When I was growing up, a poster advertising the novel Jane Eyre hung in our family room for ages. My sister had made it for a school project, and I loved the slender figure of Jane she’d drawn in black and white. Despite the great marketing, though, I’ve never read the book.
But my friend Sharon has, and she e-mailed me about it. Turns out my sister might have had something in common with Jane Eyre. My sister’s sister (that would be me) had ADD, and Jane’s good friend might also have had ADD. In both cases, it was way before anyone would have thought to put a name to the condition.
Here (with her permission) are Sharon’s astute observations of Jane’s friend Helen:
I always find it interesting when I see a character in literature who probably has ADD or ADHD. It's easy enough to spot boys with ADHD (Tom Sawyer, amongst others), but I hadn't noticed any girls with ADD until just recently.
I'm rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane's good friend in the school she attends is Helen Burns. Helen is called a "slattern" by her teacher. She talks of intending to tidy her drawers, but forgetting. In classes where she is interested, she does very well, but in others, she goes into a dream state and has no idea what is being taught. This picture of ADD in girls struck me as quite clear, and it's fascinating to see it in a novel first published in 1847.
Most analysis of this character deals with her "angelic" duration of the hardships in the school. I couldn't find any association of her with ADD through Google—perhaps no one has seen it, but I don't think I'm reading in a false interpretation. Interesting.
Yes, definitely interesting! Anybody else noticed characters with ADD in novels you’ve read? The main character of Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler pops into my mind.
Yes! My thoughts on her exactly.
Posted by: Fish Jones | August 10, 2014 at 03:32 AM