Themes in Jane Eyre 1
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?- Created by: Pascale
- Created on: 10-05-13 20:06
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- Themes in Jane Eyre
- Family
- Reeds
- Bessie
- 'I was taken from Bessie's neck, to which I clung with kisses'
- Bessie was more like family to Jane
- Literal and emotional attachment
- 'I was taken from Bessie's neck, to which I clung with kisses'
- "...your benefactress's Son! Your young master."
- Not 'brother' or 'cousin' - hierarchy within the family - Jane is an outsider
- Not 'your aunt' - about money and not family
- 'master' superior
- '"If she [Mrs Reed] were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor house"...these words...were not news to me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind'
- Never had a family 'very first recollections'
- Sounds like a threat 'hints'
- "bad animal"
- Jane not considered human or of the same kind
- "You are a dependent, mama says"
- Considered separate from the family
- Constantly reminded
- 'Me, she had dispensed from the group'
- 'Dispensed' undesirable, dispensable. Like you'd dispense of rubbish or something worthless.
- 'The group' and 'me' separate. Not considered part of the family
- Bessie
- Rochester
- Adele
- 'You have not quite forgotten little Adele, have you, reader?...she said she was not happy...I took her home with me.'
- Jane didn't have real family - understands Adele
- Perhaps feels that she (Jane) was forgotten as a child
- 'You have not quite forgotten little Adele, have you, reader?...she said she was not happy...I took her home with me.'
- Marriage and baby
- "Reader, I married him."
- Jane becomes independent and leaves her family (Rivers) to start her own family
- Feminist readings
- However, it was only because of a family inheritance that this was possible
- Active voice - feminist reading
- vs "I summon you as my wife" - Jane becomes independent and stronger
- Jane becomes independent and leaves her family (Rivers) to start her own family
- 'I have now been married ten years...I hold myself supremely blest'
- "Reader, I married him."
- Adele
- Rivers
- Gains a sense of belonging with the Rivers and then leaves - not dependent on family
- But leaves to start her own family - maybe more interested in romantic love than family love
- "Jane, I will be your brother - my sisters will be your sisters - without stipulating for this sacrifice of your rights."
- Unconditional love
- You three, then, are my cousins"
- Biological as well as metaphorical family
- '[St John] His own words are a pledge of this'
- Bronte finishes novel talking about the Rivers, especially St. John - impact that they had on Jane
- Gains a sense of belonging with the Rivers and then leaves - not dependent on family
- Reeds
- Social class
- The Reeds
- "It is your place to be humble"
- Jane as an orphan - low in hierarchy. Position in society. Duty and place.
- Taught the rules of class - instilled in her
- "You are less than a servant"
- Context - social classes more separate than in modern day
- Jane is inferior to her cousins
- No pity for Jane as an orphan - no sympathy
- "It is your place to be humble"
- "Bronte illustrates the harmfulness of distinctions between class" - Erin Wells
- Rochester
- 'I thought he mocked me'
- So unusual at the time for social classes to mix and marry
- "Not a shilling but what you have given me"
- Jane would be entirely dependent on Rochester
- "Reader, I married him."
- Becomes financially independent and can marry Rochester. Was this necessary?
- "Reader, I married him."
- Context - normal for women at the time
- Jane would be entirely dependent on Rochester
- Blanche Ingram
- "Honourable Blanche"
- 'tall, dark, and majestic'
- "my beautiful Blanche"
- Despite all the qualities described and social class, Rochester really loved Jane. Marxist criticism
- 'I thought he mocked me'
- Daughters of impoverished gentry employed as governesses to lift children into higher classes. Educate them in academics and etiquette
- "gorged with gold I never earned and do not merit"
- Jane doesn't value material possessions
- "The novel Jane Eyre exposes the tyranny of a capitalist society as the young woman meets with a variety of characters from a number of backgrounds and classes. These characters are doomed by their environments established by class division." - Charlie Smith
- The Reeds
- Setting
- Nomenclature
- Lowood
- 'Low'
- Jane is emotionally low
- Jane is low in hiararchy here
- put down
- 'wood'
- Strict, regimented discipline
- Little flexibility
- 'Low'
- Gateshead
- 'Gate'
- Jane is trapped
- 'Head'
- Drives Jane to insanity e.g. incident in the Red-Room - Jane is mentally trapped and supressed - not sent to school and not allowed to read
- 'Gate'
- Thornfield
- 'Thorn'
- Roses
- Romance and love
- Pain - hurt from love
- Roses
- 'field'
- eventual loneliness
- desolate
- Romanticism - nature
- 'Thorn'
- Lowood
- Thornfield
- 'Eden-like'
- Foreshadows that something will go wrong
- First proposal from Rochester
- 'In Thornfield meadows... how full the hedges are of roses!'
- Love and romance
- Nature - romanticism
- Before declaring 'never had I loved him so well'
- Foreshadows and reflects feelings
- 'Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire'
- Passion for Rochester - bed place of **********
- Suggesting that they can't be together romantically
- Bertha's sabotage of their (Rochester and Jane's) relationship
- Bertha tries to ruin Jane's prospects - can't see out of the window
- Passion for Rochester - bed place of **********
- 'the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away'
- God and nature don't accept Rochester and Jane at this point (bigamy)
- Foreshadows their separation
- Pathetic fallacy
- 'Eden-like'
- Gateshead
- 'rain so penetrating'
- Pathetic fallacy
- Weather reflects Jane's mood - just before Jane's storm in the Red Room
- 'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day'
- Jane is trapped at Gateshead
- Feels as though she is given few opportunities
- 'Eliza, John and Georgiana were now clustered around their mama...by the fireside'
- Jane is literally and figuratively separated from the Reeds
- Feels she is treated coldly by the Reeds
- 'clouds so sombre'
- Jane's loneliness
- Pathetic fallacy
- 'leafless shrubbery'
- lacking emotional nourishment at Gateshead like shrubbery is lacking leaves essential for nourishment
- Winter, cold and bitter
- The Red-Room
- 'I suppose I had a species of fit'
- Leads to a self-destructive state of mind
- 'tabernacle' (bed)
- Sacrifice
- Size seems terrifying and disturbing to a child
- 'deep red'
- Gothic terrors
- Blood
- Reflects John Reed's violent actions which drew blood
- 'I suppose I had a species of fit'
- 'rain so penetrating'
- Moor House
- 'waves of mountains'
- Jane can't see Thornfield past the mountains - separated from Rochester
- 'waves of mountains'
- The Pilgrim's Progress (book) - each place represents Jane's spiritual progress
- Nomenclature
- Religion
- Helen Burns
- "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you."
- Helen lives by this doctrine - her Christian virtue
- "Then I should love Mrs. Reed which I cannot do; I should bless her son John, which is impossible."
- "I had taken a journey of a hundred miles to see my aunt, and I must stay with her till she was better'
- Jane learns from Helen and changes her mind
- "Then I should love Mrs. Reed which I cannot do; I should bless her son John, which is impossible."
- "I had taken a journey of a hundred miles to see my aunt, and I must stay with her till she was better'
- Jane learns from Helen and changes her mind
- Jane learns from Helen and changes her mind
- "I had taken a journey of a hundred miles to see my aunt, and I must stay with her till she was better'
- "Then I should love Mrs. Reed which I cannot do; I should bless her son John, which is impossible."
- Jane learns from Helen and changes her mind
- "I had taken a journey of a hundred miles to see my aunt, and I must stay with her till she was better'
- "He is a clergyman and is said to do a great deal of good"
- Helen is careful with her words here when describing Mr Brocklehurst who unfairly punished her
- Bronte's criticism of religion? People conformed without agreeing?
- 'Resurgam' (on Helen's grave)
- She will rise again
- Gave Jane faith
- "There is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits"
- No doubt of her beliefs - conviction
- "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you."
- St. John
- 'pure-lived, conscientious, zealous'
- All good things for an exemplary christian
- "God did not give me my life to throw away" - Jane
- Giving her life to St. John would be against God's wishes
- Bronte's criticism of religion - was it really necessary and required?
- 'He will sacrifice all to his long-framed resolves'
- St. John willing to sacrifice his emotions to be a missionary and serve God
- '"I can but die" I said, "and I believe in God. Let me try to wait His will in silence."'
- Capital H on 'His' - fear in God
- Proclaims her faith - not a disbelief in God but a belief that her life doesn't have to be dedicated to God
- Wants to do what God wants but believes she knows that he wants her to be happy
- "God had an errand for me"
- St. John's position lies not with his feelings but with God
- Duty
- '"Oh! I will give my heart to God," I said. "You do not want it."'
- Jane knows that St. John was in a way using her
- 'pure-lived, conscientious, zealous'
- Mr Brocklehurst
- "Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
- Uses religion as a threat rather than an incentive
- "what is that girl with curled hair?...Why, in defiance of every precept and principle"
- 'ladies... elaborately curled...false front of French curls...Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst.'
- Hypocritical view of religion - used religion as a tool rather than a way of life
- "what is that girl with curled hair?...Why, in defiance of every precept and principle"
- 'ladies... elaborately curled...false front of French curls...Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst.'
- Hypocritical view of religion - used religion as a tool rather than a way of life
- Hypocritical view of religion - used religion as a tool rather than a way of life
- 'ladies... elaborately curled...false front of French curls...Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst.'
- "what is that girl with curled hair?...Why, in defiance of every precept and principle"
- Hypocritical view of religion - used religion as a tool rather than a way of life
- 'ladies... elaborately curled...false front of French curls...Mrs. and the Misses Brocklehurst.'
- "Mr. Brocklehurst is not a god"
- Rules the school and the pupils as though he is a god and they are his subjects
- "Do you know where the wicked go after death?"
- Jane
- 'for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer'
- Seems as though Jane only uses religion when it's convenient to her
- 'God directed me to a correct choice'
- Conventional idea that God directs away from sin
- Happier for it - stability of religion
- "God is my father; God is my friend: I love Him; I believe he loves me'
- Jane's most spiritual experience in the novel
- 'for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer'
- Helen Burns
- Gothic
- The Red-Room
- 'chamber'
- An enclosed space - captivity
- "Lock her in the red-room"
- An enclosed space - captivity
- 'deep red' 'crimson'
- Blood - reminder of uncle's death
- Images of terror and violence
- 'chill'
- Lifeless - death
- Eerie
- 'Mr. Reed had been dead nine years...in this chamber...and since that day, a sense of dreary conscecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion.'
- Others too scared to go in it
- Guarded - personified, room vs Jane
- 'chamber'
- Bertha
- The Mad Woman in the Attic
- 'Grace Poole's laugh...slow ha! ha!...thrilled me... eccentric murmurs; stranger than her laugh
- Chilling
- 'eccentric' - madness
- "She bit me" (Mason)
- Vampire
- Jane Eyre written 50 years before Dracula but similar interests
- 'The night...was rent in twain by a savage, a sharp, a shrilly sound'
- Pain
- Fear
- 'The maniac bellowed'
- Supernatural
- "It is not in mortal discretion to fathom her craft"
- Supernatural
- The Red-Room
- Family
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