Harry Potter:
- Parents died when he was young
- Left with his uncaring aunt and uncle
- Abused by his cousin
- Finds refuge in a new school
Jane Eyre:
- Parents died when she was young
- Left with her uncaring aunt
- Abused by her cousin
- Finds refuge in a new school
Weird how many similarities there are between the two, right? I mean there are obvious differences (although wouldn't it be awesome if Jane could just Wingardium Leviosa Mr. Brocklehurst right out of there?), but they have very similar stories. I am now curious to ask J.K. Rowling if she was at all inspired by Jane Eyre. They both come from very similar backgrounds, but when they get to school and into life they start to diverge paths. Jane goes through 8 years of learning and teaching, whereas the second Harry gets thrown into school he begins to grow up. Jane needed the time to be petty and learn from those around her, whereas Harry, an 11 year old boy, was forced to square off against arguably the most powerful wizard ever (besides Dumbledore, of course). Harry's timeline can be seen as a very squished version of Jane's, though. Where Jane takes years and years to grow up and learn about life, Harry does it in a couple of months. Although it takes him 7 years to fully complete his task, Jane at 18 and Harry at 12 are about the same maturity level. It's kind of a cool comparison to look at, since at first glance you would never think that these two books had anything in common. But when you look closer, many of the basic details and ideas are similar which leads to some interesting thinking about both novels. When I finish
Jane Eyre I am excited to look back and see if I still think the same parallels are evident throughout the whole book.
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