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Charlotte Bronte, in writing the novel Jane Eyre uses a great deal of symbolic imagery to convey various themes throughout the novel. The most interesting type of imagery is Bronte's use of fire and ice imagery to develop the characters of the novel and show the struggle the character of Jane Eyre goes through. Fire most commonly represents passions. While fire and passion can provide warmth and comfort, they can also burn.
Ice, or water, symbolizes calm reason, devoid of passion. Ice and reason can provide calm and soothing comfort, but they to can also burn. Throughout the novel, Jane goes back and forth between these two temptations, trying to achieve the right balance between the two, while still preserving her own self. To develop the character of Jane, Bronte uses a great deal of fire imagery. This is most evident at Gateshead.
The novel opens with Jane seating herself at the window-seat. She draws shut the red curtains around her, effectively closing herself off. Jane sees through the window the cold and gloomy outside world. The winter landscape represents society, cold and emotionless.
The curtains, representing Janes passionate nature, symbolize how Janes fiery personality alienate her from society. A short while later, John Reed, representing a male-dominated society, enters the room in search of Jane. When John attempts to assert his dominance over Jane, she is unable to control her passionate nature and retaliates. As punishment for giving in to her fiery side, Jane is locked inside the red-room.
Obviously, the color red is of importance here. Red is the color of fire and heat, and represents passion and fury. Jane describes the red rooms, massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask (15), which represents her very passionate nature. At the same time, Jane also describes the red-room as being very cold, having an icy chill. The cold room, devoid of emotion symbolizes the way society thinks people should behave.
When Aunt Reed locks Jane in the red-room, she is locking Janes fiery nature in with the cold emotion that would temper Janes passionate side. This very effectively demonstrates society's response to a female who is not quiet and docile. It also shows that strict social tenets severely limit Jane in her attempt to express her passion and her self. Ice, or water, imagery also plays an important role in defining Janes character. One of the paintings that Jane shows to Rochester is an apt example of this.
The first painting that is described shows death by drowning. Also, the swollen sea (128) in the painting gives the impression of impending danger. Jane sees the water as a locking out of passion and emotion. She believes that if she were to follow society by acting docile and unemotional, it would destroy her true self, her passion and emotion. She feels that if her passion were taken away, all that will be left is a cold, unemotional corpse. Jane is intelligent though, and realizes the need to keep calm and be reasonable, to exert some restraint on her passion.
The two facets of Janes character, fire and ice, have physical manifestations that symbolize Janes struggle to bring these two elements into balance. The first of these manifestations is the character of Rochester, who embodies the fire in Janes spirit. With the introduction of Rochester a great deal of fire imagery manifests. His mere arrival at Thornfield gives warmth and life to the cold and silent hall.
Jane describes the change in Thornfield saying, a warm glow suffused both it and the lower steps of the oak staircase and there was a genial fire in the grate (120). Rochester's physical appearance is described with imagery as well. Rochester is not only the fire that warms the hall, but he is also the fire that beckons Janes passionate side. Rochester represents the temptation of passion over reason. To achieve maturity, Jane must exert some control over her emotions.
Rochester is a threat to this. By stirring her emotional desires, he is encouraging her to unleash the fire that is within her. When Rochester says, Come to the fire (125), and begins to question her at their first formal meeting, it The rest of the paper is available free of charge to our registered users. The registration process just couldnt be easier. Log in or register now. It is all free! 320
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Research essay sample on Fire And Ice Jane Eyre
