Thornfield Flashcards
Thornfield
Thorns- difficult time for Jane
“battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look”
Juxtaposition hints at the conflict Jane will endure
‘Gytrash’- Rochester falling from horse
Hints of the gothic and supernatural
“The human being broke the spell at once”
Rochester brings Jane back to reality
“He laid a heavy hand on my shoulder and leaning on me with some stress limped to his horse”
Rochester is a typical Byronic Hero influenced by Lord Byron
It is also significant that Rochester is disabled during their first meeting.
Immediate bond between them is evident to the reader as he leans on her
Having fallen from his horse, Rochester requires Jane’s assistance. Many critics have argued that this incident helps to establish equality between the two characters. It also foreshadows Rochester’s dependence upon Jane at the end of the novel
“I am sure most people would have thought him an ugly man”
Unconventionally attractive
“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculty.”
The assertion that women feel the same as men was revolutionary in an age in which men and women were ideologically positioned as complementary opposites in the doctrine of ‘separate spheres’
“Remorse is the poison of life”-R
“Repentance is said to be its cure”-J
Jane is intellectual and matches with Rochester’s philosophy
“You never felt jealousy, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love.”
Jealousy becomes the key way that Rochester seeks to manipulate Jane into loving him
“forsaken by her mother and disowned by you sir- i shall cling closer to her than ever before”
Jane wants to be a motherly figure to Adele as she did not receive that in her childhood
She can see herself in Adele
“This was a demoniac laugh- low, supressed, and deep”
Supernatural linked to the gothic
Link to hell
“It is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them”
Jane’s love is desperate and she is ready to let it consume her
Uncontrollable nature can link to Bertha
“There has been a fire, get up”
Rochester is the damsel in distress and Jane saves him
“Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain”
Jane views herself as her class
Jane comes to the decision that her suspicions about Rochester’s feelings towards her are just childish fancy. She decides to overcome her emotions by painting two portraits: an imaginary one of Blanche which she makes as beautiful as possible, and a dowdy one of herself, entitled
“You want your fortune told?”
Rochester is manipulative and playful
“I hope to save money enough out of my earnings to set up a school”
Blanche is a foil to Jane as Jane wants to be independent whereas Blanche wants to rely on a man
“I need not sell my soul to buy bliss”
Head vs Heart
Jane desires to be independent
“I had a string somewhere under my left ribs”
Biblical imagery of Adam and Eve
Jane was made perfectly for Rochester and they belong together
“Do you think i am an automaton- a machine without feelings”
“Do you think because i am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless- you think wrong!”
Bronte is breaking the stereotypes that were so prevalent at the time that women should remain weak and submissive.
“We stood at God’s feet, equal-as we are!”
Radical viewpoint
J+R are each others equals
“I am no bird and no net ensnares me: i am a free human being with an independent will, which i now exert to leave you”
Bird imagery
Jane is tearing herself apart
“Jane accept me quickly”
Everything is rushed
Power has switched to Jane now
“The great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night and half of it split away”
Splitting apart foreshadows the destruction of the relationship and Thornfield. But the half still standing may suggest that Rochester will always wait for Jane and they will always find each other. Always connected
“His smile was such as a Sultan”
Ironic as Rochester has a wife already so Bronte is suggesting he is like a Sultan.
wedding-“my blood felt their subtle violence as it had never felt frost or fire”
fire vs ice
passion is dying as Jane is overwhelmed
“shivered in my heart like a suffering child in a cold cradle”
Isolating herself
Link to womb imagery in Gateshead
Ice imagery linking to her cold childhood
She is heartbroken and feels helpless
“I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God”
Jane stays true to herself as she has good morals and trusts in God.
