Jane Eyre

In the novel Jane Eyre, the author creates an image of the differences between men and women; she also portrays the way people behaved with women in the 19th century. Jane had to face many problems and tolerate many obstacles just because she was an orphan and was very poor. She had to live with her aunt who treated her like an animal. Jane was taken to be so inferior that even the servants treated her like her like rubbish. To maintain a high status in the 19th century you had to be rich and have at least one servant. If you were upper middle class or middle class then it would have been easier for you to get a job, you would also easily gain more respect, enjoy some diversity, and were able to exhibit more authority. However if you were form the lower class you would feel more alienated and would find it hard to live the life of a normal person. You would live life completely opposite to the way the poor lived life. Charlotte Bronte used many techniques such as pathetic fallacy to create sympathy for Jane.

Charlotte Bronte uses pathetic fallacy many times throughout the book to show how Jane feels. Jane was treated and made to feel invisible ‘leafless shrubbery’ shows that the shrub is alive however it is leafless in the same way, Jane is alive however she is not living life like every other normal person. She is like a living corpse. Jane breathes however she has no one to love her therefore she is always feeling invisible. When the Reed’s have a family get together Jane is always excluded and is made to feel even lonelier. This makes the reader feel the pain with Jane and help us to sympathise with her. This also makes us realise the pain that Jane is going through as a child and the happiness the other children are experiencing. This shows that Jane does not live life like every other child. In the 19th century it was believed that children were very close to death. In 1830 almost half of the funerals in London were for children in the same way, Jane was a victim of this injustice.

 Moreover, Charlotte Bronte also uses pathetic fallacy again to show the immense torture Jane is tolerating; day after Jane is abused and thrown around ‘dreary November day’ shows that the environment around Jane is miserable and dead just like her. There is no life in the surroundings just like there are no feelings left inside Jane. She is very petrified of the whole world and she knows that there is no one in this world to hold her hand and stand by her. Jane does have a family however, she is ignored and despised this helps to create sympathy for Jane as we feel that she has no one to turn to in times of hardship making us want to empathise with Jane. Furthermore, in the 19th century it was believed that the poor were improvident and wasted money. This shows that the way Mrs. Reed treated Jane was ignored and Jane had no one in this world to call family.

In addition to this, Jane is made to feel isolated and lonely just because she is an orphan. Jane is so miserable that even the weather around the weather around her is miserable ‘ice, the accumulation of rain’ the word ‘ice’ shows that the description of her surrounding are cold and sour just like her feelings. The weather reflects the way she defines her life. She believes that life is a struggle and there is no bright light at the end of it. Jane doesn’t know the meaning of happiness as she has never experienced it. There is no ray of sunshine and she knows that there never will be. There is no hope for her either, only bitter cold is the one feeling that has taken over her. The word ‘accumulation’ shows the build up of torture Jane is enduring. Jane doesn’t get tormented on odd occasions but, it is constant pain and torture. It also shows the pain that is gradually raising so much to destroy her internally and externally. The torture that Jane is going through creates sympathy and helps the reader to sympathise with Jane. The Victorians treated their children with excessive abuse that most of the children died by child abuse. This creates sympathy for Jane because the readers are aware of the fact that even Jane is a victim of this.

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In addition to this, Charlotte Bronte has used animal imagery to illustrate the agony that Jane is bearing ‘he pushed me and bullied me not two or three times in the week nor once...’ The word ‘not two or three’ shows that suddenly and gradually Bronte creates tension and sympathy for Jane by building up the tension and prolonging it. By extending the pain that Jane is going through helps us to empathise with her and realise the depth of Jane’s pain. The word ‘bullied’ show that Jane is treated like an animal and is thrown around just like a ...

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