Jane Eyre

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Jane Eyre

• Charlotte Brontë

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Themes

• Christian love and forgiveness
• Moral conflict
• Spiritualism
• Love and the need for autonomy
• The system of social class
• Gender relations

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Symbols

• The moonchange
• Fooddeprivation and want
• Firepassion
• Chestnut treeJane and Rochesters relationship
• Bertha Masonthe trapped Victorian wife the
  prevailing attitude towards other cultures
  Janes subconscious rage
• The red roomwhat Jane must overcome in order to
  find love and independence.

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Charlotte Brontë
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Biography

• B. 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire in England
• Father was a rector (Episcopal clergyman)
• Mother died 1821
• Attended the Clergy Daughters School later the
  model for the girls school in Jane Eyre. Older
  sisters return home from the boarding school and
  die of consumption tuberculosis.

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Biography, cont.

• returns home from school writes miniature books
  of a fantasy land called the Kingdom of Angria.
• attends Roe Head school, then returns home to
  teach her sisters.
• teaches full time at Roe Head hates it.
• rejects 2 marriage proposals from ministers.
• 1844 tries to start a school no pupils come ?

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Bio. Cont.

• 1845 brother Branwell fired as a tutor for
  unpleasantness with employers wife spends 3
  years at home drinking, taking drugs eventually
  dies.
• 1846 publishes a collection of poems with
  sisters Emily and Anne. Use assumed names.
  Begins Jane Eyre.
• 1847 Jane Eyre published.

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Yet more bio.

• marries Arthur Bell Nichols
• 1855 dies in pregnancy buried at Haworth
  parsonage.

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The Gothic Novel

• Definition Gothic novels, originally from the
  European Romantic Period, have a prevailing sense
  of mystery and terror.
• Called gothic b/c its imaginative impulse is
  drawn from the rough and primitive grandeur of
  medieval buildings and ruins.
• Dark and tempestuous full of ghosts, madness,
  outrage, superstition, and revenge.

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Gothic, cont.

• Settings often castles or monasteries with
  underground passages, dark battlements, hidden
  passages, and trapdoors.
• Examples Frankenstein, Dracula
• Jane Eyre is not strictly gothic, but many
  elements can be found.

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Elements of gothic motifs in Jane Eyre

• Romantic and desperate escape/flee from site of
  male hero.
• Setting is castle-like structure
• Haunting mystery and suffering
• Secrets
• Dark, disturbing characters
• Emotional trauma
• Alienation

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Motifs, cont.

• Fire and ice
• Prevalence of mystery
• Suspense
• Ghosts
• Imprisonment
• The appearance of a fortune teller
• Portentous dreams

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The Byronic Hero

• So called from poet Lord Byrons heroes
• A type of antihero who is a romanticized but
  wicked character
• Defies authority
• Associated with destructive passions
• Brooding, alienated
• Persistent loneliness
• Fiery rebellion

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Hero, cont.

• Arrogant
• High level of intelligence
• Suffering from unnamed crime
• Troubled past
• Powerfully seductive
• Moody
• Jaded, world-weary
• A good heart in the end

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SAT vocabulary from Jane Eyre

• Approbation (noun) official approval, praise
• Assiduous (adj) characterized by careful
  attention
• Austere (adj) strict, stern, unadorned
• Complacency (noun) the state of being
  self-satisfied
• Debauchery (noun) moral corruption
• Dowager (noun) an elderly woman of society

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Vocab. Cont.

• Effervescent (adj) showing high spirits, bubbly
• Enigmatic (adj) mysterious, puzzling
• Extricate (verb) to free, to disentangle
• Fervid (adj) impassioned
• Gregarious (adj) friendly, outgoing
• Inclement (adj) stormy, severe

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Cont.

• Insuperable (adj) incapable of being conquered
• Lethargic (adj) sluggish, without energy
• Malevolence (noun) ill will, evil intentions
• Opprobrium (noun) disgrace as a result of bad
  conduct
• Pompous (adj) exaggerated show of
  self-importance
• Quell (verb) to put down a rumor or disturbance

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A few more ?

• Refuge (noun) a place of shelter or protection
• Sagacious (adj) wise
• Sequester (verb) to seclude, to put away from
  others
• Supercilious (adj) vain and arrogant
• Torpid (adj) inactive, dull
• Vignette (noun) a short, descriptive literary
  sketch
• Zealot (noun) one who embraces a cause with
  extreme enthusiasm

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Victorian fashions
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cont
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cont
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Victorian architecture
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more
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more