Symbolism in Jane Eyre

My fifteen year old brother is reading To Kill a Mockingbird with his English class, and a few days ago he came home from school and said to me, "Sometimes I swear my English teacher puts more thought into the book than the actual author did." I asked him what he meant and he said, "You know.. everything always has to mean something. Why can't a mockingbird just be a mockingbird?" Up until pretty recently I would have agreed and said that there doesn't necessarily have to be a deeper meaning for everything in a novel: I don't deny that authors often use symbolism in their writing, but it wasn't until I began reading Jane Eyre and began to study it closely, that I realized what a brilliant technique symbolism really is. I also believe it is the mark of a truly talented writer when symbolism is used in such a way that we make the connections without consciously being aware of having done so.

Charlotte Brontë uses two major symbols within Jane Eyre and perhaps part of the reason I thought them so well done is because they are not tiny, insignificant parts of the novel: it is not as though she uses a tiny object to signify a very large idea, making it much more difficult for the reader to make the connection between the two.

The first of the two symbols within the novel is Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester's first wife who is destroyed by mental illness and locked up in the attic of the Thornfield home. Jane, when being introduced to Bertha for the first time says, "In a room without a window there burnt a fire, guarded by a high and strong fender, and a lamp suspended from the ceiling by a chain. Grace Poole bent over the fire, apparently cooking something in a saucepan. In the deep shade, at the further end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing; and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face." (412)

While critics believe Bertha may represent a variety of things, I believe she is a symbol for Jane's suppressed emotions and introspection in regards to Jane's marriage to Mr. Rochester. Though Jane loves Mr. Rochester, she fears the idea of marriage and dislikes the restraint a marriage puts on her. "Oh, I have not much choice! They generally run on the same theme- courtship; and promise to end in the same catastrophe- marriage." (277) Though Jane never acts on these feelings of anger and anxiety, Bertha does; she is violent and impulsive, setting fire to Mr. Rochester's bed and tearing up Jane's wedding veil. It is also the mere existence of Bertha that causes a stall in Jane and Mr. Rochester's wedding. Bertha is a symbol for all the feelings and thoughts that Jane can't express.

The second symbol used by Brontë appears early on in the novel, while Jane is living with her aunt. As I previously mentioned, Jane spends much of her life feeling ostracised from those around her. She never entirely feels like she belongs and is never really accepted by any of her peer groups. Those feelings of alienation begin at a very young age, when Jane is locked in the Red Room of her aunt's house. "The room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be seldom entered. The house-maid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe from the mirrors and the furniture's a week's quiet dust." (11) The mere description of the room alludes to the alienation that Jane faces later on in her life.

Aside from representing great feelings of loneliness, and serving as a memory for Jane whenever she is humiliated, the Red Room also symbolizes the kind of imprisonment Jane feels at multiple points in her life. I've already mentioned that the idea of marriage to Jane is, at first, distressing and constraining; Jane's binding feelings towards marriage are very much reminiscent of the physical anxiety she felt in the Red Room.

While Brontë used symbolism in other ways throughout the novel, using fire to represent Jane's passion and spirit, using ice to represent the repressive figures in Jane's life, I believe Bertha Mason and the Red Room are the two most prominent and important symbols within Jane Eyre. Reading Jane Eyre was one of the first times I can ever remember noticing symbolism in a book and appreciating the fact that the author had used this technique in their writing. It was also really interesting for me to look into the deeper meaning of the two, discovering how a mentally ill woman confined to live the rest of her life in an attic, could represent so much of who Jane really is as a character.

The use of symbols also helped me to appreciate, not just the writers who go to the trouble to include them in their work, but also the readers who go to the trouble of looking at something from a more in-depth angle. It would have been simply for me to have viewed the Red Room as simply a room, an unfortunate memory that would stay with Jane as she grew older, but when I was able to figure out what it represented, I was able to see the connections between Jane's experience in the room, and her experiences later on in life. Perhaps next time my brother complains about having to study symbolism in his English class, I'll be able to refer back to this blog post, and give him something to think about.