Jane Eyre Critics

Question 1

What Bronte said in a letter to her publisher?

Answer 1

‘The first duty of an Author is - I conceive - a faithful allegiance to Truth and Nature’
14th August 1848 letter to W. S, Williams

Question 2

What reaction should we have to Rochester’s celestial telegram?

Answer 2

Elizabeth Gaskell tells us that Charlotte insisted this scene should be taken as ‘a true thing - it really happened’

Question 3

Definition of supernatural?

Answer 3

Events attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
Ghosts, fairies, angels, demons, vampires, and psychic ability

Question 4

Gothic conventions?

Answer 4

Darkness/night, death, innocent victim, good v evil, abandoned setting, supernatural beings and romance

Question 5

What does Hogle argue?

Answer 5

Hogle argues that the gothic takes the form of the uncanny, used to force the white middle class to confront their secrets and desires in a Freudian manner

Question 6

What does CB’s mind contain?

Answer 6

Matthew Arnold wrote about Charlotte Bronte in 1853 - ‘her mind contains nothing but hunger, rebellion and rage.’ in response to her novel Villette.

Question 7

What Jane represents?

Answer 7

Elizabeth Rigby in The Quarterly Review in 1848 - ‘Jane Eyre is throughout the personification of an unregenerate and undisciplined spirit.’

Question 8

Jane’s sin?

Answer 8

Elizabeth Rigby in The Quarterly Review in 1848 - ‘Jane Eyre is throughout the personification of an unregenerate and undisciplined spirit.’

Question 9

The us of the double?

Answer 9

Claire Rosenfield suggests the double is used to juxtapose two characters, one representing the socially acceptable self and the other externalising the free, often criminal self

Question 10

How CB uses the gothic?

Answer 10

Heilman - ‘Gothic is used but characteristically is undercut’

Question 11

Gilbert and Gubar argument?

Answer 11

Jane parallels Bertha in her behaviour and rebellion against societal expectations

Question 12

Etymology of hysteria?

Answer 12

Comes from the Greek word hysteros, meaning womb, suggesting that mental illness comes from issues with the womb

Question 13

Parallels with The Yellow Wallpaper?

Answer 13

Parallel the Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story, as they are both locked in a room and kept in isolation as a response to their mental illness, in a treatment developed by Silas Weir Mitchell. She describes the wallpaper as ‘like a bad dream. Suggests that Bertha may be mad due to her captivity, not in captivity due to her madness

Question 14

Women and institutions?

Answer 14

In the 19th century, husbands could pay doctors to institutionalise their wives