At what point does an author’s plot choices ruin a classic?
Long-time bugbear: Jane Eyre.
She’s an orphan, she’s a pauper, she’s smart, she’s single. She runs away from the rich bigamist at the altar - but only because the first wife’s family calls him out.
But it’s okay. Long-lost rich uncles dies; she’s an heiress (with a plantation fortune). So she goes back and marries the egotistical, lying scumbag Rochester.
In what way are so many romance readers happy with this? She’s not exactly a feminist icon. Or a principled heroine.
So:
#1 How should Jane Eyre have ended (it doesn’t have to be C21st-feminist compliant, just truthful)
#2 Any other classics ruined by bad plotting or betrayals of character?