Lecture 4 Reading Jane Eyre p 68 100

Lecture 4 Reading Jane Eyre (p: 68 -100) • Narrating Jane Eyre • Pictured Thoughts: Language and imagery in Jane Eyre • Jane Eyre and social comment • The governess novel and the ‘woman question’ • Realism, romance and the gothic

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a realist novel with a blend of voices or sub-genres. (realism, romance, domestic, gothic, bildungsroman) • Bakhtin and the concept of dialogic form “JE is a medley of competing ‘voices which’ interrupt but do not silence one another”. (p: 68) • * hybridization

Narrating Jane Eyre (p: 69 -74) • The opening of the novel: • “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day” • “cold winter” “sombre clouds” “penetrating rain” “drear November day” “a pale blank of mist and cloud” “storm-beat shrub” “long and lamentable blast”→ atmosphere outdoors reflects the protagonist’s mood. Isolated and outside. (G. H. Lewes and V. Woolf’s comment p: 80 -81) • 1 st person narrator “I was glad of it: I never liked long walks…” Direct speech • Narrator’s sensations are kept under our focus through the constant use of I and me. Tension is stressed through inversion of word order eg: “Me, she had dispensed from joining the rest of the group”. • Alienation of JE, hostile environment and combative relationship (read Chapt 1 of novel)

Jane Eyre • Jane’s story is an autobiography. It is a bildungsroman. This genre started in Germany and reflects the interest in child psychology in 18 th C. • 1 - The child Jane: We sympathize with her for being tyrannized over by John Reed • 2 - The older Jane: Interacts analytically with her situation • 3 - The mature Jane: The young woman and governess from whose narrative, the reader senses her angry and revolting younger Jane. • 1 st person narrative heightens the drama of Jane’s situation (read excerpt p: 16 &17 JE) Compare with J. Austen’s 3 rd person narrative (p 72 RN) and compare the detached voice of the adult narrator and the tension-packed voice of the child Jane • The heroine’s experiences are described from an external rather than from an internal perspective → Dramatic showing is more important in JE. • Direct address in 1 st person narrative “Reader, I married him”

• • • Recapitulation 1 st person narrative Adult narrator Dramatic showing Direct reader address Bronte alleviates the subjectivity of the narrative instigated by the child Jane.

Pictured thoughts: Language and imagery (p: 74 -82) • Bronte deviates from the conventional novel form with the intensive use of imagery- emotive adjectivesword inversion- dramatic use of syntax →poetic style of prose narrative. • Some critics claim that poetic style is remote from everyday life. J. King sees that “the literariness of JE functions as a reminder that it should not be confused • with a slice of life. ” (p: 75 RN) • Bronte’s criticism of J. Austen’s plain language. • Use of imagery → Realist and non-realist elements combine to dramatize Jane’s psyche. (p: 17 JE).

• Instances of imagery: (p: 195 -202) Rochester disguised as a gypsy • Jane’s passions, rage, desire, wind, earthquake, fire, judgment, flame, flickers in the eye, red cloak and red room…(p: 75 RN) Imagery pertaining to Jane’s visit to Mrs. Reed: (p: 23040) Icily, stony, fire and violence, ice-cold, clammy hands, eye of flint, cold lid, fire within and snow without, fire and snow: two literal metaphorical extremes. Quote the intensive use of imagery (p: 78 RN) in the opposing contrastive views which reflect Jane’s feelings

The relationship between location and imagery. 5 locations represent the stages of Jane’s development. (p: 78 RN) 1 - Gateshead, where Jane was an isolated child, in the red room. 2 - Lowood, with a harsh environ tempered by Mrs. Temple’s care. 3 - Thornfield, Jane as governess, fire connotes anticipated danger. 4 - Moor House, warm family relationship. 5 - Ferndean, balance of opposites and compromise of extremes in Jane’s character. G. H. Lewes believes that Jane has the power of connecting external appearances with internal effects.

• Bronte is inspired by Bewick’s use of imagery “ A fresh delight is found in every enchanted page where pictured thoughts… breathe and speak and burn. ” Quote V. Woolf’s praise of the Bronte sisters’ use of poetic ingenuity (p: 79. RN)

Jane Eyre and social comment (83 -8 RN) • Bronte was praised for blending ‘psychological insight with realistic experience’ • Reality not only with characters and events, but with the description of entourage, scenery and nature. • Literary and social critics: Jane Eyre is a socially engaged novel. ‘the condition of England’, a novel of its ‘decade’. (1840’s) • Marxist critics: Issues of class. Jane is exiled from her class. Struggles to identify with a secure social order. • Feminist critics: Radical ideologies of gender.

The governess novel and the woman question • The romantic type: The governess is highly-estimated by a gentleman and ends up marrying him. • The providential type: An autobiography of a heroine who experiences moral growth towards salvation and God’s providence. • Jane is a no romantic figure. “You admire her. . Love her for the strong will, honest mind, loving heart and peculiar but fascinating person. ” (p: 84. RN) • Being a governess gave Jane a partial independence. As in P&P, financial security is a crucial matter. • Female authorship. Eg of the Bronte sisters using pseudonyms, G. Eliot for Mary Evans. . (p: 88. RN)

Realism Romance and the Gothic (p: 88) • Jane Eyre is a blend of multiple ‘genres which interrupt, but do not silence each other’ • Fusion of realism and romance. • Romantic elements: symbolic, extraordinary eg: the gothic figure of the mad woman in the attic. • Pathetic fallacy: nature colored by the light of the soul: Poetic ingenuity. • Tradition of fairy tale: late discovery of her inheritance and her blood relation to the Rivers. • Realistic elements: psychological and physical detail. • Realist domestic mode of governess novels • Ordinary and contemporary • Plausibility of events and characters