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Fire Imagery in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
Incomplete Works Cited
The prevalence of fire imagery and it's multitude of metaphoric uses in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre expresses two things that could not be expressed openly in the Victorian Period, which are mainly passion and sexuality. Brontes writing was dictated by the morals of her society, but her ideas were not. Jane Eyre was written with the Victorian reader in mind. Bronte knew that if she were to write about these two things directly she would have to face possible rejection of her book. A resolution to this dilemma was to awaken the audience in a way that society deemed not only respectable, but also acceptable. So Bronte creates Jane, and Jane becomes the embodiment of these morals. She takes Victorian psychology of passion on as her own. The psychology of passion then becomes the novel's most dominant theme. Throughout Jane Eyre, passion becomes centrally focused on self-control, female sexuality, and its relationship to Bertha's insanity as images of fire.
Jane Eyre's images of fire bring to the forefront the contradictions that Victorian women faced in fulfilling their passionate needs and while maintaining self-control. Jane is confronted with the duality of freeing herself from the constraints of society and her fears of releasing the consuming energy of her sexuality. Jane keeps these feelings and passions in stringent check because she does not want to give in to the fires she feels inside, but is always struggling to do so. David Lodge says this eloquently, "the heat emanates from a source of passionate love, not of vengeance, and the possibility of being consumed by it is as seductive as it is terrifying" (128). Jane thus creates fire and uses this ...
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...'s eyes. Through the destruction of Bertha, Jane is able to come to terms with her idea of self-consuming passion. Berth's death was the liberating factor for Jane. It was the release of the suppressed passions that were dwelling inside her. The fires that Jane speaks after the reuniting of her and Rochester are of warmth and happiness. Jane says: "Can you tell when there is a good fire?," which is telling of the fact that she feels the fires inside are of a good nature now.
The fires that represent the passions of the characters in the novel have great significance in Victorian society. Bronte knew this and added to it social commentary on passion and sexuality in one of the most ingenious books of its time, Jane Eyre.
Works Cited:
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London, Penguin Books Ltd.: 1996. (Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Mason).
Youth homelessness in Ontario is not a new phenomenon, it has become more and more severe over the past 20 years. “One third of homeless individuals on the streets are under the age of 25”(Cino, Rose). It is a significant social justice issue in Canada. Within our community people are increasingly aware of the sight of youth sleeping in parks, asking for money and sitting on sidewalks. Youth homelessness in Ontario is primarily caused by tragic life occurrences such as abuse, illness or unemployment.
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte shows us that all people have a feeling inside of them to recognizing what their personal desires and what their duty to others is. In Jane Eyre, the endless theme of unforgettable war between a passion and responsibility always appears, with a strong set of principles Jane is able to decide what is right. Throw out the book Charlotte Bronte show us that Jane’s integrity to her self is more important than what anybody else thinks of her. Duty and desire plays a huge role in which Jane has to learn to control her desire of her anger outburst and her duty to herself.
Stephen W. Hwang, et al. "Drug problems among homeless individuals in Toronto, Canada: prevalence, drugs of choice, and relation to health status." BMC Public Health 10, (January 2010): 94-100, EBSCO Academic Search Premier (accessed February 22, 2012).
Fire and Ice are the central motifs in Jane Eyre, which Bronte introduces to us to for the first time in this passage. Bronte expresses fire as an emblem of Jane's passion which is "alive, glancing, (and) devouring". Ice stiffens and restricts those it affects and throughout the novel is used in an effort to control this fire, and in this extract symbolises Mrs. Reed as she responds to Jane with coldness in an effort to control her. The result of these two opposites is an explosion of feelings, passion and power which allows the reader to see deeper into the character of Jane Eyre.
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre as her base to find out how a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with her responsibilities. . Mistreated abused and deprived of a normal childhood, Jane Eyre creates an enemy early in her childhood with her Aunt Mrs. Reed. Just as Mrs. Reeds life is coming to an end, she writes to Jane asking her for forgiveness, and one last visit from her.
Bronte, Charlotte. The Letters of Charlotte Bronte: 1829-1847. Ed. Margaret Smith. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1995-2000.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 3rd ed. New York: The Modern Library. Bronte, Charlotte. "
Woolf, Virginia. "The Continuing Appeal of Jane Eyre." Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 455--457. Print.
Jane Eyre has been acclaimed as one of the best gothic novels in the Victorian Era. With Bronte’s ability to make the pages come alive with mystery, tension, excitement, and a variety of other emotions. Readers are left with rich insight into the life of a strong female lead, Jane, who is obedient, impatient, and passionate as a child, but because of the emotional and physical abuse she endures, becomes brave, patient, and forgiving as an adult. She is a complex character overall but it is only because of the emotional and physical abuse she went through as a child that allowed her to become a dynamic character.
During the 1940’s, psychologist John Bowlby strongly believed early emotional connections between mother and child are an imperative part of human nature. He believed that because newborn babies are completely defenseless they are genetically programmed attach to their mothers in order to survive. He also believed that mothers are genetically programmed to be protective of their young, commonly feeling the need to keep their babies near them at all times. These ideas formed the foundation of Bowlby’s theory which were the stepping-stones of exploring the deep-rooted importance of the mother-child bond and the repercussions associated if this bond is impaired or broken, which would later come to be known as attachment theory.
The novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, has a plot that is filled with an extraordinary amount of problems. Or so it seems as you are reading it. However, it comes to your attention after you have finished it, that there is a common thread running throughout the book. There are many little difficulties that the main character, the indomitable Jane Eyre, must deal with, but once you reach the end of the book you begin to realize that all of Jane's problems are based around one thing. Jane searches throughout the book for love and acceptance, and is forced to endure many hardships before finding them. First, she must cope with the betrayal of the people who are supposed to be her family - her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Then there is the issue of Jane's time at Lowood School, and how Jane goes out on her own after her best friend leaves. She takes a position at Thornfield Hall as a tutor, and makes some new friendships and even a romance. Yet her newfound happiness is taken away from her and she once again must start over. Then finally, after enduring so much, during the course of the book, Jane finally finds a true family and love, in rather unexpected places.
Risk factors for illness need further assessment, because the homeless are exposed to extremely exacerbating influences on their physical halt, such as substance abuse disorders, mental illness, exposure to harsh physical and sociological environments, lack security, and inadequate nutrition (Stein & Gelberg, 1997). Factors such as a poor diet and poor quality housing adversely subjective well-being (Panadero & Guillen, 2015). There is an importance of obtain food to fulfilling other essential needs (Wright, & Tompkins, 2006). There are few places that distributes no-perishable, readily-consumed food and drinks (Homeless Gear,
The Burning Passion in Jane Eyre “Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour…” As Charlotte Brontë wrote the novel Jane Eyre, she included the word “fire” several times. She uses is a description, a background image, and as an action event. The use of fire gives a way to show the passion that the characters have. The deep emotion the characters’ hold is shown through fire, which leads to the larger theme of love.
Although written during both the Victorian and Gothic time period, Jane Eyre draws upon many revolutionary influences that ultimately enabled it to become one of the most successful books of all time. Jane Eyre is merely a hybrid of a Victorian and Gothic novel, infusing a share of dark allusions with overzealous romanticism. The primitive cultures of the Victorian period reflect high ethical standards, an extreme respect for family life, and devotional qualities to God, all in which the novel portrays. Yet, to merely label Jane Eyre as a Victorian novel would be misleading. While the characteristics of a Gothic no...
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre represents the role of women in the Victorian era by giving the reader an insight into the lives of women from all social classes. Jane Eyre therefore represents figures of the Victorian time yet the character of Jane Eyre, herself, can be seen as very unconventional for the Victorian society.