The document provides background information on Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It discusses how the novel is considered highly autobiographical and influenced by Bronte's own life experiences. Key elements of the Gothic novel are also examined, such as the haunted settings and supernatural occurrences. Symbols and themes in the novel like feminism, social class, religion, and search for identity and family are then outlined in more detail.

2. Jane Eyre
by
charlotte Bronte
Presented by: Laza Saleem
Roll # 14
M.Phil. English

3. Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell:
Charlotte Bronte Emily Bronte Anne Bronte
1847
Jane Eyre as Autobiography

4. Introduction
Jane Eyre is a novel by English author
charlotte Bronte(21STApril 1816- 31ST
March 1855).It was published in
London, England in 1847 with the title
jane Eyre. An autobiography under the
pen name “Currer Bell.”

6. Jane Eyre is thought to be highly
autobiographical.
1. Bronte included many events in
the novel that paralleled her own life.
2.she used a masculine pen name.

7. Jane Eyre is a Victorian novel that
chronicles a woman’s quest for love
and search for identity. First published
in 1847, the book became a bestseller
and established a platform for feminist
writing in the 19th century.

9. Jane Eyre
and the Gothic Plot
• “Dark Romanticism”
• Mystery
• Haunted castle or house
• Dreaming and nightmares
• Doppelgänger or alter ego
• Physical imprisonment
• Psychological entrapment and helplessness
• Involvement of the supernatural
• Psychology of horror and/or terror
Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare, 1781

19. Summary
• Ten-year-old orphan Jane Eyre lives unhappily with her wealthy,
cruel cousins and aunt at Gateshead. Her only salvation from
her daily humiliations, such as being locked up in a "red-room"
(where she thinks she sees her beloved uncle's ghost), is the
kindly servant, Bessie. Jane is spared further mistreatment from
the Reed family when she is sent off to school at Lowood, but
there, under the artificial religious belief of the headmaster, Mr.
Brocklehurst, she suffers further privations in the simple
environment. She befriends Helen Burns, who upholds a
doctrine of Christian forgiveness and tolerance, and is taken
under the wing of the superintendent, Miss Temple. An
outbreak of typhus alerts benefactors to the school's terrible
conditions, Mr. Brocklehurst is replaced, and Jane excels as a
student for six years and as a teacher for two.

20. Continue…..
• Jane finds employment as a governess at the estate
of Thornfield for a little girl, Adele. After much
waiting, Jane finally meets her employer, Edward
Rochester, a brooding, detached man who seems to
have a dark past. Other oddities around Thornfield
include the occasional demonic laugh Jane hears
emanating from the third-story attic. Rochester
always attributes it to Grace Poole, the seamstress
who works up there, but Jane is never fully
convinced, and the fire she has to put out one night
in Rochester's bedroom plants further doubts.

21. Continue….
• Meanwhile, Jane develops an attraction for Rochester, not
based on looks (both are considered plain) but on their
intellectual communion. However, the higher social standing
of the beautiful Miss Ingram seemingly vaults her above Jane.
Though Rochester flirts with the idea of marrying Miss
Ingram, he is aware of her financial ambitions for marriage.
An old acquaintance of Rochester's, Richard Mason, visits
Thornfield and is severely injured from an attack 'apparently
from Grace in the middle of the night in the attic. Jane,
baffled by the circumstances, tends to him, and Rochester
confesses to her that he made an error in the past that he
hopes to overturn by marrying Miss Ingram. He says that he
has another governess position for Jane lined up elsewhere.

22. Continue….
• Jane returns to Gateshead for a while to see the dying Mrs.
Reed. When she returns to Thornfield, Rochester says he
knows Miss Ingram is after him only for his money, and he
asks Jane to marry him. Jane accepts, but a month later,
Mason and a solicitor, Mr. Briggs, interrupt the ceremony
by revealing that Rochester already has a wife: Bertha
Mason, Mason's sister, a lunatic who is kept in the attic in
Thornfield. Rochester confesses his past misdeeds to Jane.
In his youth he needed to marry the wealthy Bertha for
money, but was unaware of her family's history of
madness, and over time she became an
incorrigible(hopeless), dangerous part of his life which only
imprisonment could solve. Despite his protests that he
loves Jane, she cannot agree to marry him because of his
previous marriage, and leaves Thornfield.

23. Continue…..
• Jane arrives at the desolate crossroads of Whit cross
and is reduced to begging for food. Fortunately, the
Rivers siblings “St. John, Diana, and Mary” take her
into their home at Moor House. She develops great
affection for the ladies, while the stoically religious
St. John is harder to get close to, and happily
teaches at St. John's school. Jane learns that she
has inherited a vast fortune from her uncle, and
that the Rivers siblings are her cousins. She divides
it among her new family and phases out her
teaching duties.

24. Continue…..
• St. John is going to go on missionary work in India and
repeatedly asks Jane to accompany him as his wife; she refuses,
since it would mean compromising her capacity for passion in a
loveless marriage. Instead, she is drawn to thoughts of
Rochester and, one day, after experiencing a mystical
connection with him, seeks him out at Thornfield. She discovers
that the estate has been burned down by Bertha, who died in
the fire, and that Rochester, who was blinded in the incident,
lives nearby. He is overjoyed when she locates him, and relates
his side of the mystical connection Jane had. He and Jane marry
and enjoy life together, and he regains his sight in one eye.
Diana and Mary both marry, while St. John continues his
unmarried to try to persuade people to join a religion in India.

26. Family
The main quest in Jane Eyre is Jane's search for family, for a sense of
belonging and love. However, this search is constantly tempered by
Jane’s need for independence. She begins the novel as an unloved
orphan who is almost obsessed with finding love as a way to establish
her own identity and achieve happiness.
Fire and Ice
The motifs of fire and ice permeate the novel from start to finish. Fire is
presented as positive, creative, and loving, while ice is seen as
destructive, negative, and hateful. Bronte highlights this dichotomy by
associating these distinct elements with particular characters: the cruel
or detached characters, such as Mrs. Reed and St. John, are associated
with ice, while the warmer characters, such as Jane, Miss Temple, and
Mr. Rochester, are linked with fire.

27. Religion
Jane receives three different models of Christianity throughout the
novel, all of which she rejects either partly or completely before finding
her own way.
Social position
Bronte uses the novel to express her critique of Victorian class
differences. Jane is consistently a poor individual within a wealthy
environment, particularly with the Reeds and at Thornfield. Her poverty
creates numerous obstacles for her and her pursuit of happiness,
including personal insecurity and the denial of opportunities. The
beautiful Miss Ingram's higher social standing, for instance, makes her
Jane's main competitor for Mr. Rochester’s love, even though Jane is far
superior in terms of intellect and character.

28. Gothic elements
Bronte uses many elements of the Gothic literary
tradition to create a sense of suspense and drama in
the novel. First of all, she employs Gothic techniques
in order to set the stage for the narrative. The
majority of the events in the novel take place within a
gloomy mansion (Thornfield Manor) with secret
chambers and a mysterious demonic laugh belonging
to the Madwoman in the Attic. Bronte also evokes a
sense of the supernatural, incorporating the terrifying
ghost of Mr. Reed in the red-room and creating a sort
of telepathic connection between Jane and Mr.
Rochester.

29. Symbols
The Red Room
This is the room where a young Jane is confined when
her aunt, Mrs. Reed, who raises the orphaned child to
the age of ten, punishes her. For Jane, the red room is
a place of terror. Here, she thinks she sees monsters
and demons. The red room is Jane's fear of her own
anger and her own power. In the early 1800s, women
were expected to be submissive and gentle creatures.
The model of the Angel in the House, an ideal of
feminine purity and goodness, prevailed throughout
much of the 19th century.

30. Eyes
The eyes are the windows to the soul in Jane
Eyre. Jane is especially attracted to Mr.
Rochester's black and brilliant eyes, which
symbolize his temper and power. After Mr. Rochester
loses his eyesight in the fire, Jane becomes his
eyes: metaphorically, Jane now holds the position of
mastery. Bertha has bloodshot eyes that match her
violent nature. The novel also emphasizes the
mind's eye—an active imagination.
Eyes

31. In Jane Eyre, food symbolizes generosity,
nourishment, and bounty, and hunger symbolizes
cruelty and a lack of nourishment. Bronte uses food
and hunger to reveal how people treat each other—
who is charitable, and who isn't. For instance, the lack
of food at Lowood reveals the school's cruelty and
religious hypocrisy. Ms. Temple, on the other hand,
provides food and is compassionate and generous.
Food has religious significance in the novel as well—
physical hunger represents a deeper spiritual craving.
Food

32. Through dreams and
drawings, Jane visualizes her deepest
feelings. Jane's portfolio contains pictures
that symbolize her life. Portraits can also
stand in for people's characters. Jane
compares her portraits of herself
and Blanche Ingram.
Portraits and Pictures

34. Feminism in Jane Eyre
Feminism has been a prominent and controversial
topic in writings for some time. In Charlotte Bronte's
Jane Eyre the main character, Jane Eyre, explores the
depth at which women may act in society and finds
her own boundaries in Victorian England. As well,
along with the notions of feminism often follow the
subjects of class distinctions and boundaries.

35. FEMINIST CRITIQUE
.The mad woman in the attic. The woman writer and the 19th
century literary imagination, published in 1979’ examines
Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. authors Sandra Gilbert
and Susan Gubar draw their title from charlotte Bronte's jane Eyre, in
which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic.
.Bertha becomes the symbol of the female characters in English fiction,
victims of society whose stories are forced to silence and told
uniquely by male points of view.
.At this stage we are ready to try to reread Bertha’s story
from a post colonial perspective.

37. The great advance in the education of girls
and women may be tracked back to the
early activities of the “governesses’
Benevolent” institution, founded in 1843.
these schools were founded to make
teaching a profession for women. In
London were founded King’s college and
queen’s college , as a home for these and
other classes allow to present themselves
at the “Local" examinations of Cambridge.

38. I dream of a day when everyone will have access to education
and knowledge whatever their job or station in life. Every
person should be allowed to grow intellectually and morally
through education.

39. Conclusion
Charlotte Bronte gave a new concept of marriage in the novel.
Jane Eyre is quite independent in deciding her future with
Rochester. She rejects him after knowing about his first wife
and later accepts him without any compulsion.
She is also economically independent. Unlike the other
women, she does not depend on anyone and earns her
livelihood. Throughout the novel Charlotte Bronte stresses on
three things:
1. Rights of Children
2. Right to the occupation for women.
3.The right of governesses.

40. Morality and intellectuality transcend the
division between sexes; both men and
women are subject to the same vices and
virtues. Therefore, Bronte argues, men and
women should be subject to the same
advantages of education, so as both sexes
may exercise their minds, and maintain
themselves morally.