Allusions Extra Credit: Jane Eyre
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes brief reference to an historical or literary person or
event. Charlotte Brontë used many allusions to the Bible, to literature, to art, to history, and to ancient
myths. She used them to create mood, reveal character, and emphasize the ironies in various
situations.
Most readers in Brontë’s day were familiar with these references; the allusions were effective because
there was a common body of knowledge shared by the writer and her readers; however, readers today
may need to do some research (using a dictionary, encyclopedia, Biblical concordance, notes at the end
of the novel, reliable sources on the internet, etc.) to understand and appreciate these allusions.
1. Sign up for an allusion with Mrs. Kolodney. Don’t wait until they’ve all run out or we are past the
chapter of your allusion, because then you’ll be out of luck.
2. Research your allusion and write a paragraph explaining exactly to what the allusion refers (who,
what, when, etc.). This can also be a printed information sheet, gotten from a reliable internet
source, or an encyclopedia.
3. Reread the entire section in which the allusion occurs, and write a paragraph about why Brontë
used the allusion. In other words, tell what effect the allusion has on the reader’s understanding of
the situation, the character, the mood, etc. This part is true analysis.
4. On the day the assigned reading is due, for the chapter where your allusion appears, remind me that
you are presenting, then present your findings to the class. Really present—don’t just read your
paragraphs.
5. This must be typed. Earn up to 5 points extra credit
Quote
1. “gave me credit for being a sort
of infantine Guy Fawkes”
2. “enactment of the part of
Eutychus”
3. “I began…to feel that the
Rubicon was passed”
4. “even as the Jews of old sent
their diseased tot eh troubled
pool of Bethesda”
5. “we feasted that evening as on
nectar and ambrosia”
6. “I forgot to prepare in
imagination the Barmecide
supper…”
7. “prints…a representation of the
death of Wolfe”
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Student (Per. 5)
Student (Per. 6)
Allusions Extra Credit: Jane Eyre
8. “chests…looking…like types of
the Hebrew ark”
9. “two rows of small black doors
all shut, like a corridor in some
Bluebeard’s castle”
10. “the mountain will never be
brought to Mahomet”
11. “Like heath that, in the
wilderness/ The wild wind whirls
away”
12. “I pass a law, unalterable as that
of the Medes and Persians”
13. “a hag like one of those who
appeared to Macbeth on the
heath at Forres”
14. “as Job’s leviathan broke the
spear, the dart, and the
habergeon”
15. “a shore, sweet as the hills of
Beulah”
16. “Who would not be the Rizzio of
so divine a Mary?”
17. “the fiddler David…black
Bothwell…James Hepburn”
18. “I dote on Corsairs”
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