• The Romantic Novel • Major Romantic Novelists • The Victorian Novel •
• Major Victorian Novelists • Other Victorian Novelists of Note •
• Realism, Local Color, and Naturalism • Major 19th Century American Novelists
•
Keep in mind that eras in literary history are not fixed and that novelists writing in one
era may have more in common with the novelists of another era.
Also note that my emphasis here is on the novel in English.
The Romantic Novel
Romanticism is a movement in art and literature that began in Europe in the late 18th
century and was most influential in the first half of the 19th century.
Romanticism fosters a return to nature and also values the imagination over reason and
emotion over intellect.
One strain of the Romantic is the Gothic with its emphasis on tales of horror and the
supernatural.
Major Romantic Novelists
CHARLOTTE BRONTE (1816-55)
Bronte's major novel Jane Eyre (1847) is the model for countless novels featuring
governesses and mysterious strangers.
EMILY BRONTE (1818-48)
Bronte's major work Wuthering Heights (1847) is full of Gothic elements.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851)
Cooper's most popular novels of the frontier feature Natty Bumpo, a man at one with
nature.
Major Works:


The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
The Deerslayer (1841)
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-64)
Hawthorne's novels are marked by his obsession with his Puritan
ancestors and with the issue of guilt. His most famous novels
feature elements of the Romantic and the Gothic.
Major Works:


The Scarlet Letter (1850)
The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-91)
Melville's novels are about the sea and seamen. His masterwork Moby Dick (1851) is a
study in obsession and its consequences as well as an exploration of the nature of evil.
The Victorian Novel
The Victorian Age is marked roughly by the reign of Queen Victoria of England from 18371901.
The Victorian reading public firmly established the novel as the dominant literary form of
the era. The novel is the most distinctive and lasting literary achievement of Victorian
literature.
Earlier in the century Sir Walter Scott had created a large novel-reading public and had
made the novel respectable. He had also strengthened the tradition of the 3-volume
novel.
The publication of novels in monthly installments enabled even the poor to purchase them
The novelists of the Victorian era:





accepted middle class values
treated the problem of the individual's adjustment to his society
emphasized well-rounded middle-class characters
portrayed the hero as a rational man of virtue
believed that human nature is fundamentally good and lapses are errors of
judgment corrected by maturation
The Victorian novel appealed to readers because of its:






realism
impulse to describe the everyday world the reader could recognize
introduction of characters who were blends of virtue and vice
attempts to display the natural growth of personality
expressions of emotion: love, humor, suspense, melodrama, pathos (deathbed
scenes)
moral earnestness and wholesomeness, including crusades against social evils
and self-censorship to acknowledge the standard morality of the times.
The Victorian novel featured several developments in narrative technique:



full description and exposition
authorial essays
multiplotting featuring several central characters
Furthermore, the practice of issuing novels in serial installments led novelists to become
adept at subclimaxes.
Major Victorian Novelists
CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)
Dickens was the most successful of the English Victorian
novelists, a master of sentiment and a militant reformer.
We admire Dickens for his:



fertility of character creation
depiction of childhood and youth
comic creations
Major Works:



A Christmas Carol (1843), most popular
Christmas story in the English speaking world
David Copperfield (1849-50), essentially
autobiographical and Dickens' own favorite novel
Bleak House (1852-3), the first Dickens novel
with a carefully-knit plot
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY (1811-63)
Thackeray's chief subject is the contrast between human pretensions and human
weakness. He excelled at portraying his own upper middle class social stratum.
His major work is Vanity Fair (1847).
GEORGE ELIOT (MARY ANN EVANS) (1819-88)
Eliot is considered to be the first modern novelist, a creator of psychological fiction. She is
known for her penetrating character analyses and convincingly realistic scenes.
In Eliot's novels plot did not need to depend upon external complications; it could rise
from a character's internal groping toward knowledge and choice.
Major Works:



Adam Bede (1859), a love triangle set in pre-industrial agricultural England
Silas Marner (1861), the nearest thing to a perfect George Eliot novel with a plot
about a miser who adopts a foundling and the theme of the regenerative power of
humanity and love
Middlemarch (1871-72), the first English novel concerned with the intellectual
life, the story of a city during the agitated era of 1832 reforms, the Industrial
Revolution, the Evangelical movement, and the new scientific outlook
THOMAS HARDY (1840-1920)
The characteristic Victorian novelist such as Dickens or Thackeray was concerned with the
behavior and problems of people in a given social milieu which he described in detail.
Thomas Hardy preferred to go directly for the elemental in human behavior with a
minimum of contemporary social detail. He felt that man was an alien in an impersonal
universe and at the mercy of sheer chance.
Though readers assume he is a pessimist he called himself a meliorist, yearning hopefully
for a better world.
Major Works:


Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
Jude the Obscure (1895)
The revolt in Jude the Obscure against indissoluble Victorian marriage (of Jude to
Arabella and Sue Bridehead to Phillotson) aroused such a storm of protest over its
religious pessimism and sex themes that Hardy turned thereafter exclusively to poetry.
Other Victorian Novelists of Note
WILKIE COLLINS(1824-89)
Collins is considered the father of the modern detective novel.
Major Works:


The Woman in White (1860)
The Moonstone (1868), the novel which G.K Chesterton termed "probably the
best detective story in the world"
LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON) (1832-98)
A mathematician, Carroll sublimated his anti-Victorianism in his writing.
Major Works:


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), which remains one of the bestloved children's books in the English speaking world
Through the Looking-Glass (1871)
Realism, Local Color, and Naturalism
In the United States the latter half of the 19th century was marked by recovery from the
Civil War, the movement from rural areas to the cities, and the rise of industrialism and
business.
Protest movements--led by unions or blacks or feminists--challenged the status quo.
As the major Romantic writers such as Hawthorne and Melville died or stopped writing for
publication, a new breed of novelists, trained initially as journalists, rejected romanticism
and insisted that the ordinary and the local were suitable subjects for artistic portrayal.
Realists had what Henry James called "a powerful impulse to mirror the unmitigated
realities of life."
As the realists rejected romantic idealism and dependence on established moral truths
they began to present subtleties of human personality and characters who were neither
wholly good nor wholly bad. This philosophical realism gradually became increasingly
pessimistic and deterministic as seen by the later works of Mark Twain, Stephen Crane,
and Theodore Dreiser
One group of writers championed local color writing, an amalgam of romanticism and
realism with romantic plots coupled with a realistic portrayal of the dialects, custom, and
sights of regional America.
The local color movement was a bridge between romanticism and realism and can be
viewed as a subdivision of realism. It resulted from the desire both to preserve distinctive
ways of life before industrialization dispersed or homogenized them and to come to terms
with the harsh realities that seemed to replace these early times.
Naturalism, which gained popularity near the end of the 19th century, is generally
described as a new and harsher realism.
In an attempt to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness, naturalistic novelists
portrayed characters of low social and economic class shaped by environment and
heredity and moved by animal passions.
In the view of the naturalists, environmental forces, whether of nature or the city,
outweigh or overwhelm human agency; the individual can exert little or no control over
events.
Major 19th Century American Novelists
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-96), whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was
one of the many influences on the start of the American Civil War
HENRY JAMES (1843-1916)
James was not only a novelist but an influential critic of the novel whose prefaces to his
own work were later collected in The Art of the Novel (1934). His exploration of point of
view and his development of stream of consciousness technique have greatly influenced
subsequent writers of fiction.
Major Works:




The
The
The
The
Portrait of a Lady (1881)
Wings of the Dove (1902)
Ambassadors (1903)
Golden Bowl (1904)
MARK TWAIN (SAMUEL LANGHORE CLEMENS) (1835-1910)
Twain's best work breaks out of the local color genre.
Major Works:




Tom Sawyer (1876)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), generally
considered to be the Great American Novel
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)
Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894)
KATE CHOPIN (1851-1904) was a local color writer whose works are set in the Creole
society of Louisiana. The Awakening (1899) is an early feminist novel about a woman
unhappy in her marriage.
JACK LONDON (1876-1916)
London's adventures in the Pacific Northwest and during the Alaska gold rush were the
basis of his very popular short stories and novels such as The Call of the Wild (1903)
and The Sea Wolf (1904).
EDITH WHARTON
Major Works:


Ethan Frome (1911)
The Age of Innocence (1920)
STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900)
The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Crane's novel of the Civil War, is generally
considered one of the greatest war novels of all time. Crane had never seen combat when
he wrote this novel.
THEODORE DREISER (1871-1945)
Major Works:


Sister Carrie (1900)
An American Tragedy (1925)
Gothic Imagery 1: The red-room is dark like blood. It emits strange
noises and has a large mirror that distorts Jane's appearance. The late Mr.
Reed died there, and Jane imagines his ghost now haunts the room,
troubled by wrongdoing regarding his last wishes. Outside it is raining,
the wind blows against the moors, faint voices are heard. All of these
elements--a dark and foreboding room where a family member died, the
color red, ghosts and phantoms, and the romantic gothic scene of rain on
the moors--are Gothic and predict future Gothic locales and themes in
the
plot.
Gothic Imagery 2: This incident on the third floor of Thornfield Hall
introduces Jane and the reader to the first Gothic aspects of what is to be
the most extended location for the rest of the novel. Jane describes the
decoration of Thornfield Hall as dark, old, labored with the secrets and
memories of the past. Immediately this sets Thornfield Hall off--the
Gothic local of the old and mysterious castle or great manor, which has
the potential to turn supernatural "strange, indeed, by the pallid gleam of
moonlight."
(pg.
92),
as
Jane
herself
says.
This introduction of locale is enforced by Jane's hearing of the strange
and disturbingly curious laugh from the attic door. Mrs. Fairfax says it is
only Grace Poole, sewing with Leah. But we know immediately that
there is more to the story than this simply answer; the intuitive
description of the odd laugh by Jane herself, foreshadows a more
complex and disturbing explanation to come in the future. As she
describes:
"I lingered in the long passageway to which this led, separating the front
and back rooms of the third story: narrow, low, and dim, with only one
little window at the far end, and looking, with its two rows of small
black doors all shut, like a corridor in some Bluebeard's castle...the laugh
was as tragic, as preternatural a laugh as any I ever heard; and, but that it
was a high room, and that no circumstance of ghostliness accompanied
the curious cachinnation, but that neither scene nor season favoured fear,
I should have been superstitiously afraid." Chapter 11, pg. 94
The reference to Bluebeard's Castle is also an important allusion; the
French fairy tale referenced is a pre-Gothic account of a Duke who
murders all his wives, locking their bodies in different closets, while
forbidding each new wife to look inside each closet. When each bride
breaks his commands, they find the dead wives, and are themselves,
murdered. This tale provides an interesting foreshadowing of what is
behind the door, while using a tale based off a pre-Gothic plot, in the
sense that the Gothic plot is composed of the mysterious castle, the cold,
damp and mysterious, moonlit natural environment, the mysterious,
misunderstood, enigmatic yet lovable male hero, who is only understood
and cured of his inner self-torment by the marriage or affiliation with a
good, Christian and virginal female character who enters the plot. The
opposing dynamic consists of a bad female character, often insane,
sexualized and racially inferior by English class standards, who is the
hidden secret of the male lead, and the reason for his unending torment.
The Gothic plot is Romantic in the literary sense; the myth of Bluebeard
is not. It is a dark drama/comedy in some interpretations--a didactic and
frightening
commentary
of
society
in
others.
Gothic Imagery 3: The whole incident of meeting Mr. Rochester on the
road, against the pallid moon-lit hills and vales, introduces the tortured
yet romantic character of the male hero, against a backdrop which is
particularly Gothic and contrasting to bringing forth his intense nature.
Jane describes Mr. Rochester, and her inclinations toward him well:
"I traced the general points of middle height, and considerable breadth of
chest. He had a dark face, with stern features, and a heavy brow; his eyes
and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now; he was past
youth, but had not reached middle age; perhaps he might be thirty-five. I
felt no fear of him, and but a little shyness. Had he been a handsome,
heroic-looking young gentleman, I should not have dared to stand thus
questioning him against his will, and offering my services unasked...I
had a theoretical reverence an homage for beauty, elegance, gallantry,
fascination; but had I met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I
should have known instinctively that they neither had nor could have
sympathy with anything in me and should have shunned them as one
would fire, lightning, or anything else that is bright but antipathetic."
Chapter
12,
pg.
99.
Rochester is further marked in the following pages and chapters, by dark
red, purple or fire imagery given to décor, nature or the sky.
Gothic Imagery 4: This event with 'Grace Poole' lighting Rochester's
bedclothes on fire, introduces more dangerous and foreboding elements
related to the secret creature who resides upstairs. No information is
given here, except that Jane's description of Rochester belies that there is
more to the story than simply Grace Poole; also the presence of the
violence and destructiveness of fire foreshadows a dark side and
violence to come from this secret. The apparent contrast would be Jane,
whose imagery is always based off the color white, black or very cool
imagery
and
descriptions.
Rochester's gratitude also introduce the plot necessity of the tortured
male hero who can only be redeemed through the good, not violent, wild
or sexual female lead; Rochester intimates this when he says, "I
knew...you would do me good in some way...I have heard of good
genii...," calling her his 'cherished preserver'. This plot aspect resurfaces
throughout their relationship, and especially later, where Jane becomes
a symbol of what is good, clean, pure and innocent in women, as
opposed
to
Rochester's
deranged
first
wife.
Gothic Imagery 5: The striking of the chestnut tree, under which Jane
and Rochester had just sat when he proposed the previous night, is
foreshadowing of impending separation, disaster and danger for Jane and
Rochester. It is also a perfect Gothic symbol, nature predicting human
fate
to
come.
Gothic Imagery 6: Jane meets her double here, in this visitation to her
room the night before her wedding. As we will see, it is not Grace Poole,
but Rochester's first wife who is hysterical and insane, being watched
over by Grace Poole in the upstairs attic. This double is the eternal
whore, the dirty, befouled and evil woman, to Jane's religious goodness
and clean bodily appearance (despite Jane's not fitting into this
stereotype
in
mind
and
soul).
In her visit to Jane's room, Jane is revisited with the greatest terror, only
equaled by her time in the Red Room, for it is the only other time Jane
ever passes out. This enactment of the trying on of the veil, and gazing
into the mirror, is later reenacted by Jane the morning of the wedding
(page 252). When Jane looks in that very mirror, she says she does not
recognize herself, but sees only, "a robed and veiled figure...the image of
a
stranger."
This
is
typical
Gothic
imagery.
Gothic
Imagery
7:
Jane
comments:
"I recalled the voice I had heard; again I questioned whence it came, as
vainly as before: it seemed in me--not in the external world. I asked, was
it a mere nervous impression--a delusion? I could not conceive or
believe: it was more like an inspiration. The wondrous shock of feeling
had come like the earthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and
Silas's prison: it had opened the doors of the soul's cell, and loosed its
bands--it had wakened it out of its sleep, whence it sprang trembling,
listening, aghast; then vibrated thrice a cry on my startled ear, an din my
quaking heart, and through my spirit; which neither feared nor shook,
but exulted as if in joy over the success of one effort it had been
privileged to make, independent of the cumbrous body." Chapter 36,
pg.
371
This manifestation of the voice within Jane's actual frame, where she
perceives it in her spirit and mind, and not external, is a traditional
Gothic affectation. Once again, it is the idea inherent in the romance
novel transferred to the Gothic setting. The romantic soulmate's voice is
realized and conjured through the dark spectre/ disembodied voice,
irrational and superstitious forms. The importance is placed in the
contrast between St. John who is wholly mental is formula, and the
transmutation the voice enacts in Jane; she says "her soul woke up--she
began to feel". The balance comes in a harmony of spirit, instinct,
emotion, mind and body. Her the choice of investigating the voice is
raised by Bronte to the equal level of something God-sent and spiritual
"independent of the cumbrous body"; meaning it is equal in value and
meaning to St. John's previous religious quest for Jane.
Taken
from
an
Anonymous
Student:
The
Red
Room
Of
Jane
Eyre
Mike Zevoteck The English Novel Prof. Giacoppe The Presence of The
Red Room Throughout Jane Eyre In charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre there is
a specific scene that seems to project itself onto the rest of the novel; the
scene in the red room. As I read Jane Eyre, I found it to be a bit
uneventful in parts and slow-moving in others. In general, I did not enjoy
the book at first. However even before a second review of the book, I
realized that the scene of Jane in the red room was symbolic and quite
significant to the rest of the text for a myriad of reasons. I submitted
several questions about his scene, reread it several times and even did
my presentation on Madwoman in the Attic (a book that examines this
scene analytically). This `event' occurs rather early in the novel and
initially serves to set the unpleasant tone of Jane's childhood. Although it
is only briefly alluded to in later parts of the book, the scene is
represented strongly throughout the main character's life. The gothic
elements of this scene also lend itself well to the underlying tone of the
novel.
Jane Eyre tells the story of a young girl's life in England in the 19th
century. It is a coming of age story as seen through the eyes of Jane
herself. Living with extended family Jane experiences many hardships at
the hands of her kin. She is often punished harshly and one the occasion
in question she is confined to the room of her deceased uncle for
misbehaving. Jane's experiences within the Red Room are portrayed
solely from her own point of view, giving the reader an insight into how
Jane's heightened nerves provoke an unnatural depiction of her
surroundings. The room itself is described as a 'vault', the chair becomes
a 'pale throne', and the bed is referred to as a 'tabernacle'. The prison like
qualities do not go unnoticed. The intimidating and restrictive tone of the
scene reflects the fact that the narrative is told from a child's perspective
and also illustrates the more passionate side of Jane.
One of the main aspects of the scene is when Jane looks into the mirror
and sees a distorted picture of herself. Bronte appears to use the mirror
as a symbol of Jane's inner self, as after she studies her reflection the
tone of the narrative changes and becomes a critical examination of her
situation and character, something she is forced to do throughout the
novel. She views her reflection as a 'strange little figure' or 'tiny
phantom', and her later description of Mr. Rochester as a 'phantom' could
be an echo of this portrayal of herself as a child.
Halfway through the novel the perspective changes to Jane as an adult
and involves her retrospect to the scene in the red room. The question
that could not be answered by Jane as a child now has some light shone
on it. Jane demonstrates that she has been able to overcome the outrages
and outbursts that filled her unhappy childhood, and replace it with more
mature conduct. Bronte utilizes a large number of linguistic techniques
to highlight Jane's emotions in this passage. The use of parallelism in the
phrase 'from morning to noon, and from noon to dusk' stresses Jane's
seemingly endless struggle with injustice at Gateshead, and the repetition
of the exclamation 'unjust!' emphasizes her bitterness towards the Reeds.
A series of rhetorical questions and exclamations concerning her
discrimination within the Reed household is followed by an extended
digression in which Jane broods over the injustice of her situation. This
highly emotionally charged passage is emphasized by the personification
of her reason as it speaks out against her 'unjust' condition in life. Her
feelings are often given a voice in this way to display her innermost
emotions, and also to allow the reader to identify with her thoughts and
actions. The personification of superstition as Jane describes the
impending arrival of 'her hour for complete victory' enhances the
supernatural atmosphere. Jane's punishment by imprisonment within the
Red Room is the first of a succession of metaphorical captivities,
predominantly relating to Victorian society's attitudes towards gender,
social class, and religion. Jane criticizes the prejudice and superficiality
of Victorian society by stating that had she been a 'handsome' or
'romping' child, her presence would have been endured 'more
complacently'. The events that take place within the Red Room are
emblematic of Jane's isolation from almost every community and
society. As an orphan raised by a wealthy family, she is accustomed to
the education and lifestyle of those of a higher class than herself, but she
is not in possession of any money and is even shunned by the servants
who describe her as 'less than a servant'. The low ottoman, on which
Jane is commanded to sit upon, can be seen as being representative of
her standing in society. The image of being confined to a stool and
prohibited from rising is redrawn upon at Lowood School when Mr.
Brocklehurst unjustly punishes Jane in such a way. Her imprisonment in
the Red Room, and in a similar way her punishment at school, acts as a
reminder that she is being socially excluded. The isolation Jane
experiences as a child prompts her to search her mind for drastic
alternatives, such as 'starving herself' or 'running away'. Although these
are rather desperate options, they demonstrate her strong characteristics
of
determination
and
pride.
While within the red room, Jane considers the cruelty of John Reed, who
taunts his mother and calls her 'old girl' and yet is still, in Mrs. Reed's
eyes, 'her own darling'. Jane notices with heavy irony that John mocks
his mother for her dark skin, despite it being 'similar to his own'. Jane's
fiery nature is again displayed by her indignation of the fact that 'no one
had reproved John for wantonly striking me'. The quarrel between Jane
and John Reed also establishes the theme of gender conflict within the
novel. Her status as a female leaves her susceptible to John's violence
and taunting, and as he is the only son, his tyrannous character is
indulged. By fighting back, Jane refuses to conform to the level of
obedience that would have been expected of a female in her situation.
Bronte often turns to the theme of slavery as a symbol to represent the
domestic and social hardships that opposed women in the eighteenth
century. The narrative frequently returns to this metaphor in order to
illustrate similarities between slavery and gender repression. John Reed
is earlier referred to as a 'slave-driver', and while locked in the Red
Room, Jane asks how Mrs. Reed could possibly 'like an interloper not of
her race', thereby classifying herself as an outcast and also raising
questions of racial differences and slavery. The theme of the red room
recurs in Jane's mind on occasions when she links her present
circumstances to that first feeling of humiliation she experienced in the
Red Room. It becomes a leading theme throughout her life, and she
recalls on the scene at many later stages in the novel to give context to
her most troubled and dark experiences. Bronte also uses figurative
language to recall her experiences within the Red Room. The metaphor
'embers of my decaying ire' is used to illustrate Jane's diminishing anger,
and in the following chapter Jane is met with the image of a blazing fire
as she wakes from her unconsciousness. These references to figurative
and non-figurative fires return many times throughout the novel.
The passage is heavy with color and sound imagery, accentuating Jane's
heightened senses and emotions while in the red room. The mood is
intensified by the repeated descriptions of the room's 'silent' atmosphere,
'chill' air, and the gathering of 'quiet dust'. This somewhat ominous
silence is not broken until the end of the extract when a sound fills Jane's
ears 'like the rushing of wings'. Jane's initial impressions of the colors
within the red room, such as the 'soft fawn' and 'blush of pink', do not at
first seem negative, but gradually the colors around her become
increasingly more threatening. The color red is highly significant, being
the predominant color within the room. Red is often used in conjunction
with the themes of passion and fury, and the descriptions such as the
'curtains of deep red damask' mirror physically Jane's excessively fervent
character.
Charlotte Bronte was greatly influenced by the Gothic novels that were
in fashion before the time of Jane Eyre. The Gothic novel was
popularized in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and was
defined by its use of suspense, supernatural elements, and desolate
locations to generate a gloomy or chilling mood. The protagonist of the
novel would generally be female, and often face distressing or morbid
circumstances. In this extract, Jane seems to fit this stereotypical Gothic
heroine as her situation is certainly distressing and, although she faints,
she demonstrates her resolve to resist those who persecute her, a strength
that, as we have seen, was common in Gothic women. The use of
suspense is another Gothic technique employed within this extract. The
final paragraph of the extract begins with the short, simple sentence 'A
singular notion dawned upon me', and then gradually the tension
increases as Jane's imagination becomes progressively more frantic and
superstitious. The use of long, complex sentences and lists interspersed
with commas and semi-colons give the text a fast-paced and frenzied
tone. The suspense continues to increase until finally the extract reaches
its climax and Jane screams. The scene within the red room is loaded
with intricate Gothic imagery and details. Perhaps one of the strongest
Gothic elements of the room is the fact that it is the room of her
deceased uncle. Also the deep red color of the room is implicative of
death and blood, and both of these aspects feature prominently in the
stereotypical Gothic novel that we have read in this class like The Castle
of Otranto. The descriptions of the continuous rain and whipping winds
paint a vivid Gothic picture of the stormy moors that surround Gateshead
that are very similar to Otranto. The supernatural elements in the
passage, such as the 'rushing of wings' that fills Jane's ears and her vision
of the 'herald of some coming vision from another world', are the most
noticeably Gothic. The usage of such obvious Gothic elements so early
in the novel forecast impending Gothic ideas and locales later in the text.
Perhaps one of the strongest Gothic elements of the room is the fact that
it is the room of her deceased uncle. It is the application of these Gothic
characteristics that seem to give the novel its widespread appeal.
However, although Charlotte Bronte incorporates many of these Gothic
influences within Jane Eyre, she has developed the traditional techniques
significantly from what would have been the typical Gothic of the late
eighteenth century, making Jane Eyre extremely unique in style.
The novel clearly contains many Gothic elements, but there are also
many strong features of realism within the text. Bronte provides the
reader with lengths of highly detailed prose portraying accurately Jane's
surroundings, such as the extensive descriptions of the Red Room's
interior. Careful attention is paid to illustrate thoroughly the 'chairs...of
darkly-polished old mahogany' and the 'piled-up mattresses and pillows
of the bed'. This meticulously detailed imagery adds an element of
authenticity and realism to the text, enhanced further by the references to
social class and gender issues. Later in the passage, the description of the
'herald of some coming vision from another world' is surrounded by
detailed prose, describing Jane's every emotion and movement as she
'rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort'. This extensive
use of detail renders even the most Gothic elements of the text realistic.
The red room scene has strong elements that stretch across the entire
story of Jane Eyre. Several themes, such as those of gender oppression
and the Gothic, are first used and then continue to recur throughout the
novel. However the red room's importance as a symbol also continues
throughout, and every time Jane experiences fear or humiliation her
mind returns to her memory of the horror and ridicule of that scene.
Many of the Gothic images described in this passage foreshadow future
Gothic themes within the plot, and the elaborate Gothic imagery
reappears frequently throughout. Jane's life in the novel can be seen as a
reflection of that experience from her childhood all the way up until her
relationship
with
Rochester.
The Gothic tradition utilizes elements such as supernatural encounters,
remote locations, complicated family histories, ancient manor houses,
dark secrets, and mysteries to create an atmosphere of suspense and
terror, and the plot of Jane Eyre includes most of these elements.
Lowood, Moor House, and Thornfield are all remote locations, and
Thornfield, like Gateshead, is also an ancient manor house. Both
Rochester and Jane possess complicated family histories—Rochester’s
hidden wife, Bertha, is the dark secret at the novel’s core. The exposure
of Bertha is one of the most important moments in the novel, and the
mystery surrounding her is the main source of the novel’s suspense.
Other Gothic occurrences include: Jane’s encounter with the ghost of her
late Uncle Reed in the red-room; the moment of supernatural
communication between Jane and Rochester when she hears his voice
calling her across the misty heath from miles and miles away; and Jane’s
mistaking Rochester’s dog, Pilot, for a “Gytrash,” a spirit of North
England
that
manifests
itself
as
a
horse
or
dog.
Although Brontë’s use of Gothic elements heightens her reader’s interest
and adds to the emotional and philosophical tensions of the book, most
of the seemingly supernatural occurrences are actually explained as the
story progresses. It seems that many of the Gothic elements serve to
anticipate and elevate the importance of the plot’s turning points.
Gothic
Fiction
While Pride and Prejudice deals with hypocrisy in a humorous way (as is
typical of a comedy of manners), Jane Eyre uses the imagery of gothic
fiction to tell its story, scaring us half to death as we go. For those of you
who don’t remember (or never knew), imagery can be defined as
follows:
A word or word sequence that evokes a sensory experience. Whether
literal, “He picked two red apples,” or figurative, “His cheeks looked
like two red apples,” an image appeals to a reader’s memory of seeing,
hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting. Images add concreteness to
fiction and are an important element in poetry. Writers of essays, too,
find images valuable to bring ideas down to earth. (The Bedford Reader)
Even though some may think Charlotte Brontë used gothic imagery
because it was a good way to sell books, it’s important to consider the
richness
of
these
gothic
metaphors.
Gothic fiction arose out of the last decades of the eighteenth century. At
that time, there were violent revolutions in France and America, and
British society—rife with class divisions—was feeling the effects. It is
out of this social climate that the Gothic novel grew: a new and fearful
genre for a new and fearful time. The specter of social revolution is
manifest in the supernatural “specters” of the Gothic: a crumbling way
of life emerges as a crumbling and haunted Gothic manor; the loss of
English social identity becomes the Gothic hero or heroine's search for
identity.”
(The
Gothic:
Materials
for
Study)
The catharsis that resulted from the terrors in these novels was a much
needed release for the pent up anxieties of the age.
Female
Gothic
You’re probably familiar with the mass market paperbacks that are
contemporary rip-offs of gothic fiction. They’re sometimes called
“bodice rippers,” and if you haven’t had the pleasure, they run
something
like
this:
[A] young, attractive woman (virginity required) [is] running in terror
through an old, dark, crumbling mansion in the middle of nowhere, from
either a psychotic man or a supernatural demon. She is always terminally
helpless and more than a bit screechy, but is inevitably "saved" by the
good guy/future husband in the nick of time. (“Virgins in Distress and
Demons in Disguise” from The Gothic: Materials for Study)
In some ways, this is true of Jane Eyre. But while it seems similar to
these types of novels, it doesn’t fit neatly into the mold. Probably there is
too much anger, too much intelligence, too much complexity in the
character of Jane for her to ever show up in a “dimestore” novel. So
what
kind
of
book
is
this?
More recently critics have coined the term “female gothic” (particularly
Ellen Moers’ book, Literary Women) to describe the types of fiction
where the heroine battles more than just ghosts and bad guys, but the
societal limitations which have led to her conflict. In this respect, Jane
Eyre was extremely threatening to many readers of its time, not merely
because of the antisocial “sexual vibrations between hero and heroine, as
by the heroine’s refusal to submit to her social destiny….In other words,
what horrified the Victorians was Jane’s anger” (The Madwoman in the
Attic by Gilbert and Gubar 338). Another way to describe a gothic novel
(that doesn’t fit the “bodice ripper” mold) is “moral gothic.” As Jane
battles the demons of Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield Manor, and Marsh
End, they frequently take the form of moral choices, choices that force
her to use her heart and mind in order to know what is right.
The
Red
Room
From the beginning of Jane Eyre, the reader experiences the tension of
opposites: subordinates versus tyrants, confinement versus freedom,
passivity versus rebellion, the wishes of the living versus the wishes of
the dead. From the first few chapters, we come to know our heroine as
having a tiny form but a powerful mind. Two of the most prevalent
images of the novel—fire and ice—are evident right away. Pay attention
to these images as you read the first nine chapters. When you get to the
scene in the red room, notice the imagery there. Some critics have
suggested this scene captures the conflict of the entire novel in
miniature. How does Brontë use the supernatural (or the possibility of it)
to further the plot? What are the crucial themes that emerge in this
scene?
Fairies,
Fairy
Tales,
and
Moonlight
Here are a few of the dictionary entries for symbol (that apply to
literature):
1. something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of
relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance;
especially
a
visible
sign
of
something
invisible
2. an object or act representing something in the unconscious mind that
has
been
repressed
3. an act, sound, or object having cultural significance and the capacity
to
excite
or
objectify
a
response
As X.J. Kennedy says, “in writing, symbols usually do not have…a oneto-one correspondence, but evoke a whole constellation of associations.
In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, the whale suggests more than the
large mammal it is. It hints at evil, obsession, and the untamable forces
of nature. Such a symbol carries meanings too complex or elusive to be
neatly defined” (The Bedford Reader). But even so, we can explore the
associations that go with language and, as a result, get more of a feeling
for the possible layers of meaning that symbols carry. I like to think of
symbols as seeds that grow in our unconscious minds. Too much digging
(examination) will definitely spoil the garden, but that doesn’t mean that
we should ignore symbols completely. Like a gardenia blossom, we can
appreciate
their
beauty
without
manhandling
them.
The moon is probably the strongest symbol in Jane Eyre. It will appear,
and disappear, throughout the book. Its presence or absence is almost
always significant. It is sometimes referred to as feminine, even as
“Mother.” Try to note the page every time the moon is mentioned. (This
can be a good paper topic.) What associations does the moon carry with
it, either in general or in regard to this particular novel?
Fairies and fairytales are mentioned often. Jane is repeatedly described
as looking like a spirit, a tiny phantom, “half fairy, half imp.” In
addition, her situation suggests some well-known fairytales. Like
Cinderella, she suffers under the rule of her “step-family,” and like the
ugly duckling, she is an outcast amongst them (and her looks aren’t
much to get excited about, either). And don’t forget the tale of
Bluebeard, which the author mentions in the second section we’ll read.
While Brontë isn’t really rewriting these stories, they are evoked
(meaning “called forth in our minds”)—even if not consciously—by
their similarity to Jane’s situation. These stories are with us (whether the
author mentions them or not), because they are in the “collective
unconscious,” which is defined as “the inherited part of the unconscious
that, especially in the psychoanalytic theory of C. G. Jung, occurs in and
is shared by all the members of a people or race.” Having these fairytales
as background to the main story adds more layers of association to the
meaning of the novel. Because of these added associations, an author can
use fewer words to say more, adding weight and power to language.