Jane Eyre

• "clouds so sombre" "raw twilight" "fiend pinning down the thief's back" "ghastly moon"


  opening of the novel, pathetic fallacy, foreshadows John's attack on Jane, gothic and symbolic patterns
• "he struck suddenly and strongly" "my terror" "bewildered by the terror he inspired"


  Jane as a victim, John's attack on Jane
• "mad cat"


  parallel with Bertha later as "clothed hyena", views of female insanity
• "I must keep in good health, and not die" "burning in hell"

  Jane to Brocklehurst, cheeky response demonstrates her radical proto-feminism
• "you have treated me with miserable cruelty"


  Jane to Mrs Reed, defiant character, against Victorian norms of children
• "her darlings" "contented, happy, little children"

  the Reed family
• "like the Roman emperors" "murderer" "tyrant"


  John Reed, epitome of patriarchal privilege, rebellion against unfair authority
• "you are a dependent" "picture of passion" "rat!"


  about Jane, unwanted creature/animal, hated by John Reed and family
• "like a corridor in some Bluebeard's castle"


  one of Jane's first impressions of Thornfield, fairy tale about murderous husband who locked bodies of previous wives behind doors
• "a curious laugh - distant, formal mirthless" "low syllabic tone" "preternatural"


  Bertha's laugh heard when Jane is first in the attic
• "goblin laughter" "a demoniac laugh"


  Bertha when she lights Rochester's bed on fire, dehumanising and supernatural, hellish
• Concept of doppelganger Bertha


  ghostly counterpart of another living person, every one of Bertha's appearances has been associated with an experience/repression of Jane's strong emotions
• "the shape" "it"


  talking about Bertha, dehumanising and liminal blurring, uncertainty
• "I know not what dress she had on: it was white and straight"


  Bertha wearing something similar to a wedding dress when she rips the veil: dark double concept to Jane mirroring her
• "gown, sheet, or shroud"


  Bertha's dress, linked to death/dead bodies
• "I saw the reflection of the visage" "dark oblong glass"


  Bertha paralleling Jane in the mirror (red room)
• "discoloured face" "savage face" "roll of the red eyes"


  colour imagery to describe Bertha
• "foul German spectre - the Vampyre"


  Bertha when she bites Mason "she sucks the blood", savage nature and personality
• "her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard"


  Rochester well revealing Bertha's existence, racist idea of contaminated blood
• "beast or human" "maniac"


  Bertha, ambiguity and liminal blurring, no name and oppressed by society
• "strange wild animal" "clothed hyena"


  animalistic imagery used for Bertha, oxymoronic, oppressed animal
• Bertha represents


  violence against men in her life is a device to fight against the patriarchy and constraints on women
• Bertha's story


  Told through male forces, heavily controlled by patriarchal narrative
• What Helen Burns represents


  Burns, ironic as she doesn't burn with the same passion as Jane, antithetical to Jane, quiet suffering, admirable, intelligence, compliant and acquiescent, burns with religious devotion
• Symbols related to Helen Burns


  Symbolises traditional Christian ideas of self sacrifice, lives her life with a very philosophical and spiritual viewpoint, martyr figure, speaks like a teacher, quotes the Bible
• innate passion of Jane


  vs patient suffering of Helen
• "it is far better to endure patiently" "I live in calm looking to the end"


  Jane feels emotions on Helen's behalf, religious devotion, Christian piety
• "I believe; I have faith; I am going to God" "I rely implicitly on his power" "I believe God is good"

  Helen's death
• Miss Temple


  Antithesis of Brocklehurst and Mrs Reed
• Connotations of temple


  religion, religious guidance, worshipped by Jane, becomes her role model, idea of asylum and safety
• Femininity in Lowood


  Helen dies and Miss Temple gets married, the two ways for women to leave Lowood
• Miss Temple's room


  light, warmth, affection, fire imagery, Helen is given a new life and Miss Temple brings out her health
• "we feasted on nectar and ambrosia" "always serenity in her air" "I was struck with wonder"


  Food of the Gods, mythological, religious
• "the refreshing meal, the brilliant fire, the presence and kindness of her beloved instructress"


  Miss Temple's room
• "roused her power within her" "the kindled" "glowed in the bright tint of her cheek"


  the beauty of Helen brought out by Miss Temple, fire imagery
• "beauty of meaning, of movement, of radiance" "language flowed"


  Helen in Miss Temple's room, water, elemental imagery
• Symbolism of the red room


  Oppression, rigid treatment of hysterical women, idea of womb, rebirth
• gothic tropes in the red room

  protagonist trapped in desolate haunted settings, dark and mysterious atmosphere, scary tone
• "massive pillars of mahogany"

  grandeur, stately, masculinity represented by heavy and expensive materials
• "like a tabernacle"


  simile, biblical and religious significance