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Jane Eyre Gothic Conventions

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A gothic novel is a “highly unstable genre” and is characterised by the following features: violence, supernatural encounters, complicated family histories, dark secrets, remote locations as well as mysteries to create an atmosphere of suspense and terror, which are all predominantly seen in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre. The inceptive setting Jane Eyre is introduced in, instantly marks the very first use of gothic convention which is continued throughout this novel along with the aspect of violence and the problematic nature of secrets and mysteries which engulf the novel’s core. The vulnerability of Jane Eyre's childhood, loss of innocence and exposure to death, rejection, abuse and disease at such an early age due to her initial complicated …show more content…

Mason in Thornfield Hall, where Jane Eyre, now as a young adult, finds herself employed as a governess of a young girl called Adele: 'I recognised in his pale and seemingly lifeless face - the stranger, Mason: I saw too that his linen on one side, and one arm, was almost soaked in blood'. Various violent scenarios are introduced within this setting, and occur as a result of a gory secret which is not yet apparent to the reader. This purposeful gothic convention used adds to the overall ambiguity and tension within the novel which was at first established in Jane's childhood journey and the first encounter of the unknown attempted murder of Mr. Rochester: 'Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of the blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep'. This common theme of characters, such as Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre, being prone to violence as a result of their vulnerability within an endangered situation further adds to the tension and development of this gothic …show more content…

Rochester's wife): ‘the mad woman in the attic’, when she leapt to her death from the roof of Thornfield Hall with 'her brains and blood... scattered', resulted in the violent destruction of the house which turned into 'a blackened ruin' with 'the silence of death about it: the solitude of a lonesome wild'. This violent death of the secret surrounding the novel's core is what resulted in Mr. Rochester’s highly vulnerable state, becoming 'blind and a cripple', further adding to the violent gothic convention used throughout the novel which all acted as a springboard to the dramatic and emotional aspects in Jane Eyre and to the final revelation of Bertha, acting as a major moment of

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