Core Ideas And Themes In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

When she is locked in the Red Room, she flies into a fit of temper, and "...prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated." Too much emotion leads to irrationality, and Jane is ill for some time as a result.

Jane's childhood trauma results as a product of her times at Gateshed and Lowood. There were a series of irreversible problems that Jane had to deal with. She was born an orphan into a house devoid of love or respect for her. It is not overly emotionally healthy to live with the "ostracism by the Reed family and the unrelenting anxiety over the chidings of the servants, the violence of John Reed, and the punishments and berating of Mrs. Reed." (Ashe 10) Evidently, Jane had this lifestyle since she was little. This can be inferred from Mrs. Reeds loving statement "I hated it the first time I set my eyes on it-a sickly, whining, pining thing" (7)

Once Jane is locked in the red room in chapter two, she is able to reflect on everything that just happened. The red room is the chamber where Jane’s kind uncle died; he took her to Gateshead when her parents died. This shows Jane’s strength of character. Most children would be frightened and would be screaming with fear to be let out of this cold, haunted and dark chamber that they had been locked in. But Jane thinks about it rationally, ‘’superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour for complete victory’’. This also proves that Jane believes in superstition and clings onto a magical world. But after a while in the red room Jane does become terrified and begins to convince herself that something is going to

This is represented symbolically through the yellow wallpaper. She even realizes this about half through the story: “It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis, it is the paper”(page 426)! The “It” would be the illness people thinks she has, which is directly related to the mental barriers. At the end of the story she begins to rip the wallpaper off the wall, symbolically peeling away the mental barriers. “I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook. I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of paper… I declared I would finish it to-day”(page 429)! As she finishes removing the wallpaper from the walls her husband finally comes home. As he opens the door, he realizes he is no longer in control of her when she says, ““I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back””(page 431). By this time in the story we are no longer dealing with the narrator we saw in the beginning; there is nothing left of the old narrator at this point. What we see now is the new rebellious and free spirited narrator. Also, when the narrator refers to a person named “Jane” on page 429 one could make the assumption that she was Jane. If this is the case, then the mental barriers were attached to Jane as an

In the same way, Jane is literally placed in a big empty room, in isolation from everyone else in the house. Gilman gives us glimpses of Jane’s confinement as the story progresses. Look at how her room is described. “…the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 341). This suggests that Jane is placed in a mental hospital room. There are bars on the windows so she cannot escape, and rings on the walls to keep her from roaming about.

Jane has visions and day dreams since she was a child. The ‘Red Room’ is the place where Jane starts having visions, she has one of a strange figure when she had been locked in the red room by her Aunt Reed; “…the strange

The word choice here reflects Jane's situation - she is like the ground, 'petrified' under the influence of her aunt, whose behaviour is mirrored in the term "hard frost" because of the icy discipline she bestows. Mrs Reed's attitude towards Jane highlights one of the main themes of the novel, social class. Jane's aunt sees Jane as inferior as she had humble beginnings: she is "less than a servant". Jane is glad to be leaving her cruel aunt and of having the chance of going to school.

Jane would not like to be poor as poverty is looked down upon and equivalent to being an immoral and degraded human being. For Jane to be a respectable woman in society she must remain with the Reeds. John acknowledges Jane’s dependency: “You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, momma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg and not to live here with gentleman's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at out mamma’s expense (14).” Jane is continuously reminded of her inferior position at Gateshead and powerless dependency to people that do not even love her. At this early age Jane has already been integrated into Victorian society as negative notions about the poor have been internalized. Born the daughter of a poor clergyman, Jane is believed to be of lesser value than the Reeds; however, she has passionate tendencies and is unable to control her emotions when necessary.When being abused by John and accusing him of being “like a murderer” (14) she is described as being a “picture of passion (15).” Jane must learn to temper her “fire” because untamed emotions have consequences. Her consequence comes when she is imprisoned in the red room, a visual representation of the intense emotions that have manifested in

In order to fully understand how Bertha Mason qualifies as Jane’s “dark double” in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, we must examine Jane and her relationship to the Red Room, a place that frequently haunted her as a child as it was where her uncle died. Jane’s worst nightmare came true when she was locked in the Red Room by Mrs. Reed as punishment for striking John. At the time, Jane was in a state of panic as she felt “oppressed… suffocated” while involuntary held in the room and fearful that “Mr. Reed’s spirit… might quit its abode… and rise before [her]” (Bronte 13). The Red Room is where Jane realizes the extent of her isolation, both as an orphan and more importantly as a rebellious young woman of a restless nature, a personality unwelcome in Victorian society (Bronte 15). As a consequence of her episode, Jane begins to dial back her rebellious nature so as to protect herself from the

    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

Charlotte Brontë introduces the five primary conflicts the titular character of Jane Eyre experiences throughout the novel in the first two sections of Lowood and Thornfield. One primary conflict Brontë establishes is that of the flesh versus the spirit (Rukavina). This tension created between the flesh versus the spirit surrounds ideology Victorians held that women must be exclusively spiritual beings, but by contrast were real people with physical needs and wants. This conflict is most evident in the Lowood section, particularly the scene where Mr. Brocklehurst humiliates Jane in front of the school. Mr. Brocklehurst acts as flawed representative of the Victorian ideals in regards to the spiritual, whereas Miss Temple represents the needs

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is presented in the Victorian Period of England. It is a novel which tells the story of a child's maturation into adulthood. Jane's developing personality has been shaped by her rough childhood. She has been influenced by many people and experiences. As a woman of her time, Jane has had to deal with the strain of physical appearance. This has a great effect on her mental thinking and decision making. Jane Eyre's cognitive and physical attributes have been affected by her environment throughout her life.

The belief that women should have equal economic, political and social rights which were offered to men was known as feminism. Feminism has been a prominent and controversial topic in writing for over two centuries, with the view articulating in the “19th century meaning that women were inherently equal to men and deserved equal rights and opportunities.” (Gustafson, 1) Many women throughout time have stood forward towards women’s rights. Jane Eyre was written and published during the Victorian Era. The novel was written by Charlotte Brontë, but published under the

This novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë is about the life a woman named Jane Eyre undergoing many changes that wound up shaping the person she had eventually grown up to be. This type of novel which accounts for the psychological development of the protagonist as they grow up is known a bildungsroman. One particular moment or action, which accounts for Jane’s psychological development, that is described in this novel is the adoption of Jane by her relatives known as the Reed family (Chapter 3).

Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Brontë, contains several notable themes and messages sent to its readers. Jane Eyre is a coming of age novel that is a story of a girl's quest for equality and happiness. A common theme that recurs throughout the novel is the importance of independence.Charlotte Brontë utilizes several techniques to convey this message, incorporating her personal experiences, as well as including symbolism and motifs. Charlotte Bronte subjects Jane to several conflicts that occur because of Jane’s desire for independence and freedom, such as love, religion, and gender inequality.