Jane Eyre Analysis

Jane Eyre Rewrite .docx

Jane Eyre Rewrite Essay

Charlotte Bronte wrote a passionate story of Jane Eyre, her life, and those around her. However, this story was not as literal as it may seem. Bronte wrote in several elements of analysis that stray from the literal. Figuratively, this novel is story of much deeper things than simply Jane Eyre.

As an orphan living with the Reeds Jane is locked in the “red room”. This room was the place of death of Mr. Reed and the room that Jane was sent to as punishment. Bronte is using this room to symbolize Jane’s life of being trapped and oppressed by society and those close to her. Jane is constantly held back in life because of her economic status and gender. The room had, “A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre…the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth...Out of these deep surroundings shades rose high and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane” (13). Red is typically a demonic, tortured color symbolizing a hellish place. Jane finds herself in life criticized for being of a lower social class and being a woman. She does not find much happiness and is often stuck in difficult and seemingly hellish places. With being asked to marry St. John Jane feels tied down. She is afraid to commit to being a wife because of what that would mean. She thinks to herself, “but as his wife—at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked—forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable” (380). She believes she would not be her own person should she commit to a marriage. Being the wife would mean giving into the husband. Jane has always been a very independent, even stubborn woman who does not enjoy letting other lead her life. But, becoming a wife means becoming the submissive woman that everyone expects a girl to be. To Jane that would be the worst form of punishment. Jane also does not have a lot of choices in life due to her economic status. After she left Rochester she was forced to wander homeless in hope of mercy and help from someone else. She cannot be very independent when she has no money. She also cannot do much else when profession-wise besides being a teacher or governess due to both her gender and economic status. She cannot do anything society deems a man’s job nor can she stop working because she needs the money to live.

Jane is criticized for being a woman, but because she is a woman she is also criticized and compared to them. Bronte introduces the beautiful Blanche Ingram to do just this. The description of this woman says, “The noble bust, the sloping shoulders, the graceful neck the dark eyes and black ringlets…” (164). These all add to the connotation that Ingram is the epitome of the elegant, wealthy woman. Bronte is using this beauty as an image for wealth and the upper class. Throughout the novel Jane is constantly described as plain and nothing special. This idea of her looking plain is a way for Bronte to further enforce the inequality she faces as being from the lower class. Ingram being so beautiful makes her much better than Jane. Here Bronte is showing the social separation between Jane and Ingram through looks. This is further proven by Mr. Rochester. Rochester does not seem to care that Jane is of a lower social status than he is, as seen when he says to Jane, “You strange, you almost unearthly thing! - I love you as my own flesh. You - poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are - I entreat to accept me as a husband” (239). Rochester recognizes that Jane is not the prettiest, although he calls her unearthly suggesting he finds her beautiful in a different way. She is special to him and he wants to marry her. Rochester does not mind the lack of beauty and by that he does not mind the difference in class between him and Jane. Bronte is showing classism through beauty.

Although Jane and Rochester showed intense feelings for one another, they still have a complicated relationship. They started out not able to admit the feeling they had for one another and ended up in a rough break up due to Rochester’s previous marriage. Before they were able to make up and settle down and they each had long personal journeys. The night Rochester proposed to Jane out in the garden under the chestnut tree but the next morning, “...Adele came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away” (241). Bronte is using this tree to signify Jane and Rochester's relationship. It was a strong healthy tree at first. Jane and Rochester made it to the point of engagement. They were both happy and committed and ready for a long life together. However, the lightning came and split the tree up. The lightning in Jane and Rochester's relationship was Bertha. As soon as Jane found out about Bertha she left Rochester, much like the half of the tree “left” the other half. However, plants continue to grow. Rochester in the end of the novel talks about the tree and says, “...a big budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness” (415). He’s talking about how there continues to be growth on the chestnut tree. Jane and Rochester sorted out their issues and realized that they loved each other. Though they had issues they came back to one another. The regrowth of the tree signifies the regrowth of their relationship.

As seen in Bertha being the lightning between Rochester and Jane. Bertha has an interesting role in the novel. She is written to seem like an enemy or a ghost of the past coming back to haunt everyone’s lives, however, Bronte is really using Bertha to signify Jane. Bertha is Rochester’s crazy wife who ends up destroying Jane’s wedding veil and succeeds in burning Rochester’s mansion down. When Bertha destroys the veil she is upset about Jane marrying her husband and in the end destroys the wedding when Jane finds out about who Bertha really is. Jane expresses to herself how nervous she is to be marrying Rochester. She is unsure and not as happy as a bride should be. If Jane expressed these feelings to Rochester she could have stopped the wedding. However, Bertha did that. Then, when Jane left Rochester Thornfield became a place of guilt and hurt for Jane whenever she thought about it. Bertha burned Thornfield to the ground. Destroying a place of great discomfort for Jane, again. Bertha really symbolized a Jane that the real Jane could not be. She was the Jane that did anything and maybe went a little crazy due to everything in her life. Had Jane been a little different she might have actually been the Jane that Bertha represented. Bertha was the Jane that acted on her feelings instead of wallowing in them and hiding away. Bertha was Jane’s true emotions acted out in a person.

Jane’s life and other people in her life were symbols for deeper meanings in Bronte’s novel. Whether she was tackling an issue in society, like classism, or analyzing her own characters, Bronte has something further to say. She is an excellent writer who wrote a literal story, but also entwined a whole new story into that. These were just a few examples of that second story and the more you read and think the more that story comes out.