How Charlotte Brontë uses descriptions of places to show how Jane Eyre feels about some of the key places in her life.

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Sumera Qureshi                                                                                                               24/02/2001

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Explain how Charlotte Brontë uses descriptions of places to show how Jane Eyre feels about some of the key places in her life.

From the beginning, Jane Eyre explores and challenges the social preconceptions of nineteenth-century Victorian society. Themes of social class, gender relations, and injustice predominate throughout Jane's story. The descriptions of places given are very important in showing the reader how Jane feels about these issues and thus herself.

As a child, the most decisive moments for Jane take place inside; Helen Burns death and her encounter with the red room, however, when she is in her adult years, the key moments then take place outside, in nature; the meeting with Mr. Rochester and his proposal.  Charlotte Brontë used these descriptions of places, whereby the setting of Jane’s different homes symbolised important aspects and feelings that related to her life and her feelings.

She managed to do this not only in her description of places, but also in her description of the weather. This particular literary device is called Pathetic fallacy. This technique was named by the Victorian writer John Ruskin and described writing where the descriptions of the weather mirror the emotions experienced by the particular character in the novel. This device is particularly effective because these descriptions take the place of sometimes-crude dialogue or narrative in revealing the emotions experienced by the characters to the reader.

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One of the most influential and significant places Jane encounters in her life is her childhood home; Gateshead Hall.

In the beginning of the novel, Charlotte Brontë uses Pathetic fallacy in her description of the weather to set not only the mood but to reflect Jane’s own feelings of her situation. She remarks at the

‘Clouds so sombre and a rain so penetrating’

presenting the reader with a harsh and unwelcoming outlook; through the choice of such subdued and grave adjectives such as ‘sombre’ and ‘penetrating’ Charlotte Brontë immediately manages to show the reader how Jane feels about ...

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