Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte

The Victorian Era encompassed a time of great discrepancy between the sexes, especially for women. The polarization of gender roles reflected on a basis of gender sexuality where men and women were granted certain advantages and disadvantages. Women were expected to realize a specific position in society based on morals of submission, passivity, and a complete lack of selfishness and independence. Constrictive notions such as these prevent individual expression and expansion. Therefore, while struggling to fill the pre-conceived expectancies of society, one forces true desires and happiness to pass as a scant priority. Charlotte Brontë's Victorian novel, Jane Eyre, explores the significance of individual fulfillment in an oppressive

Jane Eyre was perceived as a female gothic novel due to the images of darkness within the novel. Bronte constructs the female language by giving the main protagonist a gothic imagination. This imagination is elaborated through the representation of imagery. It is first shown in the novel the red room which one could argue is associated with darkness and is evidently a source of punishment for her, ‘Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in”(Brontë and Dunn, 2001,p.9). We can depict from the verb ‘lock her in’ that this room is a form of isolation for Jane and a source of entrapment for her when she acts out. The fact that she is being imprisoned even at home reflects how the private sphere and norms the Victorian era harbored effectively

This alienation worsens when Mrs. Reed has Jane unfairly locked in an old room, referred to as ‘the red room.’ The red room is where Jane’s kind uncle died nine years prior, and where Jane has a life-altering experience. Jane spends a large part of this scene inspecting and describing the gothic elements of the room. She describes the room as “chill,” “silent,” and “solemn.” (Brontë 9). At first, she shows no fear of being in the old room alone, and her attitude parallels the “solemn” room; however, as the room grows dark, Jane’s courage wavers, and she thinks of the dead Mr. Reed. Jane’s thoughts of the dead overwhelm her, and she believes she sees a ghost. After screaming and alerting Mrs. Reed, Jane tells that her to take her to the nursery and not leave her locked in the red room, but Mrs. Reed says that she should stay an hour longer for her interruption. Out of fear and panic, Jane

“This book might have been written by a woman but certainly not a lady.” It is bildungsromane (Triska); a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist (Dictionary.com). Jane Eyre was a very shy, plain, and reserved person. Even though she had a very plain look she had a passion that wasn’t expected of her (Green). She also had hopes and dreams and aspirations. So I wonder, how might Jane Eyre react to the women of today?

Violence is the most recurrent gothic convention used in Jane Eyre, which is prominent in Charlotte Brontë's effective development of the novel and the character of Jane Eyre, who, throughout this novel, is searching for a home in which she would have a sense of belonging and love which would ultimately resolve this exact unfulfilled need she had as a child. The neglect she experienced in her childhood is manifested in the way she is treated by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, as in the first page of the novel Jane Eyre admits: ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance’’. This opening shows how there is a clear line of separation drawn between Jane and her relatives due to her complicated family background which consequently results in their reluctance to accept her into their environment. These complications lead to her maltreatment, which also adds on to the violence she experiences acting as a catalyst for the development of the character and her subconscious quest.

Although Bertha’s seclusion is a result of her insanity and unacceptable behaviour, Jane’s isolation seems to be the cause of some mental illness, throwing her into a panic attack in the red room where she believes her Uncle Reed’s ghost dwells. It must be noted, though, that Jane is a child at this point in the novel, with an active imagination. Bronte may be making a point then, that children should not be shunned for their inventiveness and imagination, as was so common in her day. However, there is a fine line, and socially acceptable age, that separates a healthy imagination from madness. There is a clear lack of this knowledge in Bertha, whom does not appear to have a firm grip on reality. Madness, however, does not merely deal with concepts of reality in “Jane Eyre.” Jane has bouts of uncontrollable speech, in which she must say what comes to her mind. Jane first loses control of her tongue in chapter IV, in which she accuses Mrs. Reed of wishing her dead, and later exclaims “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare, I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed,” and goes on to evaluate the terrible treatment Mrs. Reed has given her, and the lack of love and compassion she has been shown while at Gateshead. In this instance, madness works in Jane’s favour. This temporary bout of mania allows Jane to finally express the

We first see Jane; vulnerable and lonely at Gateshead, where the orphaned little girl resides with her bitter widowed aunt and her children. Jane is sent to the ‘Red Room’ for retaliating when her

Jane Eyre is a novel that features a rollercoaster of traumatic events that shows the growth of a young girl. In the graphic novel version of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Jane learns how to fend for herself whenever no one else had her back. The overall mood of the graphic novel is mysterious. This is due to the fact that Jane experiences random encounters of the supernatural, creepy places, spiritual events, and horrible strokes of luck.

Following the experiences of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, expresses many elements of gothic literature throughout her novel Jane Eyre. In her perfect understanding of gothic literature, she expresses the three types of evil commonly found in gothic literature, including the evil of the supernatural, the evil within or the instinctual evil motives of humans, and lastly, the evil because of societal influence. Jane Eyre experiences all of these three evils with her aunt and three cousins with her residency and return to Gateshead: Jane encounters the supernatural and the evil of societal influence as a child and she fully encounters the evil within upon her return.

For the first time, Jane sees fear in her own image because she realizes that the defiant, rebellious part of her identity is not accepted at Gateshead. Jane feels that a piece of her identity has been taken away from her, trapping her into the red room as the Reed family controls and deprives Jane’s individuality. Bronte symbolizes the mirror at Gateshead to describe the present state of Jane as someone without life, turning pale as a ghost with her vanishing identity. The negative influences around her create an evil, corrupted version of Jane. Also, Bronte chooses to include Jane’s reflection in the red room in order to foreshadow the imprisonment of Bertha Mason at Thornfield, a mad wife of Rochester, who becomes Jane’s doppelganger in the novel by physically representing

The novel Jane Eyre is a story about a stoic woman who fights her entire life through many trials and tribulations until she finds true love and achieves an almost nirvana-like state of being. The manner, in which Charlotte Bronte writes, her tone and diction especially, lends its self to the many purposes of the novel. The diction of Bronte usually had characteristics of gothic culture and showed the usually negative and angry inner thoughts of Jane. The tone of the novel was there sympathetic towards Jane and displayed her as an intelligent and kind person who has been given a terrible lot in life. This allows the audience to feel connected with Jane because most people have gone through times in their life where they have

It was "very seldom slept in" and was "one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion." Bronte describes this room in huge depth, and gives the reader a strong visual idea of what it looks like; "massive pillars of mahogany" and "curtains of deep red damask". Jane also describes it as "chill" and "lonely" due to the fact that this was where Mr Reed "breathed his last. " It is also very Gothic when Jane sees the ghost in the room, given that many Gothic novels have monsters or ghosts in them. " Oh!

“I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed's spirit, harassed by the wrongs of his sister's child, might quit its abode — whether in the church vault or in the unknown world of the departed — and rise before me in this chamber . . . 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; endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort." The red room incident symbolizes how she is trapped due to her social class, gender, and mistreated as child. The room itself can be seen as an emotional prison for Jane. Always being treated as she was less then she felt as though her feelings didn't matter. Not only does the red room symbolize death, being that her uncle passed away in that very room, but it can also symbolize the effect it had upon Jane, bringing out a strong quiet strength that helps guide her through

As her childhood years are nearing the end, Jane Eyre was hired to become the tutor of Thornfield. She became the school teacher of the little girl named Adele. Thornfield was a place of passion. Her passion begins to emerge, and once it starts to leak out, there is no turning back. One of the ways we can see that Thornfield is a place of passion is through the color red, and it’s usage is decorations. When Jane arrives to Thornfield, the maid Mrs. Fairfax, takes Jane on a tour of the house. Jane sees red used in the decorations and furniture in Thornfield. “Yet it was nearly a very pretty drawing-room, and within it a boudoir, both spread with white carpets, on which seemed laid brilliant garlands of flowers; both veiled with snowy moldings of white grapes and vine-leaves, beneath which glowed in rich contrast crimson couches and ottomans; while the ornaments on the pale Parian mantelpiece were sparkling Bohemian glass, ruby red; and between the windows large mirrors repeated the general blending of snow and fire.” Since red is a symbol of passion, Charlotte Bronte is trying to show how Thornfield is filled with passion by using red even in the decorations. While staying at Thornfield, Jane experiences a fire that begins to consume Mr. Rochesters room. Jane is awakened in the middle of the night and smells smoke. She goes into Mr. Rochester’s room to find the bed engulfed in flames. She is able to use the water basin and put the fire out saving Mr. Rochester. Jane thinks Grace Poole a servant who is mentally unstable set the bed on fire, but the reader later finds out it was a woman by the name of Bertha. “I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapor, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.” This is Jane’s first instance with passion in

Some very distinct symbols in Jane Eyre were the red-room, and in relation to that, the character Bertha Mason