In Chapter 13 of Jane Eyre, Rochester looks at three strange watercolors painted by Jane
while she describes them to the reader. The surreal imagery of the paintings invites one to
interpret them as Freud would interpret dreams: as signposts to the repressed contents of
Jane’s Unconscious. Choose one or more of the paintings and interpret it/them in this way,
using what you know about Jane’s character and about the circumstances from the rest of
the novel.
Professor Barry Milligan, Duke University, 1993