How Does Charlotte Bronte Use Nature In Jane Eyre

In Bronte’s Jane Eyre, nature reveals Jane’s internal emotions and growth that she has difficulty expressing for herself. Bronte utilizes nature as her expression of what Jane has trapped inside. Jane finds her happiness in nature as well as the ability to grow past what she experienced in her troubling past. Nature acts as guidance for the reader to decipher Jane’s complicated emotions that she doesn’t show. Charlotte Bronte uses nature to parallel Jane's emotions as well as her evolution from a small, unhappy child, to a grown, mature woman.

For Jane, life at Gateshead is miserable, and dreary under the control of her aunt and cousins. She lives with her only living family members, who all wish that she didn’t even exist. She spends each

When Jane first goes to the school that she would call home for eight years of her life, she finds out it is not quite what she expected. All of the teachers are strict and there is always the dreaded Mr. Brocklehurst to look out for and there always seems to be a permanent fog over the grounds. It is when she meets Helen that the fog only starts to clear. Helen is her best and only friend that she can count on to better her mood, and therefore, the weather itself. Later in her stay at Lowood, Jane finds herself having an ever better mood. She is starting to enjoy herself and her schooling experience. One day, she even notices how lovely the weather is outside, “Spring drew on, she was indeed already come;...suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night,...like scatterings of the sweetest lustre (95-96). This change in weather from a cold, harsh winter to a warm, lovely spring can symbolize Jane’s improving emotions. This change represents Jane growing up and coming of age. Jane was stuck in childhood when she was in Gateshead, but now that she is getting her essential education, she is able to grow, and the weather shows this. The transition of the weather, her mood, and her maturity can all be seen as related and an influence on each other. As Jane is maturing, warmer, more beautiful nature can be