Jane Eyre-Bronte’s Nature Essay, Research Paper

Jane Eyre – Analysis of Nature

Charlotte Bronte makes use of nature imagery throughout Jane

Eyre, and comments on both the human relationship with the outdoors

and human nature. Webster s Collegiate Dictionary defines “nature” as

“1. the phenomena of the physical world as a whole . . . 2. a thing’s

essential qualities; a person’s or animal’s innate character . . . 4.

vital force, functions, or needs.” It will be seen how Jane Eyre

comments on all of these.

Several natural themes run through the novel, one of which is the

image of a stormy sea. After Jane saves Rochester’s life, she gives us

the following metaphor of their relationship: “Till morning dawned I

was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea . . . I thought sometimes I

saw beyond its wild waters a shore . . . now and then a freshening

gale, wakened by hope, bore my spirit triumphantly towards the bourne:

but . . . a counteracting breeze blew off land, and continually drove

me back.” The gale is all the forces that prevent Jane’s union with

Rochester. Later, Bront , whether it be intentional or not, conjures

up the image of a buoyant sea when Rochester says of Jane: “Your

habitual expression in those days, Jane, was . . . not buoyant.” In

fact, it is this buoyancy of Jane’s relationship with Rochester that

keeps Jane afloat at her time of crisis.

Another recurrent image is Bront ’s treatment of Birds. We first

witness Jane’s fascination when she reads Bewick’s History of British

Birds as a child. She reads of “death-white realms” and “‘the solitary

rocks and promontories’” of sea-fowl. We quickly see how Jane

identifies with the bird. For her it is a form of escape, the idea of

flying above the toils of every day life. Several times the narrator

talks of feeding birds crumbs. Bront is telling us that this

idea of escape is no more than a fantasy-one cannot escape when one

must return for basic sustenance. The link between Jane and birds is

strengthened by the way Bront writes about poor nutrition at Lowood

through a bird who is described as “a little hungry robin.”

Bront brings the buoyant sea theme and the bird theme together in

the passage describing the first painting of Jane’s that Rochester

examines. This painting depicts a turbulent sea with a sunken ship,

and on the mast perches a cormorant with a gold bracelet in its mouth,

apparently taken from a drowning body. While the imagery is perhaps

too imprecise to afford an exact interpretation, a possible

explanation can be derived from the context of previous treatments of

these themes. The sea is surely a metaphor for Rochester and Jane’s

relationship, as we have already seen. Rochester is often described as

a “dark” and dangerous man, which fits the likeness of a cormorant; it

is therefore likely that Bront sees him as the sea bird. As we shall

see later, Jane goes through a sort of symbolic death, so it makes

sense for her to represent the drowned corpse. The gold bracelet

can be the purity and innocence of the old Jane that Rochester managed

to capture before she left him.

Having established some of the nature themes in Jane Eyre, we

can now look at the natural idea of the novel: the passage

between her flee from Thornfield and her acceptance into Morton.

In leaving Thornfield, Jane has severed all her connections; she has

cut through any umbilical cord. After only taking a small

parcel with her from Thornfield, she leaves even that in the

coach she rents. Gone are all references to Rochester, or even her

past life. A “sensible” heroine might have gone to find her

uncle, but Jane needed to leave her old life behind.

Jane is seeking a return to the womb of mother nature.

We see how she seeks protection as she searches for

a resting place. It is the moon, part of nature,

that sends Jane away from Thornfield.

Seeing herself as unfaithful, Jane is seeking an existence

in nature where everything is simpler. Bront was surely not

aware of the large number of species of bird that practice

polygamy. While this fact is irrelevant to the novel,…

The rest of the paper is available free of charge to our registered users. The registration process just couldn’t be easier.
Log in or register now. It is all free!
33a