WWJDD?

I definitely think John Dowell would have acted completely opposite of Jane Eyre in the scenario I described in my “WWJED?” post. In the book John seems totally incapable of noticing the things that are going on around him, things that are occurring between the people that he thinks are closest to him. One would think that John would have caught onto what his wife and Edward were doing, but obviously he does not. Therefore, I believe it’s safe to say that had John been in a similar situation as me, a situation in which one of his closest friends started hanging around people he did not like and participating in activities he did not agree with, I believe he would have turned a very blind eye and would have carried on as regularly as possible. I certainly don’t think that John ever would have confronted his friend about their behavior or that he would have been able to walk away from the friendship. Unlike Jane Eyre who sticks very rigorously to her own personal code, I think John would attempt to remain as aloof and unaware as possible. I think even if John had an idea that his friend might be spending time with people he really did not like, etc., he would just keep trying to carry on as normally as possible without saying or doing anything to actively change the situation or confront his friend. 

As I mentioned in my "WWJED?" post, I believe that because Jane was able to leave Rochester, as I was able to leave my friendship, after time passed she was able to reevaluate the situation, just as I was able to as well, and thanks to the time and distance she was able to reestablish her relationship with Rochester to create an even stronger bond than they had before, just as I was able to reestablish my friendship with my friend. Unlike Jane and myself, John remains clueless to what's happening around him and in the end things obviously do not turn out very well for everyone. I don't mean to imply that John would have been able to leave his wife and then later forgive her, because I don't agree with that, but I do think he probably would have had a happier outcome had he realized what was happening earlier on in his life and had been able to somehow remove himself from the situation before it was too late.