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What Does The Bird Symbolize In Jane Eyre

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In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte employs birds a symbol to highlight important themes in her novel. While birds traditionally symbolize freedom and expression, Bronte employs them to show independence (or a lack of), freedom, and rifts in social class. Bronte also depicts some of her most prominent characters as birds such as Jane, Rochester, Bertha, and even Rochester’s guests. Through the use of bird symbolism Bronte highlights important topics in her novel, while giving the reader a deeper understanding of her most prominent characters. Bronte assesses birds as a symbol to represent Jane’s quest for independence and her desire to define individuality. Since “the real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge,” Bronte moves Jane from one …show more content…

Jane yearns for independence and fights “like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation” to obtain it (Bronte 483). However, when she states “I have spoken my mind, and can go anywhere now” (Bronte 483), Jane fulfills her ability to exert her opinions and to make decisions for herself. Bronte illustrates Jane as “a vivid, restless, resolute captive “who desperately tries to gain freedom (Bronte 263). Before realizing her true potential Jane acts like “a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage” (Bronte 263). Bronte depicts Jane as “curious” not because she loves learning new things, but because of the irony of her situation. Jane’s situation creates irony since birds escape their troubles through flying away, but without the use of her metaphorical wings, society smothers Jane’s independent spirit and urges her to conform to societal norms. Bronte chose to include irony since it showcased Jane’s struggle to escape society’s influence, even though Jane will never be completely free of its steely grasp. Without its constant influence, Jane …show more content…

Bronte defines Jane’s quest through the use of bird symbolism that highlights Jane’s ability to express herself and to make decisions for herself. Throughout the novel Bronte develops Jane’s potential to do great things, but society hinders her potential due to her confinement in the “close-set bars of a cage” (Bronte 263). After finally leaving the horrid conditions at Gateshead Jane thought that she would become free, but instead found herself in a new form of a cage at Lowood. Jane bounces from one cage to the next and it is not until she leaves Thornfield that she realizes her standing as “a free human being with an independent will” (Bronte 483). After leaving Thornfield she “gained the strength to begin to discover her real place in the world (Gilbert and Gubert 364).” She “stood erect before him” and looks him directly in the eye, instead of looking at the ground (Bronte 483). She finally realizes that “your will shall decide your destiny” and that no one has the power to control her (Eyre 483). After this realization, she transforms into a free spirit that is capable of independent thought and movement. She lives as free as a bird, literally and figuratively, for the first time in her life. Bronte assess Jane’s journey for freedom through the use of bird symbolism that showcases Jane breaking out of her cage and experiencing freedom for the first

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