Settings in Jane Eyre
GATESHEAD
Reeds
Red Room
Passion
LOWOOD
Brocklehurst
Miss Temple
Helen Burns
Role Models/Friends
THORNFIELD
Rochester
Love without marriage
1st Love
Loss of Innocence
MARSH END (MOOR HOUSE)
Family (Rivers)
St. John
Marriage without love
Duty
Independence
FERNDEAN
Love with marriage
Soul Mates
THEMES
ISOLATION/BONDS
PAGE
Page 9
“Me, she had dispensed from joining the group”
“she really must exclude me....”
Page10
Bewick’s History of British Birds
atmosphere: “frost... snow. . . ice. . . cold”
“solitary rocks”
“rock standing up alone”
“the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast”
Page 14
“bonds”
Page 17
“I was a discord...nothing in harmony....”
“They were not bound....”
“...find herself bound....”
Page 25
“I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost, till after dark.”
Page 30
“From every enjoyment I was, of course, excluded....”
Page 39
“It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst....”
Page 40
“I enjoyed my conquerors solitude....”
Page 69
“interloper... alien....”
“shun her... avoid her... exclude her... shut her out....”
“watch her... scrutinise her... punish her....”
Page 89
“I have no friends....”
Page 92
Mrs. Reed had “long relinquished all interference in my affairs....”
Page 96
“alone...cut adrift”
Page 113
“restraint... stagnation”
Page 119
“return to stagnation... silent... lonely... tranquil....”
Page 167
Jane was “purposely excluded” from the mystery re third floor
Page 235
Mrs. Reed “bound by vow” to late husband to keep Jane
Page 254
“string... cord of communion....”
Page 298
“Jane... was a cold, solitary girl again....”
Page 304
“his look that of a man who is just about to burst an insufferable bond....”
Page 311
“form what new tie you like.”
Page 324
“I am alone.”
Page 325
“Not a tie holds me....”
Page 324
“I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature....”
Page 329
“the white door closed, quite gently and civilly; but it shut me out.”
Page 330
“I thus wandered about like a lost and starving dog....”
Page 348
“Not a tie links me to any living thing....”
Page 390
“And you... cannot imagine the craving I have for fraternal and sisterly love.”
Page 408
“not a brother; that is a loose tie; but a husband.”
Page 418
“to be chained for life to a man who regarded one but as a useful tool”
Page 430
“shut himself up, like a hermit, at the Hall”
Page 447
“I forget that you have formed a new tie.”
PASSION
Page 13
“passion... red-room”
Page 15
“but if you become passionate and rude....”
Page 20
“virulent passions”
Page 38
“a passion of resentment fomented within me....”
Page 155
“judgment would warn passion”
Page 299
“conscience, turned tyrant, held passion by the throat....”
Page 366
“But he curbed it, I think, as a resolute rider would curb a rearing steed.” (re St. John)
Page 395
St. John “despise[d] himself for the feverish influence [his love for Rosamind Oliver] exercised over him.”
Page 403
“I know no medium... between absolute submission and determined revolt.”
Page 416 •St. John “controlled his passion perfectly.”
VENGEANCE
Page 40
“Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.”
Page 139
Parallel to Rochester’s search for pleasure: “It will sting—it will taste bitter, sir.”
Page 232
“It is a happy thing that time quells the longings of vengeance....”
ALLUSIONS/VOCABULARY
Page 48
Tower of “Babel”
Page 51
“Rasselas”
Page 63
“Eutychus”
Page 85
“Resurgam”
Page 197
“Sybil”
Page 249
“Midsummer-eve”
Page 250
“Eden-like”
Page 258
“paradise of union”
Page 264
“Eve”
Page 298
“first-born in the land of Egypt”
Page 363
“vacillating fears of Lot’s wife”
Page 379
“Marmion”
Page 393
Parable of Talents: “To the end of turning to profit the talents which God has committed to
your keeping....”
Page 406
“vice of Demas”
Page 410
“the very name of love is an apple of discord between us.”
Page 419
•St. John reads 21st chapter of Revelation
Page 421
“fate of Dives”
Page 434
“sightless Samson”
Page 445
“graceful Apollo... Vulcan”
STOICISM
Page 54
“How can she bear it so quietly—so firmly?”
Page 56
“Not a tear rose to Burns’ eye...not a feature of her pensive face altered....”
Page 76
“patient, unresentful”
Page 77
“sad resignation”
Page 370
“In spite of his Christian stoicism....” (re St. John)
Page 375
“The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all....”
HELEN’S CREED vs. JANE’S BELIEFS
Pages 58-61
Pages 84-85
NATURE
Page 66
“Naturally! Yes, but we are not to conform to nature....”
Page 112
“restlessness was in my nature”
Page 130
“it is his nature—and we can none of us help our nature”
Page 138
“it is no merit of yours: Nature did it....”
“Nature meant me to be, on the whole, a good man, Miss Eyre....”
Page 261
“Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural....”
Page 353
“he seemed of a reserved, an abstracted, and even of a brooding nature.” (re St. John)
Page 378
“But she could not eradicate nature....”
Page 401
Jane must “disown half her nature....”
Page 410
“our natures are at variance” (re Jane and St. John)
HYPOCRISY
Page 67
“They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs.
“...light tresses, elaborately curled... and she wore a false front of French curls.”
Page 80
“Mr. Brocklehurst and his family never came near Lowood now....”
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
Page 94
Jane was “no beauty as a child.”
Page 101
“I sometimes regretted that I was not handsomer....”
Page 134
“do you think me handsome?... No sir....”
Page 135
“most people would have thought him an ugly man”
Page 259
“I looked at my face... and felt it was no longer plain....”
Page 342
“Ill or well, she would always be plain.”
Page 405
St. John tells Jane that she is “formed for labour, not for love.”
FAIRY TALE/ MYSTERY
Page 107
“fairy place”
Page 109
“ghost...haunt” re third floor
Page 115
“Gytrash”
Page 125
“fairy tales”
Page 151
“demoniac laugh”
Page 152
“elves... witch... sorceress....”
Page 154
“good genii”
Page 167
“mystery at Thornfield”
Page 212
“She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart,” said Mason.
Page 222
bad omen re dreaming of children
Page 247
“fairy”
Page 261 •“fairy tale... fairy-like fingers with rings”
Page 269
“fairy... elf-land...” and trip to the moon
Page 283
“witch”
Page 286
“German spectre—the Vampyre”
Page 440
“fairy... enchantment”
Page 441
“changeling—fairy-born”
FEMINIST MANIFESTO/INDEPENDENCE
Page 112
“women feel just as men feel....”
Page 423
“my time... My powers... my way”
Page 437
“I am an independent woman now.”
Page 438
“If you won’t let me live with you, I can build a house of my own close up to your door.”
“I told you I am independent, sir, as well as rich: I am my own mistress.”
Page 442
“avowal of his dependence: just as if a royal eagle, chained to a perch, should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor....”
Page 453
“Reader, I married him.” (diction: I married him)
FIRE/ICE SYMBOLISM
Page 112
“fire”
Page 128
the picture showed the “pinnacle of an iceberg”
Page 198
“You are cold because you are alone; no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you.”
Page 377
“Know me to be what I am—a cold, hard man... Reason, and not Feeling, is my guide...”
Page 379
St. John’s cloak as “white as a glacier.”
Pages 129, 379
iceberg
Page 386
St. John: “I am cold.” •Jane: Whereas I am hot, and fire dissolves ice.”
Page 395
St. John: “hard and cold... at the fireside, too often a cold cumbrous column.... (iceberg)
Page 410
As St. John’s wife Jane would be “forced to keep the fire of [her] nature continually low.”
Page 413
St. John was “marble: his eye was a cold, bright, blue gem....”
Page 415
“what terror those cold people can put into the ice of their questions... avalanche... frozen sea in their displeasure”
Page 415
“I had burnt it in.” (re memory of Jane’s offense in refusing St. John’s proposal)
Page 439
“to make a better fire”
Page 447
St. John as “cold as an iceberg.”
JANE and ROCHESTER: THE RELATIONSHIP
Page 118
“leaning on me”
Page 205
“Jane, you offered me your shoulder once before; let me have it now.”
Page 290
“lean on me, Jane”
Page 451
“I served both for his prop and guide.”
PAINTINGS
Pages 128-129
1: cormorant (greedy bird): “its beak held a gold bracelet
2: woman (goddess of the moon)
3: iceberg (St. John—see 395)
FORTUNE
Page 135
“fortune has knocked me about... I am hard and tough as an India-rubber ball....”
Page 139
“When fate wronged me....”
JEALOUSY
Pages 146-147
jealousy as a “snake”
Page 187
Page 444
“Jealousy had got hold of him: she stung him: but the sting... gave him respite from the gnawing fang of melancholy.”
CLASS/CASTE
Page 165
“He is not of your order: keep to your caste....”
Page 179
“I am a judge of physiognomy, and in hers I see all the faults of her class.”
Page 189
“All their class held these principles....”
Page 253
“wealth, caste, custom intervened between me and what I naturally and inevitably loved.”
Page 267
“Gentlemen in his station are not accustomed to marry their governesses.”
Page 314
“to live familiarly with inferiors is degrading”
APPEARANCE vs. REALITY
Page 183
“playing charades”
Page 187
“paradox... showy, but... not genuine....”
Pages 202-203
Rochester deceives Blanche re money, identity: “the old woman’s voice changed”
Page 236
“I never saw a busier person than [Eliza] seemed to be; yet it was difficult to say what she did....”
Page 246
“struggle to express what I had resolved to conceal....”
Pages 163, 247, 333
“ignis-fatuus”
Page 264
“I feigned courtship of Miss Ingram....”
Page 409
“the veil fell from his hardness and despotism....”
SYMBOLISM OF TREE AND WEDDING VEIL
Page 258
the tree “writhed and groaned” = pathetic fallacy
Pages 259, 278
tree split in two by lightning
Page 286
veil: “rent it in two parts”
Page 447
“I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree....”
SOUL MATES
Page 422
“I heard a voice somewhere cry—Jane! Jane! Jane!
Page 424
“It seemed in me... it had opened the doors of the soul’s cell....”
Page 439
“to rehumanise you... for I see you are being metamorphosed into a lion....”
Page 440
“with him I was at perfect ease.... in his presence I thoroughly lived....”
Page 449
“Jane suits me: do I suit her?
“To the finest fibre of my nature, sir.”
Page 450
Rochester recounts calling Jane! Jane! Jane!”
Page 454
“I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.”
“To be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude....” (paradox)
“I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Eyre: circuit, journey
Page 148
Adele, like Jane, is “in a sense, parentless”
Page 151
burning of the bed
Pages 174-75, 181, 187, 257
Blanche: characterization
Page 217
garden referred to as “pure”
Pages 236-238, 243-44
Eliza and Georgiana: characterization
Page 250
Romantic imagery: “purple... burning... red jewel... furnace flame... gem... star....” “Lady of Shallot”
Page 256
“Your bride stands between us.” (Looks back to Blanche and forward to Bertha)
Page 263
Rochester is “conquered” by Jane: language of war
Page 270
“I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr. Rochester....”
Page 276
“[Rochester] stood between me and every thought of religion....” (“idol”)
Page 285
Bertha leads a death-in-life: her dress was either a “gown, sheet, or shroud”
Page 286
“I lost consciousness for the second time in my life....”
Page 297
Epiphany of sorts: “And now I thought: till now I had only heard, seen, moved—followed up and down where I was led or dragged... but now, I thought.”
Page 320
“If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose.”
(Rochester to Jane, echoes the veil episode)
Page 321
“He turned away; he threw himself on his face on the sofa.”
Rochester acts as stereotypical female)
Page 322
“My daughter, flee temptation!” “Mother, I will.”
Page 324
“I have no relative but the universal mother, Nature....”
Pages 353, 354
St. John characterization
Page 361
Jane struggles with her feelings re students at Morton
Page 367
“automaton
Page 400
St. John “acquired a certain influence over [Jane] that took away [her] liberty of mind.”
Page 401
Jane must “disown half her nature....”
Page 407
“If I join St. John, I abandon half myself....”
Page 411
“if you reject [my offer of marriage], it is not me you deny, but God.”
Page 416
St. John: manipulative argument re Jane’s “promise” to marry him
Page 420
St. John: relentless in his pursuit of Jane
Page 450
Rochester “began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom.”
Page 455
Rochester regained sight and “acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.”
Page 453
Adele transferred to another school since the first was “too strict... too severe....”