The Nature of Jane Eyre
Discerning the true qualities of a character in literature proves difficult in many cases. To ensure total comprehension of the aspects of a character, authors often utilize imagery to parallel the personality of their characters. "As we have seen, the literal is historically associated with nature" (Homans 114). Charlotte Bronte is one such author who employs "patterns of her imagery" to enhance interpretation (Gilbert and Gubar 64). Imagery, specifically in the form of nature, exists dualistically with the traits of Jane Eyre, for whom the novel is titled. Throughout the progression of life in the novel, Jane Eyre, nature provides an insight into Jane's emotion. Gateshead Hall serves as a "habitation corresponding to a stage in her mental development" to conceive the literary life of Jane Eyre (Gateshead 32). Jane's recorded life begins at Gateshead Hall and is immediately paralleled with nature. "The connection between Jane's inner and outer landscapes is established in the very opening of the novel: she is as vulnerable to the 'penetrating' rain (39) as to the hostility of those around her" (Gateshead 33). Proving the foreshadowing of nature
"Jane is fundamentally a nomad-an orphan with no roots and little knowledge of her beginnings" which is seen through her early directionless wandering (Gateshead 33). Obtaining a job as a governess, Jane journeys to Thornfield, which exists as the " place of Jane's greatest trial and temptation, although it also sees the interrupted beginnings of her later happiness" (Thornfield 54). Thus, once again "her wanderings on that road are a symbolic summary of those wanderings of the poor orphan child which constitute her entire life's pilgrimage" (Gilbert and Gubar 88). "It is extremely significant that Jane meets Rochester beyond the walls of Thornfield, when she actually ventures into a region previously only glimpsed while pacing the attic lost in reverie" (Thornfield 59). They both feel the need of some more powerful symbol of the vast and slumbering passions in human nature than words or actions can convey" (Woolf 457). However, the coldness of nature changes to allow Jane "in the garden of Gateshead" where "Jane undergoes a physical and spiritual transition away from the 'visionary hollow' of her inner confinement" (Gateshead 43). "When she hides behind the window curtains" Jane looks through window to nature and "is 'shrined' in the 'double retirement' (39) of . In turn, in contrast to the previous stages in the novel where "the landscape and weather represent Jane's inner self", during Jane's tenor at Thornfield, "the process is reversed: it is nature that somehow takes the initiative and actively communicates with Jane's subconscious" (Thornfield 78). Consequently, nature significantly parallels Jane's reoccurring desire for excitement and change. Jane and Rochester will become physically 'bone of [each other's] bone" (Gilbert and Gubar) "Nature in the largest sense seems now to be on the side of Jane and Rochester" (Gilbert and Gubar 94). "As always at major moments in Jane's life, the room is filled with moonlight, as if to remind her that powerful forces are still at work both without and within her" (Gilbert and Gubar 92). Consequently, a parallel between the bitter conditions of weather and Jane's dejected status can be drawn. Certainly the most important occurrence at Thornfield is the meeting of Edward Fairfax Rochester.
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