Thursday, October 29, 2009

First Impressions

''I took up my muff and walked on. The incident had occurred and was gone for me: it WAS an incident of no moment, no romance, no interest in a sense; yet it marked with change one single hour of a monotonous life. My help had been needed and claimed; I had given it: I was pleased to have done something; trivial, transitory though the deed was, it was yet an active thing, and I was weary of an existence all passive. The new face, too, was like a new picture introduced to the gallery of memory; and it was dissimilar to all the others hanging there: firstly, because it was masculine; and, secondly, because it was dark, strong, and stern. I had it still before me when I entered Hay, and slipped the letter into the post- office; I saw it as I walked fast down-hill all the way home. When I came to the stile, I stopped a minute, looked round and listened, with an idea that a horse's hoofs might ring on the causeway again, and that a rider in a cloak, and a Gytrash-like Newfoundland dog, might be again apparent: I saw only the hedge and a pollard willow before me, rising up still and straight to meet the moonbeams; I heard only the faintest waft of wind roaming fitful among the trees round Thornfield, a mile distant; and when I glanced down in the direction of the murmur, my eye, traversing the hall-front, caught a light kindling in a window: it reminded me that I was late, and I hurried on." pg.117-118

I think it's funny that a person always does something stupid when they are around someone they don't know, or someone they are trying to impress. Jane's first encounterment with Mr. Rochester is when she scares his horse and it slips on ice and he falls. I think this happens because deep down we are trying too hard not to mess up and you end up messing up. It's the nervousness, I believe, that takes control over the body and makes a person mess up. Jane wasn't really nervous though. She didn't know that Mr. Rochester would end up being her boss. It was just a strange coinsidence that it happened that way. I think first impressions are very important because if you show a person what your going to give them, lets say in a job, then you will most likey get hired because they are going to like how you presented yourself. In Jane's case though it was a little bit more complicated. Jane's first impression on her boss was knocking him off of his horse, even though at the moment she didn't know that was her boss. That was bad of her, but the magnificent thing about Jane is that she tried to fix it by helping him and that shows a lot of courage. Another woman would have probably went running to get help, but she didn't. She wanted to help him herself. And not any woman would let a man lean on her none the less touch her. But Jane thought it was necessary in order to help him back on his horse. And that I think made Mr. Rochester curious about how Jane really is and didn't fire her right away after she knocked him over. He wanted to see more of this girl with the courge and he indeed did so.

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Are first meetings usually full of mixed messages? How do you sort our the impressions you have when your first meet someone, especially a stranger? What do you think Jane's impressions of Mr. Rochester are here?

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  3. I agree with you. Most people think that first impressions are really important, which I think is true. But, are first impressions important in every situation? You want to be yourself and by trying hard to impress people you aren't showing your true self. People will always judge you no matter what so it will be better for them to judge the real you. If by trying to impress people you are showing them someone you are not.

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  4. I like the fact that you have stressed, that first impressions are important. First impressions are important because they might determine, for example, if you get a job at a job interview. But unlike Grace, I think that impressing someone is better than having that person have a bad image of you. Now when I say that it's good to impress someone I mean it but I also mean something else like: Who said that you couldn't impress someone with just being you? Are you saying that I have to pretend to be something I'm not just to impress someone, I think not.
    That is why I think that Mr. Rochester wanted to try Jane's actual personality and courage when he decided to not to tell Jane that he was her new boss. He might of felt surprised that someone for once isn't trying to impress him with special treatments but instead he was stunned be Jane's real treatment against him.

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