A detailed analysis of 'Jane Eyre' with particular focus on setting
Jane Eyre Essay
A detailed analysis of 'Jane Eyre' with particular focus on setting
'Jane Eyre' is a pre 1914 novel written by Charlotte Bronte. I will be writing about the styles of language throughout the novel. I will also be focusing on the settings and description.
This will be compared to the language, style and setting to Charles Dickens' 'The Signalman'.
Charlotte Bronte's life relates to the life of her character Jane, in that Charlotte went to boarding school. Charlotte Bronte's experiences of boarding school were similar to those that she made Jane endure at Lowood.
Charlotte created Jane to become a governess just like herself in real life. Charlotte considered herself to be plain and ugly, and didn't hope for marriage, like Jane, she wished to be more attractive.
Many of Charlottes experiences provided ideas for her books.
Jane Imitates some of Miss Temples characteristics while she is at school.
"I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits: more harmonious thoughts what seemed better regulated feelings had become inmates of my mind."
Helen Burns is clever and patient. She puts up with being picked on, she tries to live by Christ's teachings :
"Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you"
Jane learns calmness and patience from her.
Helen Burns, Miss Temple, Miss Fairfax, Adele, Blanche Ingram, Bertha, Georgiana and Eliza Reed are 'minor' characters.
They are either people from whom Jane learns, or are completely different, but they show up in Jane's character in many ways.
Jane says the breakfast room is
"A small breakfast room adjoined the drawing room..."
The Red room is Mr Reeds bedroom where he died. When Jane gets sent to the Red room, she describes it as :
"A square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say never, indeed, unless a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead hall rendered it necessary to turn to..."
This shows that nobody used this room or changed it at all after Mr Reed died.
Jane sees the porter's lodge through the window.
"From this window were visible the porters lodge and the white foliage veiling the panes..."
The day of the Journey to Lowood seemed to Jane to be 'of preternatural length.'
This was a long journey because she says
"We appeared to travel over hundreds of miles of road. We passed through several towns."
Jane describes Lowood as plain, austere, gloomy and not very welcoming.
Jane was not very happy about this place. You can tell this when Jane says,
"I felt ready ...
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Jane sees the porter's lodge through the window.
"From this window were visible the porters lodge and the white foliage veiling the panes..."
The day of the Journey to Lowood seemed to Jane to be 'of preternatural length.'
This was a long journey because she says
"We appeared to travel over hundreds of miles of road. We passed through several towns."
Jane describes Lowood as plain, austere, gloomy and not very welcoming.
Jane was not very happy about this place. You can tell this when Jane says,
"I felt ready to perish with cold" This shows how cold it was in the school. Jane says,
"Breakfast-time came at last, and this morning the porridge was not burnt; the quality was eatable, the quantity small. How small my portion seemed! I wished it had been doubled" She is telling us how bad the conditions were at Lowood.
Jane describes the garden at Lowood as:
"A wide enclosure, surrounded with walls so high as to exclude every glimpse of prospect; a covered veranda ran down one side."
Jane addresses the reader when she says:
"Hitherto I have recorded in detail the events of my insignificant existence: to the first ten years of my life I have given almost as many chapters. But this is not to be a regular autobiography..."
Jane is talking to the reader. This is where Jane skips ahead 8 years of her life and is now 18 years old.
The second time Jane addresses the reader,
"A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play; and when I draw up the curtain this time, reader, you must fancy you see a room in the George Inn at Millcote, with such carpet, such furniture, such ornaments on the mantelpiece, such prints, including a portrait of
George III, and another of the Prince of Wales, and a representation of the death of Wolfe."
Jane is speaking to the reader, as if she is a real person. This doesn't happen in "The Signalman".
You can tell that Jane likes the George Inn by the way that she describes it.
"A room in the George Inn at Millcote, with such large figured papering on the walls as inn rooms have; such a carpet, such furniture, such ornaments on the mantelpiece, such prints..."
The use of the word 'such' shows that Jane liked the George Inn.
Jane compares Thornfield to Lowood.
"The chamber looked such a bright place to me as the sun shone in between the gay blue chintz window curtains, showing papered walls and a carpeted floor, so unlike the bare planks and stained plaster of Lowood, that my spirits rose at the view."
This also shows that Jane liked this place.
When Jane describes the Dining room at Thornfield, she says;
"We were, as I have said, in the Dining Room: the lustre, which had been lit for dinner, filled the room with a festal breadth of light; the large fire was all red and clear; the purple curtains hung rich and ample before the lofty window and loftier arch; everything was still,..."
Jane writes one long sentence as a whole paragraph. A lot of punctuation was used in this sentence, such as, : ; . and -.
"I shall have to leave you in this room with this gentleman, for an hour, or perhaps two hours: you will sponge the blood as I do when it returns: if he feels faint,..."
This is what Jane was saying to Mr Mason.
Some characters in the story are friendly to Jane, and some are not.
The words the characters use show how friendly they are. For example, Bessie.
"Do you feel as if you should sleep, Miss? Asked Bessie."
Bessie is kind and friendly to Jane. You can tell this by the way that she speaks to her.
The there is Mrs Reed. You can tell that she doesn't like Jane when she says;
"Loose Bessie's hand, child: you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: You will now stay here an hour longer..."
Some Characters in "Jane Eyre" have a different accent.
You can tell this when Jane hears somebody say;
"She'll happen do better for him nor ony o' t' grand ladies."
and "If she ben't one o'th' handsomest, she's noan faal and varry good-natured; and i' his een, she's fair beautiful, onybody may see that."
None of the characters in Charles Dickens 'The signalman' seem to have an accent or speak another language.
Like 'Jane Eyre', 'The signalman' is written in 1st person
e.g. "When I came"
This means that we see everything from their point of view.
So we can only know what the other characters say, and not what they really think. What Jane tells us is only what she 'chooses' to tell us.
Jane tells about the doll that she loved and took to her crib.
"To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow."
Even today, this is true, as humans need to love something.
When St John asks Jane if she will work in the school, Jane tells us that he put this question rather hurriedly. When Jane accepts this proposal, she now has a home. Jane describes her home;
"My home, then- when I at last find a home- is a cottage; a little room with whitewashed walls and a sanded floor, containing four painted chairs and a table, a clock, a cupboard, with two or three plates and dishes, and a set of tea- things in delf. Above, a chamber of the same dimensions as the kitchen, with a deal bed stead and chest of drawers; small, yet too large to be filled with my scanty wardrobe."
Jane is happy about this home because she thinks back to five weeks ago when she was a beggar.
"My cottage is clean and weatherproof, my furniture sufficient and commodious. All I see has made me thankful, not despondent. I am not absolutely such a fool and sensualist as to regret the absence of a carpet, a sofa, and silver plate; besides, five weeks ago I had nothing- I was an outcast, a beggar, a vagrant; now I have acquaintance, a home, a business."
When Jane says
"Young ladies have a remarkable way of letting you know that they think you a 'quiz' without actually saying the words. A certain superciliousness of look, coolness of manner. nonchalance of tone, express fully their sentiments on the point without committing them by any positive rudeness in word or deed."
What she is saying is still true today, that young ladies don't even have to do or say anything rude, and can still show what they really think.
Jane protests about how unfairly women were treated and what is expected from them, when she says,
"Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow- minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.
In Jane's time, it was difficult for a woman to achieve true independence.
A middle class woman would be financially dependent on her husband unless she had money of her own, and a house.
This is not the case today, women can have the same jobs as men and have money and a house without relying on a man. Women today can easily achieve true independence.
conclusion
'Jane Eyre' and 'The signalman' have differences and similarities, as they both are told by 1st person, and they only say what they 'choose' to tell us. They are different as the language is harder to understand in 'the signalman'. The man does not address the reader directly in 'the signalman', like Jane does in 'Jane Eyre'.
I think that 'Jane Eyre' was the easiest to understand out of both of them.
Yasmine Ali
