Monday, September 7, 2015

What are some symbols in the novel Jane Eyre?

Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is heavily embedded with symbols that make this Gothic tale of love that much richer. We can begin with the red room of Aunt Reed's house. Locked in the same room where her uncle had died a few years before, Jane is punished for her perceived infractions and forced to contend with her wild imagination in a room draped in red. The closed in nature of the room, as well as the red walls and drapes, reminds us of a womb. Jane is, in a sense, being reborn through this terrifying experience. She emerges from the room, or is at least released, as a new person in the sense that her self-identity becomes stronger.  She will no longer live under the rule of Mrs. Reed's thumb. While it is just the first step, she begins in the room her journey to self-actualization.

Fast forward a few years and we find Jane inhabiting Thornfield Hall, a place that is sometimes old but more often than not, burning fires within the walls and within Jane.  Here fire comes to represent the passions that foment within Thornfield. Jane finds herself captivated by Rochester as the fire roars in the great fireplace. His madwoman wife, Bertha, becomes the catalyst for most fires as she sets Rochester's bed on fire. She was a passionate woman and her fire seems to embody all of the passion of Rochester and Jane's budding romance.


Fire becomes symbolic again near the end of the novel as Bertha sets Thornfield ablaze a final time, symbolically burning any hinderances Rochester and Jane might have to actually be together in the end.


But before the final, fateful blaze, nature takes on a symbolic role with the chestnut tree and the storm. The tree is clearly meant to represent Jane and Rochester, intrinsically intertwined. But the lightening bolt cleaves the two apart, representing the separation they will have to endure before they can come back together. 


While there are others, the paintings, the dreams, these are the most overarching symbols present in Jane Eyre.

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