Deconstruction – Suspense and Weather
Suspense in Jane Eyre
Bronte is able to maintain suspense in her novel Jane Eyre by showing mysterious happenings at
Mr. Rochester's home. Jane is warned about going into a specific room in the house, meaning the
attic. Here, readers are cued into the fact that there must be something up in the attic that
Rochester does not want her to see.
Not only is Jane told to stay out of the room but mysterious things happen when she is in the
Rochester home. A fire starts abruptly, Jane hears noises, and she comes to think that someone is
watching her in both her bedroom and as she moves about the house.
In the end, Jane comes to find out the Rochester is married to Bertha Mason, the woman hidden
away in the attic of the Rochester home.
It is the mystery surrounding the unexplainable happenings at the Rochester home which
maintain suspense.
Weather in Jane Eyre
Good weather is Bronte’s tool to foreshadow positive events or moods and poor weather is her
tool for setting the tone for negative events or moods. This technique is used throughout the
entire novel, alerting the readers of the upcoming atmosphere.
In the novel, Jane’s mood is, to a degree, determined by the weather mentioned. For example,
after Jane was publicly and falsely accused of being a liar by Mr. Brocklehurst, an upcoming
positive event was predicted when Jane described her surroundings, “Some heavy clouds swept
from the sky by a rising wind, had left the moon bare; and her light streaming in through a
window near, shone full both on us and on the approaching figure, which we at once recognize
as Miss Temple” (62). Surely enough, Miss Temple invited the two girls to her room and treated
them with cake and tea, which brought Jane comfort from the public humiliation. “We feasted
that evening as on our nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the
smile of gratification of our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the
delicate fare she liberally supplied” (65). Another example of this is Jane’s first morning at
Thornfield. A positive mood was foreshadowed when Jane described the weather as such: “The
chamber looked such a bright little place to me as the sun shone in between the gay blue chintz
window and carpeted floor, so unlike the bare planks and strained plaster of Lowood, that my
spirit rose at the view” (90). This not only foreshadowed the positive mood of Jane, but also the
experience she would have in the near future living in Thornfield. She would soon discover her
husband to be Mr. Rochester and appreciate her companies such as Mrs. Fairfax and Adele, who
for the first time in her life treat her as an equal. All positive weather described in the novel
foreshadowed either a positive mood or event, sometimes both. Bronte was consistent with this
use of the weather.
On the other hand, poor weather in the novel was used to foreshadow negative events or moods.
In the opening of the novel, when Jane was living in Gateshead, she was reading while an
unpleasant visit of John Reed was foreshadowed: “After it offered a pale blank of mist and
cloud: hear, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub” (2). Jane confronted John Reed and was
sent to the red room that she dreaded. Later in the novel, when Mr. Rochester proposed to Jane,
the departing of the two was strongly foreshadowed when “[the tree] had been struck by
lighting… half of it split away” (244). Following this description, the truth of Mrs. Rochester
was later revealed and Jane forced herself to leave Mr. Rochester. This once again assures the
accuracy of the predicting weather.
Bronte was clever with her use of the weather to foreshadow upcoming moods and events. She
gave the readers hints of what was to be expected.
The weather generally contrasts the moods of the characters. For example, a warm and beautiful
spring is the backdrop for all of the typhus and consumption at Lowood. Sometimes the contrast
foreshadows a twist in plot or a change in mood. Jane, full of joy at Mr. Rochester's proposal of
marriage, notes with surprise: "a livid, vivid spark leapt out of a cloud at which I was looking,
and there was a crack, a crash, and a close rattling peal; and I thought only of hiding my dazzled
eyes against Mr. Rochester's shoulder" (Chapter 23). Brontë sets a scene not of idyllic romance
but of turmoil and destruction. The juxtaposition of the foul weather against Jane's happiness
prepares the reader for the turn of events later in the book.