Jane Eyre was published in 1847 by Currer Bell. Today, this author is better known by her real name, Charlotte Brontë (Wikipedia). It follows a young woman through her neglectful childhood and independent young adulthood as she traverses the Northern England countryside. The novel also marries a classic bildungsroman and gothic romance by using some classic female gothic tropes: persecuted heroine; flight from an evil parent; social and sexual repression and shame; ghosts, but not too many supernatural undertones; a critique of societal structure; and fears of domestic entrapment (Oestreich). 

Admittedly, using Jane Eyre as an entry can be seen as a cop-out; however, this novel is very pertinent (as promised) to Thursday's journey. It would be hard to talk about any of the important similarities and symbolism between Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair in another capacity relevant to this type of assignment since any places associated with the original Jane Eyre were discussed a few months ago as we read that novel. It's also an interesting thought exercise trying to disseminate a book as a place, which feels very on-brand for The Eyre Affair and its handling of literary allusions.

One obvious similarity between Jane's journey and Thursday's is the interruption of a wedding. In Jane Eyre, Mason interrupts Rochester and Jane's wedding to reveal that Rochester already has a wife, essentially killing Jane and Rochester's relationship for a good portion of the book. In The Eyre Affair, however, Landen's wedding to his fiancée is interrupted to reveal that the finacée is already married, which directly benefits Thursday by romantically freeing Landen.

A bulk of the similarities and differences between Jane Eyre and The Eyre Affair come through their respective handling of the aforementioned gothic tropes. Jane Eyre is persecuted by multiple people in the novel. For starters, Aunt Reed and her children are awful to Jane as a child; she then goes on to face mild persecution at Lowood for being passionate, which was often unwanted in women. The Ingrams also mistreat Jane through their degradation of her job as a governess and their unbridled disdain for anyone in that position. Thursday is mostly celebrated as a heroine due to her excellent fieldwork. The only person who technically persecutes Thursday is Hades, and that's only considering he shot her in the first half of the novel. The second trope -- flight from an evil parent -- really only applies to Jane since she is fleeing from her Aunt. The repression of social and sexual desires applies to both women but to varying degrees. Jane's entire journey focused on her growing into a young woman and shedding her impulsive emotions from her youth. She also has to conform to societal standards regarding any sexual feelings she has for Rochester, seen especially once they're engaged and Jane refuses to kiss him. In The Eyre Affair, Thursday often gets sidetracked by her latent feelings for Landen and has to push them down in order to focus on the job at hand trying to locate and terminate Hades. The fourth trope -- supernatural elements -- has the most contrast between the novels. Jane Eyre used Bertha's murky presence for some preternatural tension whereas Thursday's entire world is steeped in supernatural elements; a case in point being SO-17, in which Spike is literally a vampire hunting other vampires and werewolves. Combining the last two tropes into one for sake of discussion, neither novel leans super heavily on either of these tropes. Jane doesn't fear being trapped in the domestic; in fact, she seems to be thriving in the final chapter as she recounts how much help Rochester needed without his eyesight. Thursday's fear of entrapment stems more from being stuck at a desk job, it seems, rather than actually feeling bogged down by domestic duties. Both of these instances have some critique of society inherent in them. Jane Eyre fights societal standards by having Rochester rely on Jane since it's an upper-middle-class man marrying and being dependent on a lower-class woman. Thursday fights the standard expectation of women getting married and raising kids without having a life outside of those strict domestic duties. Her emotional dependency on her job flouts those rules a bit. 

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Norton Critical Edition, 2016.

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair: A Novel. Penguin Books, 2001.

“Jane Eyre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Apr. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre.

Oestreich, Kate. "Topics in British Literature."