Does Jane Eyre deserve the romantic hype?

I know I should have done this post a few weeks ago, when I was actually reading the novel. Also, Valentine's Day was last month, so I probably could have capitalized on that. Instead, it's Saint Patrick's Day, and I'm writing about romance novels. You read the title. We're talking about Jane Eyre. If you don't want spoilers then you should stop reading. If you don't mind getting spoiled about a novel that came out 170 years ago, keep going.

I read Jane Eyre as part of a Gothic Literature course. The basic plot summary is that Jane Eyre survives an abusive home and a terrible school (though it gets better) and becomes a teacher at said school, once she's done with her education. At 18, she puts an ad out for a change in position, and gets a response from someone at Thornfield Hall. She becomes the governess for a girl named Adele, who's the ward of a mysterious man named Edward Rochester. Rochester (and his literary cousin Heathcliff) basically invented the trope of the romantic lead being "tall, dark, mysterious, and handsome." Despite being 20 years older than Jane, the two form a vaguely romantic relationship. Blah, blah, romantic conflict, blah, blah, turns out the strange noises that Jane has been hearing in the attic are NOT a servant - the strange noises are ACTUALLY ROCHESTER'S FIRST WIFE!!! *CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC* Jane finds this out on HER WEDDING DAY TO MR. ROCHESTER!!!! *CUE MORE DRAMATIC, SOAP-OPERA MUSIC*
Turns out Bertha (the crazy first wife in the attic) has been crazy since the honeymoon, and there was absolutely positively no way for Rochester to get out of the marriage he was conscripted into. So he kept her up in his attic, instead of trying to relate to her as a human being who might just have some issues with communicating her anger. Jane freaks out, and wants to leave instead of being Rochester's mistress. She cites power iniquity, miscommunication, personal finance, and the existence of a crazy wife in the attic as her main reasons for wanting to leave. She takes off in the middle of the night.
Jane gets taken in by St. John Rivers (pronounced sin-jin) and his sisters Diana and Mary. A year later, they find out that Jane is their cousin, and their mutually estranged uncle had left Jane 20,000 pounds. She wants to split it evenly and, even with having 5,000 to her name, is quite well-off. Jane insists she doesn't want to marry St. John and leaves to go find Rochester again.
Turns out Rochester's house has been burned down by Bertha. Bertha died. Rochester lost his left hand; one eye had come out entirely and the other had extremely reduced vision. Within ten days of Jane's return, they get married for realsies.

So, is this romantic?

Well.

Five Reasons Why Jane Eyre is Definitely Romantic

1. Romantic tension out the wazoo. First Rochester could be getting engaged to Blanche Ingram! Jane could be getting engaged to St. John! There's imagery reflective of Beauty and the Beast in Act 1, where Belle/ Jane has to go home for something (in this case, because her abusive aunt is dying and specifically asked to see her), then Beast/ Rochester asks her to only stay out a week, but she winds up staying out longer. All the fairy tale imagery here (and there's a metric sh**ton) means FAIRY TALE ROMANCE???!!
2. Rochester can only feel his true and best self while with Jane! Jane cares about Rochester despite his flaws! #RelationshipGoals
3. They deliberately choose each other, despite class differences, age differences, power differences, and LITERALLY ANY KIND OF DIFFERENCE (except racial/ regional) that you can think of.
4. About halfway through the novel, Jane saves Rochester's life. That's definitely romance novel material, right?
5. At the end, Jane and Rochester work together for their relationship. She helps him get places, and helps out in pretty much every sense. Rochester wants to do more to provide for her, but the most he can do is own a house and have a really good bank account, which is all Jane needs at that point. They really do seem to care for each other, despite the variety of power and age dynamics in their relationship.

Five Reasons Why Jane Eyre is Definitely NOT Romantic

1. Can you say, "ROCHESTER IS TWICE JANE'S AGE?" Rochester is 20 years older than Jane, who is 20 years old when they get married for real at the end of the novel. He is literally a generation older than her, which can result in all sorts of weirdness.
2. Speaking of power dynamics, that's basically what this relationship is based on. Rochester has literally every power over Jane for most of the year Jane spends as Adele's governess - he's her employer, he has money, he has social standing, he's male, he's physically bigger and stronger than Jane is. Only when he loses most of these and Jane gains some money do they seem like they're on any kind of equal footing. Jane also never actually calls him by his first name, even at the end of the novel. She always addresses him as "sir" or "Mr. Rochester," even though they're married and have a kid together. He's never Edward to her; that's less a thing of the times than it is a possible indicator of power iniquity.
3. Rochester has his secrets and has problematic timing when he reveals them. He wasn't planning on telling Jane about Bertha until they had been married a year. He only told Jane about other relationships he had after Bertha and before Jane to prove the point that he wanted to get away from Bertha. Also, HE KEPT HIS INSANE WIFE IN HIS ATTIC.
4. Say it again for the people in the back: ROCHESTER. KEPT. HIS. CRAZY. WIFE. IN. THE. ATTIC. If Jane had started to irritate him, what would he have done to her?
5. Also, he sometimes flirted with other people to see if he could make Jane jealous. He also dresses up as a gypsy at one point and tries to "read fortunes" with the real intent of "reading Jane's emotions to see if she actually likes him." That can be read two ways: romantic conflict because of the repressed emotion, or "Rochester is a grown man and needs to learn to express his feelings to women instead of dressing up in ridiculous costumes and asking stupid questions."

CONCLUSION: IS IT ROMANTIC?

you decide. Tell me in the comments. Or don't.