"Reader, I married him"

As the semester is slowly but surely winding down, I thought I would post a blog about my favorite subject--marriage. One thing that surprised me about the works we read as a class was that the authors had many different points of view on marriage. On the one hand, you have authors like George Eliot, who portray marriage in a negative light and focus on problems rather than on accomplishments. You also have authors like Harriet Jacobs, who regard marriage as a nice but unrealistic theory that stems out of a desire for communality. On the other hand, however, we also had the opportunity to examine the novel Jane Eyre in which an optimistic, highly-romantic Charlotte Bronte see marriage as the union of two soul mates.
In review of the works we read in class, I would like to ask everyone to think about which view of marriage you most closely identify with. For me, I find that I can relate to Jane Eyre, as her undying love and perseverance make her an admirable character. Yes, I think that Mr. Rochester is quite a pompous, caustic individual but the fact of the matter is that Jane does love him. Isn't that how love works? I am a firm believer that one cannot choose who they love, one can only choose how to respond to that love once it is discovered. Jane knows that Mr. Rochester has problems and she strives to work with him to find a happy medium. From my experience thus far, I have come to believe that a good marriage in which both parties are willing to compromise. We should not, therefore, blame Jane for following her heart; instead, we should praise her for finding a way to make things work despite setbacks and difficulties.