Fire and Heat Imagery in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre Essay

VFW Post 9528 in Buckhead Ridge recently elected a new commander, and in doing so, became one of only seven posts in the state of Florida to ever elect a female commander. Patricia Yount is not only the first female commander of Post 9528, she is also the first in District 11, which includes Lake Placid, Fort Pierce, Jenson Beach, Vero Beach, Sebring, Stuart, Hobe Sound, Sebastian, and Okeechobee. The Veterans of Foreign Wars opened its membership to women in 1970, but men still outnumber women by a huge number. Commander Yount explains that her post has 313 members, and only four of those are female. She is working on ideas to attract more women, and hopes to implement them in the near future.

Jane is desperate for love and therefore her vibrant passion creates her vivid personality. Charlotte Bronte’s writing style is complex, and emotion filled. Her sentences are contain numerous adjectives and sensual images. Brontes unique style is powerful and strong and filled with emotion and imagery as we captures in the life of Jane eyre. Jane is a strong willed and a strong-minded individual which shines through even at her earliest years. Living a Gateshead, Jane displayed her strong nature. For example, Charlotte writes about Jane after she was hit by her cousin, “my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigor." (p. 22)

On page 83, Mr. Rochester has a “massive head”, “granite-hewn features” , “great dark eyes” and fine eyes too”. The reader is supposed to think of him as someone who is a predator towards Jane because of his mean looking and dark features and because of Jane’s past experience with men in power. Readers are supposed to be wary of Mister Rochester.

Furthermore, Jane says “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself” (Chapter 27, Bronte.) This statement greatly represents the growth that Jane has undergone. She no longer dreads the solitude that once haunted her because she respects herself enough to realize that she did not deserve to experience such great dismay. Through independence and self-recognition, Jane has discovered the importance of loving oneself. Without the reliance on the thoughts of others, the once extremely troubled girl found bliss through a lack of outside control. In regards to her relationship with Mr. Rochester, Jane understands that she must leave him behind to maintain her own well-being. She does not allow the wealth or proclaimed love from Rochester to skew her decisions and she does not linger to dominate the life of her lover. Instead, she moves forward to continue her endless pursuit of happiness and independence.

The definition for a motif is essentially an important idea or subject that is repeated throughout a book (Merriam-Webster). A motif of fire and ice was present in this novel through a binary of love and hate. In Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte, binaries were created using different elements within the novel, symbolism, imagery, etc. While profoundly reading Jane Eyre, I tracked the image/motif of fire and ice. The fire and ice are used throughout the story to thoroughly develop a binary between love and hate.

The love relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester is not one to be called "at first sight", because at their first encounter, Jane does not seem to feel any kind of attraction towards the one who in the end will become her husband. Their love grows steady, it is not spoken and it is built with baby-steps, through gestures I believe the two protagonists are not completely aware of. Jane finds Mr. Rochester fascinating in a good and bad way, at the same time: "The ease of his manner freed me from painful restraint; the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him" (Chapter 15). A new territory is revealed before Jane's eyes and her strict religious beliefs seem to fade in front of her growing passion for her master. The passion I am arguing about is so strong that it eventually makes the heroin think of nothing but her ideal lover. Passion is physically present in the novel through the symbol of fire, first in the night when Rochester's bed is set fire and finally, when the castle of Thornfield burns to the ground. In the first situation the reader surprises an intimate moment between the protagonists, when Jane rescues her master and he speaks to her in a manner which confused and yet gave her wings: "Strange energy was in his voice, strange fire in his look. [...] But he still retained my hand, and I could not free it. I bethought myself of an

“One is very crazy when in love” (Freud). Freud made this statement nearly one hundred years ago. As one of the founders of modern psychology what would he have to say about the mad woman in the attic? Was she mad, in love, suffering from hysteria, or simply a product of nature versus nurture? Neither of which were very kind to her. In Jane Eyre we as the readers are presented with a singular perspective in nearly true to form autobiographical narrative. From Jane’s viewpoint and from a mid 19th century depiction of mental illness, the original Mrs. Rochester is hardly a person to sympathize with. Yet there is much more to this tale that is desperately begging

So, Rochester showed the brother (Richard), the priest, and Jane his wife. He explained how Bertha had lit his bed on fire, stabbed Richard, and destroyed Jane’s wedding veil's; she was more a monster than a wife. Heartbroken by learning of this marriage, Jane fled to her room where she stayed for hours upon hours. "Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent expectant woman - almost a bride - was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate (341)." When she finally emerged, Rochester tried to convince her to stay with him. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment (363).” This was not something she could not do; as Rochester said, "...[It would] strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect (346)..." The next morning, Jane left Thornfield Hall with some money and few possessions. She did not say goodbye to

We first encounter this relationship between Jane and Rochester during their first dramatic meeting. She encounters him when he falls off his horse and she is required to give him assistance. Jane’s first impression of his face is that ‘He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’. This may portray the dimness in his face awaiting to be enlightened by a woman which, in this case Jane. Further on in this chapter, unaware of who he is, on her return home, Jane is amazed to discover that the gentleman she assisted in the road was her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane’s future relationship with Rochester is most clearly set out in their first meeting. Although without any money, reserved and socially dependent, Jane is not

The prevalence of fire imagery and it's multitude of metaphoric uses in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre expresses two things that could not be expressed openly in the Victorian Period, which are mainly passion and sexuality. Brontes writing was dictated by the morals of her society, but her ideas were not. Jane Eyre was written with the Victorian reader in mind. Bronte knew that if she were to write about these two things directly she would have to face possible rejection of her book. A resolution to this dilemma was to awaken the audience in a way that society deemed not only respectable, but also acceptable. So Bronte creates Jane, and Jane becomes the embodiment of

Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” has captivated readers for generations. As with all coming of age novels, young adults can relate to the struggles and triumphs of Jane. Jane’s setting influences and parallel her emotions. A reader can see the novel through her eyes and perspective. In Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” the location often parallels Jane’s emotional growth through the tone presented by the environment, resulting in the different places she lives revealing her journey through depression. Jane’s behavioral patterns and thoughts suggest clinical depression that affected her choices throughout the novel and her life at Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Marsh End, and Ferdean.

The article “Mass Over Mass Media” is written by Steven Pinker. Pinker is a professor in Psychology at Harvard University who focusses on visual cognation and psychology in language. He is well known for The Language Instinct & How the Mind Works. He was also listed as one of the most influential people out of 100 in the world. Also, he is known for his ongoing debate over how the internet has affected our world. Furthermore, author Steven Pinker, states his thesis in a peculiar way by stating that people often react in a rash way and make negative assumptions when it comes to inventions and their impacts. All forms of media have the power to draw a person in but that person must control themselves by using the information without abusing it. Consequently, social media and the internet have had a major impact on our daily lives from the way we work to the way we learn and socialize.

Power is an addiction. The less one has the more they desire. Addiction controls the body’s actions, and there is no way to stop it. Macbeth by Shakespeare contains details on the murder of the King of Scotland. Macbeth kills the king in order to fulfill a prophecy, and his mindset shifts from good to evil. Ultimately, he is beheaded for his heinous crimes. Nero, the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, commits crimes punishable of death in order to exemplify his power. He kills his mother, step brother, friends, and innocent people in the towns in order to get exactly what he wants. Nero is betrayed by many people because of his careless action, and he commits suicide to protect his pride. Macbeth and Nero both use ambition, greed, power, and deception to secure the highest positions in their lifetimes.

    Charlotte Bronte wrote the novel Jane Eyre in the mid-eighteen hundreds. In her novel she expresses her views on many important factors present during this time including social problems such as race, class, gender, and the role of religion. Each of these factors affects the way that the protagonist, Jane Eyre, grows as a person. Throughout the novel Charlotte Bronte uses images and symbols that either influence or represent Jane's growth. Bronte uses a common imagery throughout the novel reflecting images of "fire and ice." She also uses symbols in Jane's life such as the red-room, from her childhood, and the character Bertha Mason Rochester, during her time at Thornfield. Other characters who

Towards the end of the book, Rochester redeems himself to be made worthy for Jane. When Jane leaves Rochester, he is left with his mentally insane wife. Although, we have the impression that Rochester is a cold, harsh man, Charlotte soon portrays us that he is brave and is kind. We know this because, soon after Jane leaves, Bertha sets Thornfield Hall on fire, and then tries to jump off the roof. Rochester tries to stop her,