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Brandon Merriman

Mr. Williams

A.P. English 11

30 June 2009

All’s Paleness and Pulsation

Throughout Jane Eyre, its characters encounter countless life-ailing circumstances, and

the architecture of the Gothic frames the entirety of them. From the onset of the story, Jane

evokes pity from the readers learning about her austere childhood, one half spent in the

begrudging care of her Aunt Reed and the other at the conservative Lowood School. This rubs

off on Jane’s demeanor which causes her to develop into a severe woman, although she retains

outspoken qualities. Once she finds her first job as a governess at Thornfield Hall, she meets the

eccentric Mr. Rochester, who immediately shows a fondness for Jane. After much anticipation,

he finally asks Jane to marry him, but Mr. Mason upsets the ceremony by declaring that

Rochester already married a psychopath, his sister. Jane escapes Thornfield, unwilling to be a

paramour. She receives her inheritance from an uncle she never met, which she splits with her

newly discovered relations, the Rivers siblings. Her cousin St. John Rivers intends for her to

marry him in order to come to India on a mission trip, but he does not truly love her. Instead, she

returns to Mr. Rochester, who still pines for her, and they marry. Gothic elements, most notably

Gothic setting, outlandish emotions and an overtone of mystery morph the fantastic plot of Jane

Eyre into a delightfully gloomy tale. The setting of locations such as Thornfield Hall and

Lowood School are styled to look imperious and frightful, setting the miserable tone of Jane’s

childhood and Rochester’s life. Jane’s persistent emotional episodes offer hysteria and confusion

to an otherwise serene novel. The mysterious and suspenseful tones emerge primarily through
Jane’s dreams and premonitions, as well as the mystery of Grace Poole.

Jane and Mr. Rochester aside, the real character of Jane Eyre originates in the backdrop, a

stark English countryside jagged with the crenellation of high castle towers. Gothic architecture,

a revival of the look and feel of the Middle Ages, often looks barren and chilling compared with

cozy modern locales. For example, Jane’s frightened mood while retained in the chamber of her

uncle’s death literally reflects off of a great foreboding mirror: “All looked colder and darker in

that visionary hollow than in reality” (Brontë 8). A modern bathroom mirror in its place certainly

would inspire less fear than the arresting Gothic featured in the vault, hence its relevance to the

mood. Thornfield, where Rochester resides, contains high and chilled rooms around every

corner, hardly offering any comfort. Jane says of a staircase, “A very chill and vault-like air

pervaded the stairs and the gallery, suggesting cheerless ideas of space and solitude”, which aptly

parallels Rochester’s life before meeting Jane: cheerless (89). Thornfield grows more depressing

when Jane finds it burnt to the ground and in ruins, inspiring the fear of Rochester having died

before her return. Jane emphasizes this by describing the mood of the “grim blackness of the

stones”; she thinks, “And there was a silence of death about it, the solitude of a lonesome wild”

(406). These ruins recall Jane’s image of Rochester wasting away in Europe and degenerating

into self-destruction, and therefore this grim and Gothic setting also symbolizes Rochester. The

architecture also downplays emotion, such as when the funeral of Mrs. Reed causes an absolute

chill through the blunt description of the procession. “The gaping vault”, “the silent church”, and

“the coffin, the hearse, the black train of tenants and servants” all draw a picture of steely

coldness concerning the death of Mrs. Reed (229). In this way, Jane’s feelings of indifference

manifest through Gothic symbolism in the environment.

Though usually quite logical, Jane suffers the outlandish emotional condition typical of
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characters in Gothic literature. This hysteria fits into the themes of Gothic writing because of the

provocative effect it has on the reader, which enriches their experience. Jane’s experience seeing

an apparition inside her uncle’s room of death particularly evokes pity of the reader, since she

already suffers mistreatment. She hollers, “Oh Aunt! Have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it-

let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if-” (11). The misery of an innocent child

strikes any maternal or paternal instinct in the beholder, therefore stimulating reader emotions.

Another instance nearly comical occurs when a then-unknown guest yelps for help at a late hour

inside Thornfield. The Eshton sisters, distraught, “were bearing down on [Rochester] like ships

in full sail”, giving an air of frantic terror and also through metaphor lampooning the entire

situation (195). The overzealous emotion of the dowagers suits the tradition of Gothic damsels in

utter distress. During the time in which Rochester feigns courting Miss Ingram, Jane breaks

down and confesses to Rochester the true extent of her attachment to Thornfield. “I see the

necessity of departure;” she confesses, “and it is like looking on the necessity of death” (239).

Jane’s paroxysms of true feeling have a tendency to seem overexcited at times, since leaving a

loved place and physically dying differ greatly, therefore tapping more into Gothic elements than

the average emotion of everyday life. Yet, even above Jane’s wont of letting emotions flow in

outbursts, there soars Rochester’s admissions of love for Jane. When she returns to him once

more at Ferndean, he tells Jane how her absence renders him “desolate and abandoned - my life

dark, lonely, hopeless - my soul athirst and forbidden to drink - my heart famished and never to

be fed” (415). This level of spiritual devastation resulting from the lack of love plays heavily

from the Romantic notions of Gothic fiction, and the powerful emotion emphasizes the tragedy

of this love story.

Of course, the events of the story hold no strength without the suspense and mystery
provided before their climaxes. A Gothic tale creates suspense and mystery primarily to scare the

characters with an unknown future, and the Gothic style delineating the events creates a miasma

which overshadows the bare occurrences. Jane frequently stirs from bed upon hearing noises in

Thornfield, usually leading to a horrible situation. Once, she hears something brush against her

door, and after asking “Who is there?”, “Nothing answered. I was chilled with fear” (138). Jane

then sets on edge until hearing a laugh, and the reader knows that the event must foreshadow a

mysterious occurrence, since the context expresses fright. All the dreams which she has

foreshadow future events as well; one in particular foretelling the problem of her and Rochester’s

marriage. She tells Rochester, “I was following the windings of an unknown road; total obscurity

environed me; rain pelted me” (267). The words speak of mystery, and not long after this

prophecy she actually leaves Rochester to walk the unknown road, showcasing Jane’s uncanny

ability to forecast the future. After leaving, she nearly dies after failing to enter the home of the

Rivers family, due to complete and utter hopelessness. In this moment, she thinks, “I wept in

utter anguish. Oh, this spectre of death: Oh, this last hour, approaching in such horror: Alas this

isolation-this banishment --from my kind!” (320). The anticipation generated from this hopeless

deliberation gives the effect Jane really may die, and teetering on the verge of death certainly fits

the Gothic idea of suspense. However, the largest question deals with Grace Poole, who Jane

continually suspects for certain crimes. She often speculates on how “there was a mystery at

Thornfield, and from that participation in that mystery I was purposefully excluded” (154). From

this point, her position seems quite suspect and her unique laugh haunts Jane’s dreams,

remaining a menacing fixture in her thoughts.

Over the strict analytical evaluation of Jane Eyre’s Gothic components, a scholar will find

that it utilizes these select elements of said structure in order to appeal to our emotions and
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emphasize the exact desperation the characters felt: The complete contrast with the home of the

Rivers, Moor House, and the grand Gothically-styled mansions Jane resides in demonstrate the

poisonous atmosphere they have over their residents compared to comforting modern homes.

Emotional outbursts which emerge from the never-ending displays of terror, love, and heartbreak

hold the attention of any reader eager for drama, and Gothic style aims to do just that. The

suspense built at certain parts of the novel form every climax into a bombastic explosion, and the

mystery serves to alleviate any boredom from the more inquisitive readers. Why Jane Eyre sticks

to the more sensational side of Victorian literature only Charlotte Brontë knows for certain, but

regardless if one holds Gothic literature built upon a gimmick or not, the literary merit of Jane

Eyre remains indisputable.