Jane Eyre Essay 3

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Discuss the importance of nature in the novel Jane Eyre and how nature

allows the reader to understand the character Jane Eyre. Illustrate your answer with,
at least, one example from the novel, and explain what the moon symbolizes in Jane
Eyre’s life.

The role of nature in Jane Eyre is expressed in a recurring way, as an underlying


layer that helps to merge all the events, both past, and future that the reader is still
unaware of. From the beginning, the element of birds, as a reiterative motif throughout
the novel, seems to suggest a symbol of the freedom and independence that Jane
seeks, acting as a metaphor to understand her character. There are numerous
moments in which this can be observed: when Jane, as a child, is punished for the first
time, she is reading a book about birds; Mr. Rochester compares her to an "eager bird"
(chapter XXVII) when he tries to convince her to stay with him, even after knowing that
he was married, but then, in the same chapter, Jane refers to birds as "emblems of
love" and "fidelity", something that she is unable to recognize within herself. The
author uses more bird-related similes: "impotent as a bird with both wings broken"
(chapter XXVIII), "cherishing a half-frozen bird some wintry wind" (chapter XXIX),
"stranger birds like me" (chapter XXII), etc.
Weather phenomena are also elements that cannot be ignored. On many
occasions, they exteriorized what Jane felt at a certain moment. Jane describes, when
she arrives at Lowood, a cold winter that hinders her peace, and that with the passing
of her adaptation to the boarding school and obtaining good grades, it becomes a
placid spring. At Thornfield Hall, after Mr. Rochester proposed to Jane, a fierce storm
unleashes a lightning strike that ends up destroying the tree where the
aforementioned declaration of love took place. For Jane, it was an ominous harbinger
that would eventually become a horrible certainty.
As for the moon, one could say that it represents drastic changes in Jane's life.
Although it does not always appear as a herald of good news, it does appear as a
bringer of change. The moonlight illuminated Jane as she dressed to leave Gateshead,
and it also lit up her steps in the dark night as she prepared to visit the dying Helen
Burns. Together with Mr. Rochester, the moon makes its mark on Jane's proposal, and
the most telling scene of all, when Jane hears Mr. Rochester's call while she is at Moor
House, in the company of St. John Rivers and her sisters.
In actuality, nature is what gives Jane Eyre the mystical and esoteric feel that
many have identified with other Gothic novels of the time. Charlotte Brontë knew how
to combine all these elements and bring them together with superb mastery in the
novel.

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