She is aware of all this but she is still so angry that she doesn’t care. She sits there thinking about how unfair everything is. “Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please?”
Later on, just after 4 o’clock, Jane had lost her anger and is very depressed, wondering if maybe she is a wicked child after all because everyone seems to think so. In this section the weather plays a very important part. It is raining and the wind is howling outside. “The beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so;”
If Charlotte Brontë had merely said it was raining or even that the weather outside was beautifully sunny with birds singing, it would not have the same impact on the reader. The bitter cold, constant rain and howling wind add to the atmosphere of Jane being alone and depressed. The weather is a key point; it could represent Jane’s howling heart to be rid of Mrs Reed’s coldness and her constant harsh words.
Starting with the red of her anger and ending with the dark of depression you can see how Jane’s mood has changed as it she starts angry when she feels she has been unjustly punished and then after a few hours she is depressed after the anger has worn off just like the weather.
This whole event is actually quite similar to a scene with Mr Mason, C20. It is the middle of the night and everyone has been awoken by a cry but has been assures by Mr Rochester that it is nothing to worry about. Jane has been summoned by Mr Rochester to look after Mr Mason while he is away. Mr Mason’s arm is dripping blood that is trickling fast down. She is forbidden to talk to Mr Mason nor he to her. She is only there to wash and tend to his wounds. Left alone in this room with a stranger would have left Jane with many mixed feelings. She knows that Mr Mason has been attacked by something that is in the room next to her leaving her very worried and fearful. Comparing this to the Red Room you can see that there are a few similarities. She has been shut in a strange room to start with, and while trapped in this place there is something she fears. In the Red Room it was her Uncle’s ghost and here it is the creature in the room next to her.
The place and atmosphere played a big part in the Red Room incident and do here as well. A burning candle is her only light so the dark scariness would be made worse by the flickering shadows.
Charlotte Brontë then goes on to describe, a great cabinet opposite Jane. It shows the carving of the twelve apostles in each of the twelve panels and above them at the top, is Jesus.
“While above them at the top rose an ebon crucifix and a dying Christ.”
Seeing Jesus maybe a sign for her to keep going and have faith but in the flickering candlelight this is twisted so that what catches her eye is Judas, the traitor. “And anon the devilish face of Judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemed gathering life and threatening of revelation of the arch-traitor – of Satan himself – in his subordinate’s form.”
Bad is overpowering good and influencing the reader to think that something bad is going to happen or has happened. This secrecy is very unnerving and dozens of questions are swimming in the readers and Jane’s head. The whole mysterious atmosphere is made so much more perplexing due to the room, setting and weather. In some ways this is like a traditional scary moment that can be seen in many stories and novels with the old house in the dead of night and creepy noises. While nursing Mr Mason, she must feel powerless in some ways as she could be attacked.
Once Mr Rochester returned, he swiftly sent Mr Mason packing and he was gone within two hours.
There is then such a contrast in the book, dawn is breaking and Mr Rochester asks Jane to take a walk with him. With the sun rising and morning breaking, it feels like a fresh start, as if the night’s previous event’s hadn’t happened.
The outside garden has such a different atmospheric feeling about it compared to that of earlier in the bedroom. Just being outside makes the whole thing seem to be more carefree. Inside she is trapped in an enclosed space but there in the garden feels open.
He tells her a story about a boy and his life. Listening to it the reader can only assume that the person he is talking about is he and that the person who he has met and admires is Jane. I’m not sure if Jane knows that he is talking about him and her but the reader certainly does.
He tells her of a man who in his early life made a big error, an error that he could not undo and had to deal with the consequences. This man is then unhappy and depressed for a large part of his life but then he meets a stranger. This stranger has many qualities that he has been searching for, for the past couple of years but to let this stranger into his life he must overlook an “obstacle of custom – a mere conventional impediment which neither your conscience sanctifies nor your judgement approves” He is asking Jane if this man should be allowed to do such a thing.
“Down a walk edged with box, with apple trees, pear trees, and cherry trees on one side, and a border on the other full of all sorts of old-fashioned flowers, stocks, sweet-williams, primroses, pansies, mingled with southern-wood, sweet-briar, and various fragrant herbs. They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams followed by a lovely spring morning” Putting so much detail into this description of the atmosphere only makes the reader want to be there with them in this tranquil place.
It is no coincidence that in key points of the book, when she is scared or angry the weather is dark and dull and when she is happy the weather is sunny and nice. It is all there to reflect the mood and enhance the whole atmosphere.
Looking at just these three examples you can see that the place and effect of setting play a big role in the whole atmosphere of the book.
