Backstage Blog

Though men's clothing styles didn't seem to change as drastically (or as often) as women's did throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, there were at all times some very distinct differences between less formal and more formal attire.  All coats…

It is not always quite so evident that an author has drawn from her own life in writing a piece of fiction. But in the case of Charlotte Brontë, there are many facets of her personal history which find their way into Jane Eyre.  This brief biographical post was researched by our youngest cast member, Lydia Ramsour, who plays Young Jane in several flashback scenes.

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A brief biography of Charlotte Brontë–by Lydia Ramsour

Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire on April 21, 1816. Her mother, Maria, and father, Patrick, had six children–five girls and one boy. Patrick was an Anglican clergyman at St. Michael and All Angels church in Haworth, Yorkshire. Maria died of cancer on September 15, 1821, leaving the six children with their father to be cared for by the oldest sister, Elizabeth.

If you have seen any of the myriad film or television adaptations of Jane Eyre, you have seen poor Jane wearing black or grey gowns…but do you know why?  The servant class might own only two or three gowns total–dry cleaning did not exist, and the heavy, voluminous fabric made washing difficult. So a dark color was practical and serviceable: simply put, it hid dirt. Plus, its plainness was suitably humble, as well as generally less expensive.

But no matter what color gown was worn, there was a steady progression in the style of gowns at this time, which was vastly different from the styles of the Regency just twenty years earlier.  Here to tell us a bit about it is Jen Rothenbush, who plays Blanche Ingram, likely to be the best-dressed woman in the room at Thornfield Hall (if she has her way).

“It is a truth universally acknowledged” (to quote another Jane) that Jane Eyre is a strong heroine.  Indeed, for her time, she has no equal in independent spirit, self-possession and an integrity that we might call grit.

Tackling this subject is Sarah Hobson, who plays the little French ward, Adele Varens. Sarah is a high-school student whose love of theater and small stature made her ideal for this pivotal role.

 There are many happier themes in the novel and stage adaptation of Jane Eyre, but it is unarguably true that some very serious events are a part of its plot and its backstory.  The first third of the novel is devoted to Jane’s childhood, including several harrowing years at Lowood, a charity school primarily for orphans. There her first really friend, Helen Burns, dies, echoing an event from Charlotte Brontë’s own experience (see the brief biography elsewhere on this blog).

This article has been researched by Abigail Ramsour, a student at Grace College, who plays the role of Helen Burns in a brief flashback scene. (Her younger sister, Lydia, plays young Jane in that scene!)

Our second article comes from Stacey Kuster, who plays Bertha. Since her character is mentally ill, and that illness is pivotal to the plot, Stacey has researched how the mentally ill were treated in Victorian England.

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Mental Illness in Victorian England by Stacey Kuster

Before the mid-1800s it was the common belief that people with mental illnesses were tainted by the devil. Patients were treated poorly, most lived in unsanitary conditions–often caged—and received minimal food (which might be rancid). Mentally-ill patients were treated like animals by their caretakers and facilitators, many of whom believed that this was all they deserved. Women could find themselves labeled insane and locked up in madhouses for a range of conditions – from postnatal depression to alcoholism or senile dementia, and even for social transgressions such as infidelity (‘moral insanity’).

In the Victorian era, there was a shift in attitude towards mental illness. People in general began to realize the importance of paying attention to the conditions of mental institutions. Compared with the early asylums–rough, brutal places where the most disturbed patients were chained in windowless rooms with straw bedding–the mid-Victorian era was positively progressive. Theories that still hold today, such as the value of occupational therapy, were becoming fashionable. At this time, there was a shift away from the idea of control from without (via chains and shackles) and towards control from within, via treatment or cure.

Our first research article explores Gothic literature as a genre and asks whether  fits the definition of this category.  Molly Steffen, a English teacher at Blackhawk Christian School, contributed this article. She plays Amy Eshton and Diana Rivers.

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The Gothic Novel and Jane Eyre by Molly Steffen

The term “gothic” as it applies to literature was first used by Horace Walpole for his novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764. According to John Mullan (1), it seems as if he intended the term to mean “something like ‘barbarous’, as well as ‘deriving from the Middle Ages’ ”. Over time, the genre of the gothic novel has come to signify certain characteristics, several of which appear in the novel Jane Eyre.

Four years ago all for One staged Jane Austen's Emma, a literary classic. For the first time, our cast members actively participated in the research process, and the result was so much valuable material that afO created a blog site,…