Bronte vs. Bronte

[elettaria]

eye_of_a_cat is posting an Austen vs. Bronte poll, which completely fails to take account of the fact that people seem to be very divided on Jane Eyre vs. Wuthering Heights, rather than just happily loving all the Brontes. At least, so popular opinion has it. The time has come to discover the truth, and as in all good polls I'm refusing to accept the existence of a middle ground.

[Poll #1282245]

Comments

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm totally going to put up that poll :D Heathcliff, well... I see how that kind of intense willing-to-rip-the-world-apart-for-someone passion is attractive in its way, but he's really not my type. (However, I think WH earns major points by presenting him as fucked-up and destructive, and showing explicitly via Isabella Linton that assuming he's actually a tragic Byronic hero who just needs wuv will only lead to sorrow and pain and bleakness.)

OTOH, I think Rochester's hot, but one of my most disturbing teaching moments was when my students got into a virtual slap-fight over Wide Sargasso Sea. "That is NOT Rochester! Rochester is NOT that much of a bastard!" Um, were we reading the same Jane Eyre?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

I think he manages to be hot in WSS, but he's just too bloody annoying in JE. He manipulates everyone in sight in a distinctly unsexy manner, is horribly twee with all the elves-and-fairies stuff, is frankly pompous in the way the charade scene is All About Him, gets the colour of Jane's eyes wrong during a Romantic Moment, and cross-dresses in a fashion that varies from dodgy to laughable but does not include attractive. (Unlike Ms Snowe when she's playing Ginevra Fanshawe's lover.)

Oi, angevin2, add eye_of_a_cat to your friends list so that you can rejoice and despair over student delights together. You'll get on, I promise.