“And then she had such a fine head of hair, raven-black, and so becomingly arranged; a crown of thick plaits behind, and in front the longest, the glossiest curls I ever saw.”
“She was dressed in pure white; an amber coloured scarf was passed over her shoulder and across her breast, tied at the side, and descending in long, fringed ends below her knee. She wore an amber-coloured flower, too, in her hair: it contrasted well with the jetty mass of curls.”
It is the detail of her physical appearance reflects what a proud person she is by the style of clothes she wears. Jane is curious to why Mr. Rochester would be interested in her. Mr. Rochester is such a dark and mysterious man with a grim past behind him. His character is deliberately revealed at a slow pace to keep the readers more interested in the story. Charlotte Bronte wants readers to get an insight into his deep personality by disclosing his past at unexpected times.
It is in chapter 16, Jane realises that Mr. Rochester is discrete about his personal life and behaves selfishly and is inconsiderate by not telling Jane about his future plans. This chapter like all the chapters, reveals small parts of Jane’s character.
As readers, we experience the disappointment and anger Jane has over her physical appearance. Jane feels like an ugly person in comparison to the beautiful Blanche Ingram. Jane becomes increasingly confused about her feelings and emotions concerning Mr. Rochester. This situation causes Jane to feel extremely lonely.
The setting revealed in chapter 16 is Mr. Rochester’s bedroom. Charlotte Bronte describes how the room is a dark place that has a creepy presence when you enter it. After the fire incident ended, the damage symbolised the mood and atmosphere.
‘To much confabulation succeeded a sound of scrubbing and setting to rights; and when I passed the room in going downstairs to dinner, I saw through the open door that all was again restored to complete order; only the bed was stripped of it hangings.’ ‘Leah stood up in the window seat, rubbing the panes of glass dimmed with smoke.’
The characters revealed in Chapter 23 are Jane and Mr. Rochester. They both reflect different parts of their character in this chapter. This chapter allows both of them to hide and reveal their true feelings for each other. At first, Mr. Rochester informs Jane of his plans and does not disclose what he really wants i.e. his feelings towards Jane. It is Jane who breaks the awkward silence and patience that she has controlled all this time. This sudden break down of emotion symbolises the effect that Mr. Rochester has upon her as a person who has never been loved. Due to Jane’s life of loneliness, she has never experienced any love from anyone. Therefore, when she is confronted with somebody who does love her, she is unable to handle the emotions. This causes her to break.
Chapter 16 begins with Jane’s anxious voice. She is nervous and restless to see Mr. Rochester but at the same time she fears meeting him. Jane searches for her lost identity, as she has lost her confidence. The self- comparison with Blanche Ingram has caused Jane to feel ugly. Jane’s self-fulfilment is for her to see Mr. Rochester as much as she can. Mr. Rochester is self- fulfilled by the distraction of Blanche Ingram from Jane.
Bronte emphasises on the negative aspect of the social class in the 18th century. Jane is treated unequally due to her poor background; Blanche and Mr. Rochester share the same status according to the social class. Blanche, Mr. Rochester and Jane all have one thing in common, they’re all in search for love. Jane and Mr. Rochester have both been unsuccessful up till now in their search for love. As Jane does not receive love from him, nor does she express love in return. He then decides to marry a woman he does not love. Mr. Rochester refuses to confront his feelings to Jane, due to his guilt of marrying outside his status. Jane feels hurt when his whereabouts are made known and feels that she was given a false impression of his feelings towards her.
In chapter 23, readers sense a voice of happiness and contentment, due to the beautiful surroundings. She feels relaxed and calm, and enjoys the view outside as she takes a walk in the garden and grounds of Thornfield. ‘A splendid Midsummer shone over England: skies so pure, suns so radiant as were then seen in long succession, seldom favour, even singly, our wave-girt land.’
‘The hay was all got in; the fields round Thornfielsd were green and shorn; the roads white and baked; the trees were in their dark prime; hedge and wood, full-leaved and deeply tinted, contrasted well with the sunny hue of the cleared meadows between.’
Jane feels lost and again is in search for her identity. She declares her love for Mr. Rochester, and reveals her feelings to him. Mr. Rochester in return declares his love. They both feel relieved. Jane accepts his proposal of marriage.
Jane and Mr. Rochester are both self-fulfilled by their forthcoming marriage. Although Jane’s social class is different to Mr. Rochester, he does not feel guilty to marry Jane, even though she is a poor Governess. Jane and Mr. Rochester have both been searching for love and eventually find it.
In both chapters 16 and 23, the effect of Jane’s voice makes readers dislike characters that Jane dislikes. The voice allows readers to only hear one point of view; this is a disadvantage of having a voice in a novel. Another disadvantage is that readers will always sympathise with the person behind the voice. For instance, readers’ will like whomever Jane likes and dislike whomever Jane dislikes. This is because we only see the story through the eyes of Jane. Also a major disadvantage of the voice technique is; that the readers will never actually know how other characters are feeling, it’s just Jane Eyre who is assumes these feelings by facial expressions etc.
Advantages of using a voice technique are; that the voice tells readers exactly how Jane is feeling and allows readers to have an insight to Jane’s personality.
Chapter 16 carries tension and suspense due to Grace Poole’s odd and mysterious behaviour. In addition to the incident that occurred the night before, Jane wants to find out who set fire to Mr Rochester’s bed. The suspense and tension continue as Jane desperately tries to find out the truth throughout the book.
In chapter 23, the tension dies down as Jane and Mr. Rochester are united. But Jane still unsatisfied as the weather causes her to doubt her future happiness with Mr. Rochester. There is an element of suspense as she awakes to find a split tree, which, she feels, represents a bad sign of what’s to come.
In both chapters, Bronte writes a detailed description when comparing Blanche and Jane’s appearance. She uses deep dialogue when expressing people’s feelings.
Bronte further writes longer sentences to emphasize detail in her characters. There is good use of vocabulary throughout the book. The constant symbolism helps reflect the different characters and their feelings.
In the 18th century, the position of women was secondary to men. In ‘Jane Eyre’, Charlotte Bronte has informed her readers of how foreign were treated as exotic and unique women. For instance, Celine Varens, (Mr. Rochester’s lover) was from France, and therefore his affair with her was excusable.
But, the mentally ill, were treated like animals and were kept in isolation, such as Bertha Mason who was locked away.
In my opinion, these chapters were selected for their dramatic events. The novel itself carried suspense but was slightly boring and had a predictable ending.
