Jane Eyre - Setting

Gateshead: Mrs Reed, Reed children. 

Opening scene very sombre, surrounding ountryside, enhanced by pathetic fallacy, 'Clouds so sombre', 'rain so penetrating'. Imagery, 'Pale blank of mist and cloud' - Procures empathy from reader. 

Jane's life is serious and sad - boredom and wretchedness of her life at Gateshead - no room for joy or hope. Dark, sombre, serious place of sadness and depression. 

Red Room: 'one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion'. 'Great looking-glass', atmosphere of 'vacant majesty'. Semantic field of opulence. 

Imagery shows us it's luxurious and grand ,yet lifeless. Gateshead therefore seems rich on outside, dead on inside. Reflects lack of character or true feeling in the Reed family, even though they're rich. Theme of social standing. 

Theme - Supernatural - 'It was in this chamber he breathed in last; here he lay in state'. (Uncle Reed). Ghosts and visions in the Red Room. Shows Jane's sensitive mind, she is capable of very real/ strong emotion. 

Journey to Lowood: Semantic field - unfamiliarity. 'The day seemed to me of preternatural length', 'we ceased to pass through towns; the country changed'. Jane is out of her depth, new chapter of her life. 

Personification - 'Great gray hills heaved up round the horizon', 'wild wind rushing amonst trees'. - suggests Jane's life is in upheaval. 

Lowood: Lexical field - depression. 'Walls so high as to exclude every glimpse of prospect'. Imagery - 'All was wintry blight and brown decay' - highly depressing and dampening. 

Jane's life hasn't yet got any better; still no purpose for her future. Suggests how setting itself doesn't necessarily affect how Jane feels inside, it's the people that she's surrounded by that make a difference on the situation. If Lowood had been filled with kind people, Jane would have thrived and found purpose. Instead, though they are poor, Jane received as bad treatment as at Gateshead. Theme - Social standing (whether rich or poor, doesn't really make a difference) 

Later...Jane's setting changing - 'Flowers smelt so sweet', 'Still glowing west promised so fairly another fine day'. Brighter and happier, finding meaning and joy. 'My favourite seat was a smooth and broad stone...in the very middle of the beck...only to be got at by wading through the water'.  - Jane has found a haven where she feels safe/ happy. Get away from her troubles. (Language changes, reflects Jane's mindset changing as a result of her changing setting/ circumstances - this is when the girls were given freedom outside'. 

Could portray a 'calm before the storm' - this is just before Helen Burns' death. Bronte's writer's technique. 

Thornfield Hall:  Lexical fields - Brightness, Mystery - 'snug small room', 'cheerful fire' - warm place, Jane maybe found a haven of joy, bright prospects. 'My faculties, roused by the change of scene, the new field offered to hope, seemed all astir'. 

Imagery - 'A very chill and vault-like aire pervaded the stairs and gallery', 'Cheerless ideas of space and solitude', 'Eerie impression made by that wide hall...' - Cold place with hints of supernatural, loneliness. Theme - supernatural; comes up again as at Gateshead, suggests the rich don't necessarily have the nicer lives, they look good on the outside yet there are troubles and mysteries that lurk underneath. Theme - social standing. 

Thornfield mayn't be completely joyful and bright - may be future troubles for Jane to face alone. Foreshadowing. 'I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me - one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils'. (Writers' technique - name of hall itself is foreshadowing - field of hope, yet with thorns'.