blog




  • Essay / Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - 400

    Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte depicts the life of a girl who is at odds with her place in the world. Her life of outrage is a life of hardship, as Jane Eyre's thoughts make clear as she sits alone in the Red Room. After being left in the room where her uncle died, Jane recognizes her emotions over all her conflicts in Gateshead. The Red Room is an important scene in Jane Eyre because it will haunt her for the rest of her life. Bronte uses the play to provide insight into Jane's feelings of abuse and her outcast status in the Reed family. The Red Room is presented as a huge expanse, housing furniture designed to be sturdy, describing the "massive pillars" (Bronte 10) of the bed frame, "the two large windows" (Bronte 10) and "the stacked mattresses" (Bronte 10). Brontë 11). The powerful description of the furniture creates the idea that Jane is just a speck in the room. You can imagine her standing there, looking around, marveling at the objects in the room, absorbing every detail. The description of the Red Room is very visual in the colors used by Bronte. Everything in the room is described as being dark or pale in tone. Dark shades are reserved for furniture, curtains and bedspreads; while lighter shades outline the walls and the armchair. The colors of the room foreshadow Jane's character and her feelings of anger, rage and fury in relation to her treatment at Gateshead. Being locked in the room gives her time to think: “Why have I always suffered, always intimidated, always accused, forever condemned? Why could I never please? (Bronté 11-12). Jane's repetition of the universal term "always" shows her character as feeling oppressed, incapable of being accepted. Jane believes that no matter what happens, she will never be accepted in Gateshead; there were too many people against her. Jane is constantly in a “mood of humiliation, of self-doubt, of hopeless depression” (Bronte 13) that prevents her from aspiring to greater things. Her depression leads her to thoughts of suicide and death. Bronte portrays Jane, in this scene, as weak and overwhelmed by the grief of her situation. She is alone with herself to think about her problems. The Red Room is a powerful scene that has great significance for Jane's character in the novel..