Key Quotations

• supenatural elements in the book allign with the gothic themes:
• supernatural elements in the book align with the gothic themes:

  -Red Room

  -the "demoniac" laughter she hears on the upper floor of Thornfield

  -the fire in Rochester's bedroom

  -the invasion of Jane's room by a "spectre" two nights before her wedding
• the parallels between Jane and Bertha suggest a supernatural motif:

  -when Bertha breaks into Jane's room on the night before her wedding, she tries on Jane's wedding veil and Jane sees her reflection in the mirror- this mirrors her own experience in the Red Room- Jane sees herself as a "half fairy, half imp"

  -imprisonment was often used in the 19th century writers to evoke the supernatural (because of the state of being confined is unnatural)

  -e.g Jane's imprisonment in the Red Room, and Bertha's imprisonment at Thornfield
• Although at Thornfield, Jane is not physically imprisoned like Bertha: her social and financial position means she is trapped in her situation
• Bronte's use of the supernatural supports her critique and social inequality; by suggesting these parallels between Jane and Bertha
• Jane sees Bertha and cannot tell whether she is a "beast or a human being"