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
How Charlotte Bronte Creates Sympathy for Jane in the First Two Chapters of the Novel
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age story about an unconventional woman's development within a society of strict rules and expectations. At pivotal moments in Jane's life, she makes choices which are influenced by her emotions and/or her reason. Through the results of those choices, Jane learns to balance passion and practicality to achieve true happiness.
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.
Charlotte Bronte's, Jane Eyre takes place during the Victorian period of England. This gothic romance novel tells the story of an abused orphan, Jane, who later matures into a strong independent woman. The societal standards Bronte portrays in the novel consist of oppression, gender inequality, and social class. Throughout the novel, Jane overcomes each of these social norms and defies what every other person in the society believes.
Charlotte Bronte, in her most famous novel, Jane Eyre, carefully utilizes different characters to influence and shape Jane’s personality throughout the story. Bronte uses varied actions and emotions to do this, but one of the main actions is abuse. Though not in every setting in the novel, abusive tormenting people are spread throughout the story that change Jane and her future. These ill-mannered actions can completely change Jane’s mindset, personality, and life-story. In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, cruel male protagonists alter Jane’s character through physical, psychological, and emotional abuse.
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
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.
Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” has captivated readers for generations. As with all coming of age novels, young adults can relate to the struggles and triumphs of Jane. Jane’s setting influences and parallel her emotions. A reader can see the novel through her eyes and perspective. In Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” the location often parallels Jane’s emotional growth through the tone presented by the environment, resulting in the different places she lives revealing her journey through depression. Jane’s behavioral patterns and thoughts suggest clinical depression that affected her choices throughout the novel and her life at Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Marsh End, and Ferdean.
The purpose of Bronte's novel is to demonstrate that women could go beyond the oppressive limitations of their environment and find fulfillment. Jane's cries for love are mistaken as evil outburst by those who wish to keep women repressed. Oppression of women was so great that women even in the home were expected to be nonproductive. The ideal or perfect Victorian women were ones who adopted an image of repose or idleness, basically to show the world they could. Nervousness and fainting were expected in women, and certain disagreeable topics or bad news could cause such traits to erupt. By trusting in her passion, by trusting in her own abilities, and by making her own decisions, Jane is able to overcome the agony all around her. Homeless, starving, and misjudged, Jane is
The relationship between the environment and characters in literature played a large role in Victorian novels. This relationship is extremely evident in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, where Jane’s journey to freedom is reflected by her environment. However, Jane’s goal of freedom and equality symbolizes Victorian women struggling to gain these same values. According to Jennifer D. Fuller in “Seeking Wild Eyre: Victorian Attitudes Towards Landscape and the Environment in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre”, Jane’s passion for freedom is reflects the passion for freedom in Victorian women who have not achieved equality yet. Although Jane’s environmental surroundings symbolize Jane’s future, Fuller effectively asserts that the weather instead symbolizes the harsh constraints of women’s gender roles in Victorian society.
“I am no bird and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte, Jane Eyre 293). In the Victorian time period Charlotte Bronte lived the unequal life as a woman, like many others. The only difference is Bronte did not believe in living in inequality, and she wrote about her hardships in her literature. In her book, Jane Eyre, the reader can see many similarities in her main character’s life and her own. Jane Eyre has many ways of showing how Victorian women were expected to be and act, included in the life of Jane. Bronte also continues her portrayal of the inequality of women and the decision of love versus autonomy through two of her poems, “Life” and “The Wife’s Will.” Charlotte Bronte displays the inequality in life of women in the Victorian era by taking her life and revitalizing it into themes of her works, by providing a journey of discovery of love or autonomy.
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane is an orphan who is often mistreated by the family and other people who surround her. Faced with constant abuse from her aunt and her cousins, Jane at a young age questions the treatment she receives: "All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sister’s proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always brow-beaten, always accused, forever condemned?" (27; ch. 2). Despite her early suffering, as the novel progresses Jane is cared for and surrounded by various women who act as a sort of "substitute mother" in the way they guide,
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.
In the novel, Jane Eyre, the author Charlotte Brontë’s real life experiences influence the novel heavily throughout. Some of Brontë’s life events are paralleled through the novel and are morphed to fit the main character, Jane Eyre, with a similar but better life compared to Brontë’s. There are three major experiences that Jane encounters through her life in the novel that have a few correlations with Charlotte Brontë’s which are their childhood life and her experience in an impoverished school, and her work as a governess.
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.