‘Jane Eyre’ has been an interesting read so far. There’s a lot I’ve learned already, but none of it really pertains to romance as a genre specifically, probably because the first half of this book reads more like straight literary fiction than a romance. It makes sense to establish a character thoroughly before diving into the deep end, but I don’t imagine more modern novels taking their sweet time with it as much as ‘Jane Eyre’ does.
Now that I’m entering the second half of the book, there are some things I’m looking out for. Number one on my list: How do you create an antagonist in a romance? There’s the classic love triangle (which I can see brewing in ‘Jane Eyre’) but that feels a little too straight forward. A little cheap, even. The problem is that it just doesn’t happen that often in real life. It might be convenient if the only thing that ever stood between two people falling in love was some foe to conquer, but as always, truth is stranger than fiction. I think there must be some deeper antagonist that I can’t quite put my finger on. In ‘Romeo and Juliette,’ there’s the family feud separating the star crossed duo. In ‘Jane Eyre,’ the object of Jane’s desire should be incompatible in many ways, from age to caste to disposition. In ‘The Notebook’ (yes, I have read ‘The Notebook,’ no, I’m not going to elaborate) protagonist Allie has a husband who stands in the way of her reconnecting with her first love Noah, but unlike a typical love triangle, the husband isn’t even aware of Noah’s existence and doesn’t show up at all till the end of the book. A good antagonist needs a strong presence (even if they are unseen), but all these romance antagonists are tricky because of how formless they are. It’s as if life itself is the problem. Circumstance stands in the way more than anything, embodied by a person, a dark past, a class divide, societal norms, what have you. I imagine it’s pretty dang hard to make this type of antagonist work. I’m interested to see how Charlotte Bronte pulls it off.
Thank you for reading,
Benjamin Hawley
Dangerous Day Job 