What features of Jane Eyre can be considered Gothic?

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What features of Jane Eyre can be considered Gothic?

In the novel, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë uses a variety of aspects of Gothic tradition to create a mysterious and uneasy atmosphere in places, but also one of passion with hints of the supernatural in others. Through Jane, Brontë explores in depth the Gothic aspect of fear at Gateshead. For example the vivid images that are conjured in the readers mind when we are informed by Jane about John that “every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near”. This is such an intense degree of fear, and we see it through the eyes of a ten year old. This is an especially poignant, as well as being a highly Gothic, description. Other uses of Gothic tradition at Gateshead are isolation, use of a gloomy setting, hints at the supernatural and a macabre event when “the volume was flung” at Jane by John Reed. Another setting which is used by Brontë to explore aspects of Gothic tradition is Thornfield. Here confinement, seclusion, irony, foreboding, macabre events, passionate romance and the supernatural are used to create a chilling and mysterious atmosphere and to generate curiosity in the reader.

At the beginning of the book, we see nineteenth century life through a child's eyes. Gateshead has a Gothic atmosphere, but it could not be called a Gothic setting. There are a number of Gothic ideas and events introduced here. The first Gothic ideas are those of isolation and confinement, which are partially represented by the oppressive weather and are contributed to by use of Pathetic Fallacy. A gloomy atmosphere is created by use of dull weather with “clouds so sombre and rain so penetrating that further outdoor exercise was out of the question”. The word sombre means solemn, it is the kind of mood that you would expect at a funeral. Clouds are usually light and fluffy; with them being sombre, a dull and dismal mood is created to start the book. This weather means that Jane is trapped in the house, where she feels isolated because she is excluded from the rest of the family. She tells the reader that Mrs. Reed “really must exclude me from privileges intended only for happy little children”. The reader hears from the first page of the novel that Jane is rejected and resented by Mrs. Reed, although here the reader does not know why. Jane then isolates herself by sitting behind “folds of scarlet drapery”, putting a physical divider between her and the rest of the family. This feeling of loneliness and segregation that she is feeling now is represented by the oppressive weather. Pathetic Fallacy, as shown here, is another Gothic element at Gateshead.

The most persisting Gothic element of Jane’s time at Gateshead is the aspect of fear. Jane is absolutely terrified of John; she says that she “was bewildered by the terror he inspires”. This shows Charlotte Brontë’s clever use of language. It makes us think of a rabbit in the beam of a car’s headlights, frozen by fear. She is four years younger than John, and seems to be completely defenceless to the suffering that he inflicts. This makes the reader pity and sympathise with Jane; therefore, when she retaliates, the reader does not think less of her, instead, they see her strength of character. Jane calls John Reed a “tyrant” whilst she is at Gateshead. A tyrant is an oppressor, and the devil is often referred to one. This suggests that Jane sees John as the devil when he causes her “pungent suffering”.

After Jane has retaliated, and hit John back she is taken upstairs to the Red Room. This room is described using highly Gothic description. It also is not a Gothic setting; it is a finely decorated room in a salubrious house, but Jane’s imagination and, because Mr. Reed has died in this room, fear that his ghost might return to comfort her, has made this room Gothic. All the description of the interior and the objects in this room sound grand, but like there is a sinister feeling of emptiness. This does not make the Red Room seem a happy place; this is setting another gloomy atmosphere, again Jane feels isolated.

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The description of the curtains as “deep red damask”, and the fact that the carpet is red, along with the room being referred to as the Red Room really reiterates the vivid and highly Gothic colour red. It is a Gothic colour because it is the colour of blood, which is not something that you would expect to be mentioned in a fine room in an upper class house. The Red Room is a “spare chamber, very seldom slept in”; this would make it have that unlived in, stillness about it. It is described, as “chill”, “silent” and “solemn” and ...

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