Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre - Gothic Elements: Setting and Romantic Features

1. General features of gothic fiction (Hogle 2)

- antiquated places: castle, mansion, abbey, prison, crypt, graveyard, ruins

- hidden secrets -> haunting (psychologically, physically) linked to unresolved crimes,
-

repressed desires
supernatural manifestations: ghosts, spectres, monsters -> representations of
repressed feelings (guilt, desires, social norms)
no resolution (what is real / what is imaginary)

2. Setting
Setting

locations correspond to a specific stage in Janes life (e.g.

Gateshead - childhood )
telling names: Gateshead, Lo(w)wood, Thorn-field, Moor House,
Ferndean

Romantic &
Gothic
elements

Gateshead Hall

J. realises how the abuse by the Gateshead is a cruel place that

Reeds is transforming her (half
threatens to harm Janes
fairy / half imp)
development (deformation).

Apparition in
the Red
Room

Lowood Charity
School

Jane experiences both negative

& and positive aspects of
human nature and develops a
sense of independence

Initially a place full of hardship,

that shows Jane how deceitful
and hypocritical man can be,
she also experiences true
friendship and finds a home

Experience of
nature
Death of
Helen Burns

Thornfield Hall

At Thornfield Jane matures,

both emotionally and morally
Though mostly a place of
positive experiences, there is
the constant threat of
Rochesters past looming over it

Jane falls in love with Rochester Madwoman in

-> discovery of passion and
the attic
desire for romantic relationship
Rochester
(byronic hero)
Jane faces a moral dilemma
when she finds out Rochester is Romantic
already married
relationship
with
Rochester /
Bond
between Jane
and
Rochester
dream / vision

Moor House

A refuge, where Jane can

recover. She is again faced with
a dilemma. By resolving it, she
completes her personal
development

Jane recovers at Moor House

and has to decide whether to
follow reason or emotion,
individuality or social norms, St.
John Rivers or Rochester

reason vs.
emotion
telepathic
contact with
Rochester

Ferndean

Both Rochester and Jane find

peace and fulfilment

Rochester ist morally restored

(and partially even physically)

Rochesters
Transformation

3. Charlotte Bronts New Gothic

(seemingly) supernatural events lead to both plot development & character development

- Apparition in the Red Room -> Jane has an epiphany & confronts Mrs. Reed -> Jane is
sent to Lowood Charity School
- Laughter in Thornfield Hall / Meeting with the stranger (Rochester) -> Jane realises her
own passionate nature and a wish for a life less ordinary
the symbolic () modifies the Gothic (Heilman 120) -> use of gothic elements in more
than a stereotypical way
- Mrs. Rochester tears the wedding veil in two -> ruined wedding plans
- Thornfield burns down -> Rochesters purgatory fire
- the grim, near roadless forest around Ferndean -> Rochesters closed-in life
supernatural events used to display deep and complex nature of the characters
feelings and relationships:
- apparition in the Red Room -> epiphany
- final dream at Thornfield -> reveal Janes ambiguous feelings towards Rochester
- telepathic connection with Rochester -> Janes realises her feelings towards
Rochester and Rivers & returns to Rochester
Rochesters portrayal as a byronic anti-hero:
- Rochesters ambiguous nature is not only a source of temptation (passive) but also one
of emotional realization (active) for Jane. Bront accomplishes this by integrating the
Byronic anti-hero in a realistic narrative (Ceron 30) and enabling his lover to transform him.
4. Conclusion
Charlotte Bront uses gothic elements in a new and innovative way to expand and
intensify the emotional depth of her characters.
[The] function of Gothic (is) to open horizons beyond social patterns, rational decisions, and
institutionally approved emotions; in a word, to enlarge the sense of reality and its impact on the
human being. It became then a great liberator of feeling () Bront uses gothic elements to give
dramatic form to impulses and feelings which, because of their depth and mysteriousness or
intensity or ambiguity, or of their ignoring or transcending everyday norms of propriety or reason,
increase wonderfully the sense of reality in the novel. (Heilman 131)

5. Sources
Ceron, Cristina Emily and Charlotte Bronts Re-reading of the Byronic hero. Revue LISA/LISA e-journal
Document 2 (09.03.2010). Web. 03.05.2015 http://lisa.revues.org/3504
Heilman, Robert. Charlotte Bronts New Gothic. From Jane Austen to Joseph Conrad. Eds. Robert C.
Rathburn and Martin Steinmann Jr. Minneapolis: UP Minnesota, 1967. 118-132. Print. (first published in
1958)
Hogle, Jerrold E. Ed. Introduction: the Gothic in western culture. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic
Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 1-20. Print.
Yeazell, Ruth B. More True Than Real: Jane Eyres Mysterious Summons. Nineteenth-Century Fiction
29.2 (1974): 127-143. Print.