Explain, with specific examples from the novel, How the writer’s

1282 Words3 Pages

Explain, with specific examples from the novel, How the writer’s

descriptions of location and setting reflect the changes inJane Eyre’s

character.

In this essay I will explain how Charlotte Bronte manages to change

the mood and feelings in Jane Eyre’s character by the description of

the location and setting. Throughout Jane Eyre, as Jane herself moves

from one physical location to another, the settings in which she finds

herself vary considerably. Bronte makes the most of this by carefully

arranging those settings, to match the differing circumstances Jane

finds herself in at each.

In this novel, Charlotte Bronte uses violence throughout the book to

keep the reader interested and also at the same time it creates a good

springboard for emotional and dramatical scenes. This is a great way

for Bronte, to express the different changes in Jane Eyre’s mood and

feelings. The first occurrence of this is when Jane physically

quarrels with her cousin John. This leads to Jane being locked up in

the Red Room in which her uncle died. This represents violence because

of the physical fighting and that the room is also red, which some

people think represents violence. Also, in the book Charlotte Bronte

uses the technique of pathetic fallacy to represent Jane’s moods e.g.

‘the cold winter wind had brought with it’s clouds so sombre, a rain

so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the

question’ (chapter 1, Page 9). This is a description of the weather at

Gateshead, showing that Jane’s inner mood is blank and miserable. She

feels unsure about her future, by not having a bare insight into her

life. As a young girl, Jane Eyre feels trapped at Gateshead, as if it

is her whole world.

In the first chapter, Charlotte Bronte makes a very good attempt at

describing Jane’s fear of John Reed, ‘He bullied and punished me; not

two or three times in the week, but continually: every nerve I had

feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came

near’ (Chapter 1, Page 12). This is a description of Jane’s fear that

she has of John. This shows that Jane could not be very happy and

would be frightened most of the time because of the bullying and

punishing John gave to her continually. Also in the first chapter,

Jane is excluded to the breakfast room and she went behind a closed

curtain reading quietly which was very enjoying for her, ‘I was then

happy: happy at least in my way’. This shows Jane’s happiness when she

is reading a book, In my own opinion I think Jane gets happy because

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