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Gothic Elements In Jane Eyre

Decent Essays

Gothic literature rose to fame in the late Victorian era, causing a global widespread of dark, horrific elements in writing. Gothic literature creates imagination of supernatural events and feelings of mystery and fear. In Charlotte Brontë’s Gothic novel, Jane Eyre, Jane’s character develops and perseveres past her difficult setbacks, finding her true love, Mr. Rochester, along her journey. Descriptions of Jane’s surroundings and character’s features highlight the dark, fearful feeling prominent in the novel. The Gothic elements in Jane Eyre are depicted through her experience in the red room, the setting of Thornfield Hall, and the atmosphere of ghostly mystery, thanks to the character of Bertha Mason. Jane’s confined, traumatic …show more content…

Upon arriving to start her new governess profession, Jane depicts the visual image of the home as that of a scary, old mansion. Although it is not a usual, Gothic castle, Thornfield Hall’s Gothic architecture and atmosphere displays intense uneasiness. Initially viewing the mansion, Jane notices “candle-light gleamed from one curtained bow-window,” with the rest in complete darkness (105). The ancestral home is in a remote, isolated location with many vacant, mysterious rooms and old, dark décor. In the third story of the mansion, the furniture depicted “the aspect of a home of the past—a shrine of memories” (118). Exploring the house, Jane enjoyed “listening with delight to the cawing of the rooks” (111). According to Brendan Hennessy, in “The Gothic Novel”, “The [Gothic] scene that hauntingly recurs is of large, black mysterious birds encircling a castle.” Jane further describes the dark setting with “an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, [and] knotty” (110). As Hennessy asserts, Gothic “buildings display all the paraphernalia of fear.” Correspondingly, these descriptions of Thornfield Hall provide a visual image that creates a threatening scenery and Gothic tone. The dark environment of secrets and ghosts, in relation to Bertha Mason, greatly advances the gruesome feeling of Gothic mystery. Throughout Jane’s experience at Thornfield Hall, she suspects various events and character’s motives. Hearing “a distinct, formal, mirthless” laugh, Jane

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