovebombing and the way he constantly gaslights her with infantilising language.

One of my favorite scenes of the book is when Rochester tells Adele (Jane's charge and Rochester's adopted daughter) about his announcement to Jane through a fairy tale allegory in which he claims he's going to take her 'to the moon to live in a cave with only himself' (probably foreshadowing how he intends to cart her off to the south of france after the wedding), but what to a man comes off as an exciting and romantic fantasy, to a little girl comes off as a horrific, lonely, and miserable existence. And that just really stuck with me because it takes me back to when I was a kid watching all these romantic dramas/movies in which the leading lady gives up her dreams/passions/female friendships in order to settle for some rando douchebag who was so clearly undeserving of her affections.

I also really like the scene in the book where Jane discovers the existence of Bertha Mason (Rochester's mad wife he keeps in the attic for those unfamiliar with the text), and he pulls out all the stops trying to manipulate Jane into being his mistress, trying to paint himself as a tragic victim of Bertha's insanity-induced rages while conveniently omitting why Bertha came to harbor such animosity towards him in the first place. But Jane stays strong and refuses to fall for it, even when Rochester's mask of chivalry begins to slip with his increasing frustration at her and we (as the readers) begin to feel a rising sense of dread at the danger she's in the longer she remains in his presence/refuses to submit to him.

Also I love how Jane only returns to be with Rochester once he's been blinded and crippled (effectively being neutralized as a threat to her safety) and she has a reliable support system of female friends (her cousins Mary and Diana who she meets after leaving him) that she didn't have before, and she has her own fortune of money (thereby shifting the power imbalance that came with Rochester being her boss) so he can't financially abuse her.

I could go on and on about how Jane Eyre is the ultimate go-to romance for a Radfem, but here's where I open the discussion up to ya'll. What do you guys think of the book? Do you agree with me?