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Literary Techniques of Charlotte Bronte Essay

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Q: Analyse the methods Charlotte Bronte uses to make the reader empathise with Jane Eyre in the opening chapters. Reflect on how the novel portrays Victorian ideology and relate your analysis to the novel's literary context. In the novel, Jane, an orphan girl, is victimised and suffers many hardships in her daily life at the hands of the Reed family. With the Reed family, she is a victim of constant verbal, emotional and physical abuse Charlotte Bronte uses many techniques to make the reader empathise with Jane and to express her feelings and mindset. She uses psychological landscapes, pathetic fallacy and other methods. The novel was published in 1847 under the male pseudonym Currer Bull. Bronte chose to disguise her feminity when …show more content…

The shrubbery that Jane sees is isolated and lonely without its leaves and that reflects much about Jane's outlook and feelings. It is symbolic that the first book Jane picks up is 'Bewicks History of British birds'. The name 'Eyre' comes from an old French word meaning 'to travel'. Jane needs to be free, like a bird, to fly away from all the constraints and oppression in her life. As Jane reads the book, tension is built between the reader and the character. "The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror." All these images frighten her and her mind is racing, "so was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows." The images are horrific to Jane and the book's psychological landscapes are premonitions which substantiate as John enters the room. Charlotte Bronte also uses 'pathetic fallacy' as another method to conjure empathy for Jane. Pathetic fallacy is a writer's technique used to reflect a characters thoughts and emotions through the weather. An example from the text, "the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre and a rain so penetrating". Jane feels trapped and oppressed under these dark, gloomy clouds. A "cold winter wind" rustles through the body and a "rain so penetrating" all tell us that Jane feels bare and transparent; everyone sees right through her and nobody is interested. Another

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