Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Introduction
anti-Christian
Novel main themes:
o What is womens position in society?
o What is relation between Britain and its colonies?
o How important is artistic endeavor in human life?
o What is the relationship of dreams and fantasy to reality?
o What is the basis of an effective marriage?
The novel poses all of these questions, it doesnt didactically offer a
single answer to any of them
Literary genre:
o Story of the romance between Rochester and Jane
o Employs the conventions of the bildungsroman (a novel that
shows the psychological or moral development of its main
character)
The first-person narration plots Janes growth from an
isolated and unloved orphan into a happily married,
independent woman
o The gothic
Emphasizes the supernatural, the visionary, and the
horrific
Mr. Reeds ghostly presence in the red-room
Berthas strange laugher at Thornfield
Rochesters dark and brooding persona
It adds to the novels suspense, entangling the reader in
Janes attempt to solve the mystery at Thronfield
o The spiritual quest
Jane tries to position herself in relationship to religion at
each stop on her journey
Although she paints a negative picture of the
established religious community through her
characterizations of Mr. Brocklehurst, St. John Rivers,
and Eliza Reed, Jane finds an effective, personal
perspective on religion following her night on the moors
For her, when one is closest to nature, one is also
closest to God: We read clearest His infinitude, His
omnipotence, His omnipresence.
God and nature are both sources of bounty, compassion
and forgiveness
Characters:
Chapter 1:
John claims the rights of the gentleman, implying that Janes family
was from a lower class
Theme: class conflict and gender difference
Her position as female leaves her vulnerable to the rules of a
patriarchal tyrant
Red curtains that enclose Jane in her isolated window connect with
the imagery of the red-room to which Jane is banished at the end of
the chapter
Red is symbolic. Connoting fire and passion, red offers vitality, but
also the potential to burn everything that comes in its way to ash.
Chapter 2&3:
Jane shares the Reeds belief that poor people are morally inferior to
the wealthy
Jane with a fairy will be repeated throughout the novel, and her
notion of appearing, sprite-like, in the eyes of travelers foreshadows
her first meeting with Rochester. As fairy, Jane indentifies herself as
a special, magical creature, and reminds the reader of the
importance imagination plays her in her life.
Chapter 4:
Chapter 5:
Lowood.
Helen Burns: Burning with a passion for heaven, and her fate is to
die of a fever
Jane learns from Helen in that she emphasize on spiritual rather
than material matters
Chapter 6 and 7
Chapter 8:
Helen: Not afraid of solitude
The promise of love and glory in a distant heaven does not appease
Jane; she also requires human warmth and affections during her
time on earth.
From Helen and Miss Temple, Jane learned that hysteria and raw
emotion dont reveal the truth as effectively as a subdued, but
honest tale.]
Future Jane: Miss Temples refinement and Helens spirituality with a
spark of Janes passion
Chapter 9:
Contrast between spiritual and material worlds through Helen and
Jane