(Spring 2024) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847) (Victorian Classics) with Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

Sign up for this course and meet Jane Eyre who perseveres through adversity and oppression. Through it all, Jane is true to her Christian morals.

How to get the most out of Jane Eyre:

  1. Read the assigned chapters of the novel (outlined in the course description).
  2. Take the quiz for that chapter range (do this BEFORE watching the recorded class). 
  3. Watch each Recorded class session. 
  4. Complete additional quizzes and assignments as they are ordered on the moodle class page. 
  5. Review recorded classes if/as you need to. 
  6. Once the course is completed to the parent's satisfaction, there is a Certificate of Completion at the end to be filled in for your records. Homeschool Connections does not provide record keeping.
IF planning on the optional literary-critical writing assignment:
  1. Contact the Instructor early to discuss possible topics and your proposed timeline for composition and completion.
  2. As you read, mark or otherwise identify passages that might be useful in developing your paper.
  3. Be prompt with your deadlines.

Total Classes: 6

Duration per class: 55 minutes

Prerequisite: Reading of Volume 1 of Jane Eyre before the first day of class

Suggested Grade Level: 9th to 12th grade

Suggested High School Credit: ½ semester credit for Literature or English

Instructor: Eleanor Bourg Nicholson

Instructor Email: ebnicholson@protonmail.com

Course Description: When a “poor, obscure, plain and little” governess takes a position at Thornfield Hall, she little expects to be swept up by the passion and dark secrets of her enigmatic employer, Mr. Rochester. One of the most famous novels of the mid-Victorian period, Jane Eyre exemplifies the Bildungsroman (“coming-of-age”) genre, and, in fact, radically defined that genre in the English literary tradition. Providing a notable contrast to the secularizing influences of its period (not to mention those of our own, which determinedly misreads the novel), Brontë distinctively grounds her heroine and her novel in Christian moral understanding. The novel presents a host of themes: What is “The Novel”? What is the role of education (especially of women)? How are the natural world and the human person related? What is the role of Gothic atmosphere? What is the relationship between Reason and Feeling—especially in the light of the Fall? Our studies will also address the novel’s biographical and historical context, providing insight into the mid-Victorian Period. In this course, we will come to know Jane Eyre and the remarkable novel that bears her name, studying both over six classes.

Course Outline:

  • Class one: Volume 1, Chapters 1-7.
  • Class two: Volume 1, Chapters 8-15.
  • Class three: Volume 2, Chapters 1-5.
  • Class four: Volume 2, Chapters 6-11.
  • Class five: Volume 3, Chapters 1-6.
  • Class six: Volume 3, Chapters 7-12.

Course Materials: Recommended edition, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Ignatius Critical Edition), ISBN 978-1586176990. The novel is also available for free online via Project Gutenberg.

Tech Help: If you have any questions please contact us at homeschoolconnections@gmail.com.