Nature Imagery and Themes in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre :: Jane Eyre Essays

Charlotte Bronte makes use of disposition imagery finishedout Jane Eyre, and comments on both(prenominal) the human relationship with the outdoors and human nature. The Oxford Reference Dictionary defines nature as 1. the phenomena of the physical world as a whole . . . 2. a things essential qualities a persons or animals innate character . . . 4. vital force, functions, or needs. We will see how Jane Eyre comments on all of these. several(prenominal) natural themes puff through the novel, cardinal of which is the image of a stormy sea. After Jane saves Rochesters life, she gives us the following metaphor of their relationship Till morning dawned I was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea . . . I plan sometimes I saw beyond its wild waters a shore . . . now and then a freshening gale, wakened by hope, bore my kernel triumphantly towards the bourne but . . . a counteracting breeze blew off land, and continually drove me back. The gale is all the forces that prevent Janes unio n 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 fashion in those days, Jane, was . . . not buoyant. In fact, it is this buoyancy of Janes relationship with Rochester that keeps Jane afloat at her time of crisis in the heath Why do I crusade to retain a valueless life? Because I know, or believe, Mr. Rochester is living. other recurrent image is Bronts treatment of Birds. We first witness Janes fascination when she reads Bewicks accounting 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. Perhaps 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 mingled with Jane and birds is strengthened by the way Bront adumbrates poor nutrition at Lowood through a bird who is described as a little athirst(p) robin. Bront brings the buoyant sea theme and the bird theme together in the passage describing the first painting of Janes that Rochester examines.