Bird Imagery in Jane Eyre

In the early stages of Jane's life she was a very autonomous girl. She grew up in a hostile environment in the home of Mrs. Reed and her three children, John, Eliza, and Georgiana that is known as Gateshead. The Reed family showed no love or any sort of affection towards Jane in any way, shape, or form; for they all despised her. She spent most of her time out of contact of others. The most contact she had with someone was a

Throughout Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre is afflicted with the feud between her moral values, and the way society perceives these notions. Jane ultimately obtains her happy ending, and Brontë’s shrewd denouement of St. John’s fate juxtaposes Jane’s blissful future with St. John’s tragic course of action. When Jane ends up at the Moor House, she is able to discover a nexus of love and family, and by doing so, she no longer feels fettered to Rochester. Moreover, Rochester is no longer Jane’s only form of psychological escape, and thus Jane is in a position to return to him without an aura of discontent. At the end of the novel, Jane is finally able to be irrevocably “blest beyond what language can express” (Brontë 459) because she is “absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh” (459).

While at Gateshead, Jane is trapped by her relationship to the Reeds, which is reflected in the environment around her. At the beginning of Jane Eyre, Jane states that “there was no possibility of taking a walk that day” (Brontë 6). This beginning immediately puts Jane in her own bubble and exemplifies that she has no other form of positive interaction in her life. Initially, Jane is “[connected to] the natural environment, but also separate[d from it] with an unnatural boundary” (Fuller 152). Thus, this begins the recurring symbolism of how Victorian women were held back by gender roles in society. During her time at Gateshead, Jane is restrained by her

The prevalence of fire imagery and it's multitude of metaphoric uses in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre expresses two things that could not be expressed openly in the Victorian Period, which are mainly passion and sexuality. Brontes writing was dictated by the morals of her society, but her ideas were not. Jane Eyre was written with the Victorian reader in mind. Bronte knew that if she were to write about these two things directly she would have to face possible rejection of her book. A resolution to this dilemma was to awaken the audience in a way that society deemed not only respectable, but also acceptable. So Bronte creates Jane, and Jane becomes the embodiment of

One popular example in Brontë’s novel is weather. Near the climax of the book, Jane is about to wed Edward Rochester. Coincidentally, lighting strikes a massive chestnut tree and is described as “split down the centre, gaped ghastly...” (Brontë 280). One critic exclaimed how they traced “the profusion of nature imagery underlying the drama of the novel” (“Brontë, Charlotte…” 51). This use of symbolism makes Jane Eyre special to its time and to its reader. The Catcher in the Rye also uses a great amount of symbolism throughout the story. Holden has an interest in a local pond of ducks, which symbolize his interest and for the future, and his case: growing up. This symbol and scene in the novel shapes Holden’s as curious. Often a novel that uses a great amount of symbolism is what gets classroom thinking. The Catcher in the Rye provides readers and great insight on what symbolism is and how it connects to the story and what it does to illuminate the meaning. Years from now, a story that contains legitimate educational value will still be popular among readers of all ages, for it gets people thinking about writing, techniques, and

Hence, Bronte used bird imagery to imitate human behaviour and feelings, allowing a connection between emotions and nature; she also used Birds to describe Jane’s progression over time. However, in contrast the images Jane looks at are not of pretty birds, but bleak shorelines. Jane is like a bird, she longs to fly away, but she is not beautiful she is plain and bleak, and feels trapped like a caged bird.

Both Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See and Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope is the the thing with feathers” make use of bird imagery. Doerr’s novel follows the parallel lives of a blind French girl and a young German boy, as their lives intertwine as World War Two unfolds around them. Frederick, a character in All the Light We Cannot See, exhibits an obsession with birds, which reflects his desire for freedom. His desire is never satisfied, as his character meets a restricting, dismal future. The speaker in “Hope is the the thing with feathers” describes the bird’s attributes, which are parallel to that of hope.

Jane’s first encounter with betrayal was when she was still a child and her Uncle Reed brought her along to live with him and his family in Gateshead, after Jane’s parents had passed away. Jane’s Uncle Reed had promised to raise her as if she were one of his own children. However, this only lasted until Uncle Reed passed away. After Jane’s uncle had passed, Jane’s aunt and her three children had mistreated her and in some cases physically abused. On one particular day she was minding her own business whilst reading Bewick’s History of British Birds, her obnoxious cousin John Reed was looking for Jane. Once he finds her, he treats her as if she was inferior to him, he wants his cousin to refer to him as Master Reed. This already not being indicative of raising Jane as one of their own, her cousin John continues to undermine her even more and takes the book from her and ends up throwing it at her causing her to get a cut by

Bronte uses recurring literary devices throughout 'Jane Eyre' to emphasise her isolation and neglect. Such as; pathetic fallacy as well as repeated juxtaposition between Jane and birds. This can be seen in; "The great horse chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night." this can be symbolic of the solitary Jane, and the stormy weather. This not only reflects what is to come with the reveal of Bertha - but also symbolic of herself and how she is 'struck' by the discovery on her wedding day. This is important because she is neglected, and isn't given enough respect by Rochester to tell her what she deserves to know.

Her subsequent years at the Lowood Institution, although glossed over by Brontë, are when Jane emerges as an artist. Her first sketch is landscape with a crooked cottage whose graphic limitations bring about a daydream that evening in which she envisions a feast of “more accomplished imagery”(72).

    Charlotte Bronte wrote the novel Jane Eyre in the mid-eighteen hundreds. In her novel she expresses her views on many important factors present during this time including social problems such as race, class, gender, and the role of religion. Each of these factors affects the way that the protagonist, Jane Eyre, grows as a person. Throughout the novel Charlotte Bronte uses images and symbols that either influence or represent Jane's growth. Bronte uses a common imagery throughout the novel reflecting images of "fire and ice." She also uses symbols in Jane's life such as the red-room, from her childhood, and the character Bertha Mason Rochester, during her time at Thornfield. Other characters who

Several times the narrator talks of feeding birds crumbs. Perhaps Brontë is telling us that this idea of escape is no more than a fantasy; one cannot escape when one must return for basic sustenance. The link between Jane and birds is strengthened by the way Brontë adumbrates poor nutrition at Lowood through a bird who is described as "a little hungry robin."

Charlotte Bronte created one of the first feminist novels--Jane Eyre--of her time period when she created the unique and feminist female heroine, Jane Eyre. Throughout the novel, Jane becomes stronger as she speaks out against antagonists. She presses to find happiness whether she is single or married and disregards society’s rules. The novel begins as Jane is a small, orphan child living with her aunt and cousins due to the death of her parents and her uncle. Jane 's aunt--Mrs. Reed--degrades her as she favors her biological children. Jane 's aunt--Mrs. Reed--degrades her as she favors her biological children. Her cousin--John Reed--hits her and then Mrs. Reed chooses to punish her instead and sends her to the room in which her uncle

When the story begins, Jane is ten years old and lives with her aunt at Gateshead. She was constantly terrorized by her relatives. In her description of her life at Gateshead, she said, “John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old, four years older than me, as I was but ten” (Brontë 12). His superiority in both age and size led him to constantly harass Jane while they lived together. Eventually, Mrs. Reed decided to send Jane to Lowood school where she would spend the rest of her youth. After being there for a bit of time, she stated,

this rationalization is the basis of Stephen’s internal epiphany; she is, toStephen, “an envoy from the fair courts of life”. This wholesome bird-like girl with “long