Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 8, 2025

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is the story of the protagonist’s quest, not for material treasure, but rather for equality and selfhood. Equally important, Jane seeks the proper manner to rebel against men who seek to dominate and control her, eventually appropriating power by means of her creative spirit and her artistic passion.

A Bildungsroman, the novel contains several autobiographical aspects, most specifically the attendance by Jane at a girls’ school where abuse of the students leads to rampant disease and death; a similar situation killed two of Brontë’s sisters. Brontë also worked for a time as a governess, one of the few acceptable wage-earning positions for a young, single woman in her era. Like Jane, Brontë discovered the loneliness of that position. Although the family viewed her as a servant, other household servants often shunned the governess, considering her a snob due to her education. Brontë makes a statement against such social mistreatment through her focus on Jane. She also appalled many readers with her focus on female passion, inspired by art, at a time when such emotions were considered improper in a woman character.

Gothic and classic romance elements appear throughout the novel in the form of symbolic colors; names, evident in naming the plain and unattractive heroine Jane; characters, including the mysterious and brooding Mr. Rochester; and frightening, threatening, suspenseful events and settings. The orphan Jane begins her journey at Gateshead, household of her judgmental aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her hateful, bullying cousins. In Gothic tradition, while imprisoned in Gateshead’s “red room” as punishment, the 10-year-old Jane becomes terrified when she senses the presence of her deceased Uncle Reed’s ghost. Jane’s reaction to this fiery “red room” while “imprisoned” there foreshadows the importance of fire later in the novel.

Aunt Reed sends Jane to Lowood Asylum, a charitable school, based on Cowan Bridge School, which Brontë and her sisters attended. Students at Lowood suffer harsh treatment under the control of schoolmaster Mr. Brocklehurst, who is described as a “black pillar,” symbolizing the deadly conditions at Lowood School, where girls are “starved and frozen” and where there is “neither food nor warmth.” Jane also meets Miss Temple, whose name symbolizes the Victorian ideal and who serves as a sanctuary for Jane.

Jane’s friend Helen possesses a surname, Burns, that metaphorically suggests fire or flame. She dies from fever’s fire and also “burns” with a spiritual passion and with anger evident in her comments to Jane—“by dying young I shall escape great sufferings,” and “Where is God? What is God?”—as she is dying. Helen, a martyr, creates a conflict for Jane between her Christian faith and the laws of nature—a conflict Jane carries into adulthood. In time, conditions at Lowood improve; Jane excels as a student and eventually becomes a teacher for the school. While at Gateshead and at Lowood, Jane considers whether she will ever live happily.

From Lowood, Jane goes to Thornfield to become a governess. The Gothic mansion contains secrets, strange noises, dark passages, and mysteries, and as the name suggests, Thornfield ensnares its inhabitants. Jane’s first encounter with her master features Gothic influences; Mr. Rochester must lean on her for support to walk, because he has fallen from his horse, who slipped on ice, foreshadowing danger and his dependence on her at the novel’s conclusion.

At Thornfield, Jane meets Grace Poole and attempts to understand what some feminist critics call the “dark pool” of the woman’s behavior. The elusive Poole only spends “1 hour in 24 with fellow servants below.” The remainder of the time, the ironically named Grace, whose drinking problem frequently causes calamity, remains out of sight in a mysterious upper room at Thornfield, supposedly sewing. Grace Poole presents a great enigma for Jane, who tries to understand the woman’s relationship with Mr. Rochester. Brontë portrays Mr. Rochester as a Byronic hero with his questionable past, suggested by Jane’s charge, little Adèle, and his commanding and gruff outward presence.

Not until Jane stands at the altar to marry Mr. Rochester does she discover that he is married to a madwoman “entrapped” in the attic of Thornfield. Prior to the planned wedding, Brontë employs the Gothic image of lightning striking a large tree, splitting it in half to foreshadow the tragic events that follow, including the foiled wedding, Jane’s flight from Thornfield and Mr. Rochester, and the impending catastrophe at Thornfield.

Jane wanders on the road from Thornfield to Marsh End. There the Rivers family takes her in, their surname suggesting a cleansing or a new birth. While with them, Jane does become more independent and confident. Jane discovers, in a recognizable romantic coincidence, her relation to the Rivers family. Jane is tormented by the cold St. John Rivers, whose total devotion to Christianity, symbolized by his given name, remains his only passion. He proposes a marriage of convenience to Jane. In the midst of suffering conflict between her love for Rochester and the proposal of St. John, Jane senses a telepathic communication from Rochester. His spiritual call for her to return represents another element common in romance novels.

While St. John represents the icy side of Jane’s nature, Rochester represents the fiery side. She chooses to follow the fire in her heart, and upon her return to Thornfield, Brontë offers the culminating Gothic element with the fire, set by Rochester’s mad wife, Bertha. In the fire Bertha falls to her death, Rochester is left maimed in his attempts to save her, and Thornfield is destroyed. In line with Victorian beliefs, he pays for his past sins and is offered a second chance at life with Jane.

The fire that purifies Rochester appears in other Gothic novels, particularly in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938), where a fire destroys the presence of the previous wife of the novel’s Byronic hero and purifies him of his past. The cleansing power of the fire provides the means of a new beginning for the romantic couple in that novel, as it does in Jane Eyre.

Brontë’s novel proved seminal, as it introduced characters new to English fiction. Jane, a shy yet strong-willed orphan, never, either in her unhappy days at Lowood or in her career as a governess, displays the superficial beauty and charm common to typical Victorian heroines. She is instead intelligent and creative and seeks solace throughout her life from her reading material and painting. Brontë’s inclusion of Jane’s readings reveal her intellect and the development of her character’s thoughts and insights concerning history. References include Oliver Goldsmith’s 18th-century historical work History of Rome, Samuel Richardson’s romance Pamela (1740), and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), as well as the popular Arabian Nights; the latter two works suggest mystical elements.

At the novel’s conclusion, Rochester at last views Jane as his equal and once again leans on her for support, literally as well as figuratively, as foreshadowed by their first encounter. Those visiting the British Library may see in the rare books room the manuscript opened to the page on which Rochester proposes marriage.

Throughout the novel, Jane displays extraordinarily self-assertive acts, not characteristic of Victorian women. She was a woman of passion at a time when women were considered passionless. Jane Eyre was popular when it was originally published, and it remains widely read, both for enjoyment and for study by feminist and psychoanalytic critics. It remains readily available in print and electronic form and has been converted to film and stage multiple times.

Analysis of Charlotte Brontë’s Novels

Bibliography

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