How Does Charlotte Brönte use Setting to Convey the Experiences of her Characters?

By examining setting in the novel 'Jane Eyre' it is easy to see how Charlotte Brönte has portrayed the experiences and traits of her main characters. I will study the settings of Gateshead and the 'Red Room' to depict Jane's solitude and loveless relationship with her aunt Reed and cousins, Lowood school which focuses on her friendship with Helen Burns and provides a parallel to Brönte's own experiences at a girl's boarding school, respect for Miss. Temple and the hardships faced under the head teacher, Mr. Brocklehurst, and finally Thornfield House to identify Mr. Rochester, his compromising position and Jane's love for him. The names of the settings also give an insight into the situations experienced within them where 'Gateshead' suggests Jane's suppression as if shut in by a 'gate' by the Reeds and equally 'Thornfield' creates the idea of suffering and pain. These settings are described by Brönte to reflect mood and create atmosphere, to convey character and character relations and to show the development of Jane as her experiences shape her maturity and ultimately eventual happiness. 'Jane Eyre' is a significant novel in terms of historical context and its portrayal of the social and cultural station of women in the early 19th century. Single women, represented by Jane, have the same rights as men in paying taxes and legal protection, however are not of the same income, a woman over 21 with property cannot vote and the church and all offices under government are not open to women (except sovereign). Alternatively, Rochester's mad wife Bertha represents the position of married women at the time, which is that she has no legal existence and wife loses all rights as a single woman which is entirely absorbed by her husband. He is responsible for her acts and she is under his protection. All of the wife's personal property before marriage is her husbands to reassign as he wishes and he retains this power even in death or separation. Marriages are indissolveable and bigamy, which Jane comes close to committing, is felony and punished by transportation. Effectively women were inferior and low in a society completely dominated by men. They are portrayed as mundane with simple aspirations moulded by society. The character of Jane challenges this mould as an 'undisciplined spirit' (Eliza Rigby reviewing Jane Eyre 1847) making 'Jane Eyre' such an inspirational novel.

Throughout the opening paragraph and introduction, Brönte suggests Jane's feelings via portrayal of the weather and settings. She effectively uses pathetic fallacy to convey not only physical images of the garden, but Jane's emotional state and feeling of solitude. Words such as 'wandering' describe how lost she is in her situation and the 'leafless' shrubbery describes how bare and unprotected she is and how hostile her environment. The oxymoron 'clouds so sombre' suggests that her solitude is depressing and Brönte also uses the environment to affect Jane physically by 'nipped fingers and toes' and a 'saddened heart' hinting at her 'raw' abandonment. Within the first two paragraphs Brönte has introduced Jane and her loneliness. Once inside the house, Jane retreats into a small breakfast room to avoid disturbance, indicating her lack of association and friendship in the other characters. She 'slipped in', as if trying not to draw attention to herself and 'shrined' herself in the window seat with a book. Brönte uses the book to draw a parallel with Jane's situation by use of vivid description. The 'broken boat stranded on a desolate coast' depicts Jane's desperation and her inability to escape, she is unfamiliar with those around her in these 'foreign regions' and the 'broken wall' represents her 'broken' spirit. The solitary imagery and language interprets Jane's loneliness. Jane's feelings of abandonment are also described by her social inferiority. She is physically abused by the 'fat family pet' John Reed, who has a low regard for all including Jane. He exorcises his powers over her by controlling anything that may give her enjoyment, "you have no business to take our books!' He is overindulged and spoilt by his mother (Jane's aunt Reed) who is unaware of her son's faults and blind to his bullying of Jane. She is called an 'animal' and a 'rat' and hit in 'punishment' for her inferiority. Jane's social distance is heightened by the exclusion from the rest of the characters; she is dependent on the Reed family yet an underdog. Brönte creates this divide by the setting of the Reeds clustered around the fire, using the image of warmth and Jane is clearly separated. This first scene gives the reader clues into Jane's personality because we see from her perspective. It is a child's view yet intelligent and observing, seen from the first person viewpoint and so the reader can empathise. Brönte uses this device to immediately bring the reader into Jane's life and to identify with her feelings, enhancing the response of outrage at her treatment.

Jane reacts to her treatment by attacking John Reed in defence from being struck by him. Once again the reader connects with Jane and can recognise her admirable characteristics- she fights back- which is a brave action for a female in her social station. A mood of despondency is also gained from the conflict as it is imagined that Jane is fed up with her treatment and lacks the patience to maintain her self-control. This idea of Jane's hidden feisty spirit is carried throughout the book and in the brief converse between servants Bessie and Mrs.Abbot Jane is described as a 'rebel slave' and like a 'mad cat.' There is a touch of wildness in her character and that she is a free spirit, and the name Eyre is a pun to draw a parallel with the freedom of air. Light is shed on Jane's position in the family through their chastising, that Mrs.Reed is under obligation to keep her and that alternatively she would be sent to the poorhouse and that 'it is your place to be humble'. The second chapter explores a new aspect of Jane's feelings in her confinement to the 'Red Room'. The introduction to 'Jane Eyre' portrays her station in the family and her sadness and separation from them, and the Red Room focuses on a new setting, which induces the unexplored emotion of fear. The reader has constructed an idea of Jane's character as a slave to injustice, yet still wilful and unsuppressed, but now they see that she is still a vulnerable child by her fears that the setting evokes. Initially she is locked in the room as she reasons; 'no jail was ever more secure,' already building the idea of imprisonment and seclusion, yet the mood is still of outrage and rebellion is still fresh in her mind. However as her smouldering mood settles she becomes more aware of her environment that imposes on her susceptible mind. The title 'Red Room' initially draws the room a reputation as dangerous, indicated by the warning colour which creates a forbidding atmosphere, and is first described as a 'spare chamber, seldom slept in'. This hints at a religious context and that the room is devoid of human contact, and a last resort. However the room is described as 'one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion,' which leaves the reader wondering as to the reason of its abandonment. The bed is the centrepiece supported on 'massive' pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of 'deep red damask,' and 'crimson,' which clash glaringly hinting again at danger, and all are dark, heavy and expensive, creating a forbidding focal point. This use of colour and description in surroundings is used throughout the novel to reflect Jane's feelings at Lowood School where once again her passion is repressed in an attempt to reform her into an obedient model of Victorian youth. This grandeur is an idea often prevailed throughout gothic literature. The strict nature of Victorian society is exposed as the reader has established Jane as a moral character, and her punishment is not just to the crime. The idea of darkness is emphasised by the two large windows with 'their blinds always drawn down,' banishing light from the room and instantly creating dramatic tension and apprehension and also emphasising the rooms gothic and richly commanding presence. The drawn blinds are also a symbol of her suffocating oppression within this society both as a woman and as a dependant. The bedding is starkly contrasted with the backdrop as 'snowy white,' creating a luminescent and ghostly glaze and the easy-chair appears to Jane as a 'pale throne.' The room also has no human warmth as it 'seldom has a fire,' accentuated by the 'silence' of the room due to its remoteness from the nursery and kitchens. The furniture towers over Jane, reminding the reader of her young age, and she perceives it as looking down on her. The 'great looking glass,' also reminds us of her ripe age, as she perceives its 'broken reflections,' as almost seeing into another world. The 'vacant majesty' of the room is reflected back at her which doubles any fears she was already harbouring. The secret of the Red Room is revealed that the room was the final resting place of Jane's uncle, Mr.Reed and her benefactor, allowing Jane's imagination to draw a parallel between this and the room's sinister appearance and the room's almost shrinal homage to him. This is shown through the irony of viewing her own 'strange little figure,' in the depths of the looking glass and recalling Bessie's stories of fairies and phantoms. The 'deep surroundings' create the image of shadowy depths and allows Jane's mind to jump to conclusions, turned like a 'dark deposit in a turbid well.' She questions her own position and her relationship with the Reed family, crying out internally at the injustice, allowing her anger to rear again. This frustration causes Jane to notice a light creep across the wall, which she immediately takes to be the ghost of the deceased Mr.Reed and induces horror in her. The tension created by the setting of the Red Room is released in Jane's seizure of fear and the reader once again recognises her young and impressionable age through the unnecessary fears of supernatural. The incident which Jane perceived in the Red Room is burnt into her character, and situations and fears she faces later in the novel relate back to the childhood experience.
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The third setting to shape Jane's character is Lowood School, to which Mrs.Reed removes her to in a bid to sever ties with the 'dependent.' It is a significant background to Jane's maturity from child to adult and this change in scene is portrayed though the coach journey from Gateshead to Lowood. Jane leaves Gateshead in the middle of the night indicating the mysterious and unknown to come, and 'taken from Bessie's neck,' as if severed. The 'remote and mysterious regions,' of 'great grey hills,' indicates a depressing future and prospects. It is the end of an era. ...

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