The Theme of Jane Eyre Is Reflected by Usage of Gothic Style

The Theme of Jane Eyre Is Reflected by Usageof Gothic StyleAbstractGothic novel has widely influence on British and American literature; many famous writers successfully learn the arts of Gothic novel. The biggest character of Gothic novel is terror and mystery. In the Jane Eyre，Charlotte Bronte comprehensively uses Gothic style to show the characteristic of freaky or abnormal hero, closed or semi-closed scene，the bloody and horror of the death，subtle description. The theme of Jane Eyre is early feminist; women call for equality. Feminine consciousness means the self-consciousness of women. Charlotte Bronte cleverly shows women…s revolted spirit and feminine consciousness with the help of Gothic style.Key words：Gothic style；Jane Eyre；terror and mystery；Villain hero;feminist theme摘要哥特式小说在英美小说中影响广泛，许多作家都成功借鉴哥特式小说的艺术手法，哥特式小说风格的最大特点就是神秘与恐怖。

在《简爱》中，夏洛蒂·勃朗特广泛的使用了哥特式特点中畸形变态的主人公，封闭或半封闭场景，死亡的血腥和恐怖以及细节的描写细微来表现简爱。

简爱的主题是早期女性主义，女性呼喊与男性平等，女性意识即女性的自我意识。

运用哥特式风格，夏洛蒂·勃朗特成功的表现了女性的反抗精神以及女性意识的主题。

关键字：哥特式风格；简爱；神秘与恐怖；恶棍英雄；女性主题Contents1. Introduction (1)2. The origin and characteristics of Gothic style (2)2.1The origin of Gothic style (2)2.2The characteristics of Gothic style (3)3. The Embodiment of Characteristics of Gothic in Jane Eyre (5)3.1 The Embodiment of the Scene of the Novel (5)3.1.1 The Environment Jane Eyre Lives in Her Childhood (5)3.1.2 The Environment Jane Eyre Lives When She Grows up (7)3.2 The Embodiment of the Plot of the Novel (7)3.2.1 The Relating Plot of Heroin Jane Eyre (7)3.2.2 The Relating Plot of Hero Mr. Rochester (8)3.3 The Embodiment of the Characters of the Novel (9)3.3.1 On the Character of Mr. Rochester (9)3.3.2 On the C haracter of Mr. Rochester...s Crazy Wife.. (12)4. The Early Feminist Theme in Jane Eyre (13)4.1 The Interpretation of Heroine Jane Eyre (13)4.2 The Interpretation of the Early Feminist Theme in Jane Eyre (14)5. Conclusion (16)Bibliography (20)1.IntroductionJane Eyre is a world-famous novel written by Charlotte Bronte. The complete and pure feminine image conquers innumerable readers. The heroine Jane Eyre is the real and modern female image in the eyes of readers. At the same time, the review of Jane Eyre does not come to stop since it is published. On the whole, the review of Jane Eyre focuses on following parts: women‟s traditional mobility bondage; heroine Jane Eyre‟s bold pursuit of love and marriage; women‟s revolted consciousness to the traditional system of masculinity.Gothic is prosperous in Victoria period, it belongs to “Dark Romanism”, and the word “Gothic” is endowed with savage, horrible, mysterious, medieval Catholic, superstitious, even oriental meaning. The strongest and deepest impression the Gothic novel leaves to people is the existence of grotesquery and terror. The Gothic is complex and diversified in themes; however, no matter what form it belongs to, it has the overall atmosphere of darkness, mystery and grotesquery. Overall, the Gothic has the following features: the description of freaky or abnormal hero; the closed or semi-closed scene; the bleedingand the horror of the death; the description of the plot is very subtle. This thesis is to analyze the feminine theme of Jane Eyre from the aspect of the usage of Gothic style.2. The origin and characteristics of Gothic style2.1The origin of Gothic style“Gothic” in Gothic novel originally refers to Gothic tribe living in Northern Europe (Gothic tribe is once famous for savagery and bloodthirstiness), thereafter, the thinkers and artists in the Renaissance employ the word “Gothic” to refer to a kind of Medieval architecture which they despise. The style of architecture enjoys its popularity from the 12 to 15 century; the vivid characteristics are church or high pointed vault in monastery, gloomy darkness interior, heavy wall, narrow windows, multicolored glass, and hidden tunnel as well as underground hidden corpse. Afterwards, the Gothic style is widely spread in non-religion buildings. Therefore, the word “Gothic” is endowed with savage, horrible, mysterious, medieval Catholic, superstitious, even oriental meaning. Readers nowadays generally understand Gothic as “anti-classical” and “medieval” meaning.In terms of the ideological and cultural foundation aspect, both philosophical thoughts and the Bible make contributions to the origin of Gothic novel. The influences of philosophic thoughts to Gothic novel arerationalism and empiricism. While the ideological theme, molded characters and styles are mainly embodied under the influence of the Christian Bible to Gothic novel. In the respect of the literature tradition, ancient Greek and Roman literature as well as English literature have an impact upon the origin of Gothic novel. In addition to that, realism and grotesque super realistic factors‟ influence cannot be ignored. The influence of English literature to Gothic novel can be divided into the drama influence on English Renaissance and the influence on realistic and sentimental novel.2.2The characteristics of Gothic styleThe first main feature of the Gothic style is the description of freaky or abnormal hero. One of the most typical examples is the role mold of abnormal doctor Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, a famous Hollywood film which has a gothic shadow. And in another early Hollywood movie Freaks, the director even trains his lens directly on “handicapped, the intellectual disabled, the gender blurred, th e dying and the dead.” The setting of these freaks stands in the same line as Integral style of the Gothic. The more freaky or abnormal attributes a man has, the more horrific effects he brings. However, the essential sense of the Gothic freaky hero does not lie on constructing the horrible and despairing feelings. Actually, what these freaks bring are the descriptions of the real psychological status of the minority or everyone in the society.The second main feature is closed or semi-closed scene. For example, the old castle under the writing of Allan Poe, the closed island in Lord of the Flies, and the island in The Wasp Factory and so on. It is worthwhile to mention that the closure of scene not only refers to the natural scene but also to the closed mental one as molded in the Gothic by emphasizing the solitary and indifference of the people, and in turn revealing the human alienation and human living society of the modern society. In a closed space, the inner world of everyone is closed, thereby leading to psychology and behavior that is dark, dejected, or barbarian.The third main feature is the bleeding and the horror of the death. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the hero visits his friend‟s castle at hearing his friend's sister death caused by a serious disease. A few days later, the dead comes back to life at night, frightens his brother to death, and the hero flees away from the castle. In Red Death Mask, Rong wangye, the country noble leads a thousand people into a closed castle so as to avoid the red demo that is at that time raging in the world. However, at one night, the red demo himself visits the castle in mask. The castle suddenly turns into a living hell. In the Gothic novel, the death of the person concerned is often shown in a special way. In the bloody death of people, the darkness of humanity is comprehensively or even over described.The fourth main feature is that the description of the plot is verysubtle. The Gothic novels tend to magnify and slow down the detailed plot of the novel so as to make it inevitable in the process of narration, just like the slowdown criminal scenes of the hero in The Wasp Factory. The magnification and extension of details make the novels so aesthetic that readers may gradually forget the rationality and logicality of the novels while reading. In addition, the slowdown pace of narration also tempts the readers into the labyrinth of time and space and creates gigantic depression and horror in the narrative scenes.3. The Embodiment of Characteristics of Gothic in Jane Eyre3.1 The Embodiment of the Scene of the Novel3.1.1 The Environment Jane Eyre Lives in Her ChildhoodAt the beginning, the novel Jane Eyre displays a typical environment of Gothic characteristics. A gloomy tone has been set in the beginning of Jane Eyre.“That afternoon the weather is not fine. The cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber and a rain so penetrating that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.” The bad weather seems to indicate that some ominous things will soon happen. Indeed, Jane is beaten cruelly by her tyrannical cousin for no reason at all. Jane is fostered in her aunt…s home, where she isabused and insulted much, especially by her cousin John. “wicked and cruel boy！……like a murderer—like a slaver—driver……”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 10)“He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near.”(Charlotte Bronte,2007: 9) Poor Jane almost lives her everyday life in fear and terror. What is the most horrible is that Jane is abandoned in the red house by her cruel aunt, and the red house is the place where her uncle died, Jane Eyre…s young heart is filled with fear when she is put into a room like this. The novel describes the red house in details:“This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; It was silent, because remote from nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be seldom en tered…..” “Mr.Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state;hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker…s men, and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it frequent intrusion.”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 15)Jane suffers a lot physically and mentally, which a seed is buried and a revolting consciousness sprouts. Jane is sent to the living hell “charity”—Lowood School. The orphans in that orphanage are controlled by rigorous rules and they live in a severe living condition, besides, they are tormented by the evil headmaster. Many orphans begin to die off. Jane's best friend Helen dies there in Jane‟s arms. Jane‟s life there is full of darkness and terror of death. Although living through the cold gloomy environment, Jane grows up to be a brave and strong woman.3.1.2 The Environment Jane Eyre Lives When She Grows upAs a governess, Jane comes to remote Thornfield, which is far away from Lowood School. Thornfield is an old castle filled with mysterious and frightening atmosphere. She falls in love with Mr. Rochester who is somber and moody. While Jane is born of humble origin, she does not expect a return of love. Mr. Rochester, who loses family inheritance disdains coldness and hypocrisy of upper class, loses his heart for the unusual Jane.At the same time, the author describes baffling laughter and pointless indignation in Thornfield several times. The author describes Jane Eyre…s dream and “vampire” in dream more than once to reflect the conflicting scene in the novel. On one hand, the occurrence of this terror atmosphere makes sufficient preparation for debut of Bertha. On the other hand, it strengthens readers‟ sympathetic feelings to Jane Eyre.3.2 The Embodiment of the Plot of the Novel3.2.1 The Relating Plot of Heroin Jane EyreThe plot of Jane Eyre has obvious Gothic characteristics. The Main plot of the novel Jane Eyre is the growth of Jane Eyre and the love between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. The author arranges related plot in the novel Jane Eyre: For Mrs. Reed (a patronizing woman with a stony heart), Jane sniffs at her selfishness and hypocritical quality. In the fourth chapter of the novel, Jane Eyre quarrels with Mrs. Reed. She talks Jane Ey re‟s “bad temper” to Mr. Lloyd in order to revenge on Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is deeply hurt by her aunt‟s words, she feels “speak I must: I had been trodden on severely, and must turn” so she gathers her energies and launches them in this blunt sentence—“I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed;” (Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 45) Mrs. Reed thinks that she can scare her niece with her social position. On the contrary, Jane Eyre condemns her in a straight manner: “People think you are a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!” (Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 46) Jane Eyre despises bigwigs. The personality of resistance to oppression comes to light from the words of her childhood.3.2.2 The Relating Plot of Hero Mr. RochesterBoth Mr. Rochester and his brother strive for the right of inheritance,Mr. Rochester‟s father neither bear the idea of dividing his estate and leaving Mr. Rochester a fair portion nor endure that his son should be a poor man. Therefore, Mr. Rochester must be provided for by a wealthy marriage. Mr. Rochester gets married with a West Indies merchant Mason‟s daughter (Mr. Rochester is cheated by his father and Mr. Mason for his wife comes from a mad, weak minded and violent family). The crazy woman even tries to murd er Mr. Rochester. Mr. Rochester‟s revolted mood via from the words of Mr. Rochester.“……I never loved, I never esteemed, and I did not even know her. I was not sure of the existence of one virtue in her nature: I had marked neither modesty, nor benevolence, nor candor, nor refinement in her mind or manners— and, I married her: — gross, groveling, mole-eyed blockhead that I was!”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 67)Through describing Jane Eyre‟s hardship and experience, the author uses Gothic style to integrate cruel reality with romantic love, to uncover miserable life of British woman at that time and people of lower class and to reveal their strength not to compromise to severe environment and miserable fate as well as their spirit to struggle for maintaining their own personality. In addition, the practice of money-come-first in the BritishCapitalist Society is strongly criticized in the novel, which incisively attacks bourgeois‟ ugliness of love, marriage and family based on money.3.3 The Embodiment of the Characters of the Novel3.3.1 On the Character of Mr. Rochester“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……”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 153)He was strong and healthy but eccentric and changeful; he was also gloomy and irritable. Mr. Rochester…s behavior traits belong to a typical “villain hero”. Furthermore, he is strong-minded, and he still requires lighting the candle after he becomes disabled and blinded. He also has sound confidence in life, which also reflects the feature of a “villain hero” characters. Mr. Rochester resembles to “villain hero” in his appearance and characters, and from the aspect of spirit, he is both criminal and victim, and this is also “villain hero”. The novel only mentions Mr. Rochester “evilness” slightly, wearing a color of mystery. The crazy woman who is imprisoned in the attic is the direct victim under Mr. Rochester: he does not marry her for love, and he does not love and care about her as a husband, however, he is always away and looks for fun.But from another prospective, he is also a victim: he is born in a wealth and well-known family, however, his father cannot bear the idea of dividing his estate, so he even cheat Mr. Rochester to marry Bertha (who comes from a mad weak minded and violent family). Soon after the honeymoon, Mr. Rochester learns that Bertha is a mad woman, so he shuts her up in an asylum. He can get neither sweet love nor warm family. Moreover, he has to take precautions against violence and murder from the crazy woman.“I lived with that woman upstairs four years, and before that time she had tried me indeed：her character ripen and developed with frightful rapidity；her vices sprang up fast and rank：They were so strong, only cruelty could check them, and I would not use cruelty.What a pigmy intellect she had, and what giant propensities！How fearful were the curses those propensities entailed on me…”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 414)While what the most unbearable for him is mental pain and suffering, and he has to wander around to idle away his time in loneliness. Hierarchal aristocrat society and unjust treatment distorted his heart.“I approached the verge of despair; a remnant of self-respect was allthat intervened between me and the gulf. In the eyes of the world, I was doubtless covered with grimy dishonor; but I resolved to be clean in my own sight—and to the last I repudiated the contamination of her crimes, and wrenched myself from connection with her mental defects. Still, society associated my name and person with hers……”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 416)However, his humanity is not lost. Mr. Rochester is yearning for happiness and looking forward to finding true love. Fortunately, he meets Jane and falls in love with her, but he gets into a painful dilemma because of his crazy wife. He challenges to aristocrat and prejudice society, and he decides to marry Jane for love. While Mason brings the truth to light, out of dignity Jane leaves Mr. Rochester. Afterwards, Mr. Rochester spends his life in sadness and nostalgia, what is a worse, Bertha set fire to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester is burned to be disabled and blinded.3.3.2On the Character of Mr. Rochester‘s Crazy WifeBesides Mr. Rochester, the image of Bertha also belongs to the pattern of Gothic. She is originally a beautiful woman, but she has a genetic psychotic issue. Her family marries her to Mr. Rochester for they want to get rid of her. She is imprisoned in the attic for her morbidity of genetic psychotic, and she is treated as an animal or beast that man is incharge. She is described as the clothed animal and coarse features. No doubt she is a victim under the oppression of Mr. Rochester. The mad woman has violent and murder tendency. She seems to be a terrible genie when she is crazy. She often fiercely howls in the attic and challenges against Mr. Rochester whenever she has the chance.No doubt that both Mr. Rochester and Bertha are victims of feudal society and despotic family. They are the typical characters of Gothic style.4. The Early Feminist Theme in Jane Eyre4.1 The Interpretation of Heroine Jane EyreCharlotte Bronte‟s heroine Jane Eyre is born as a poor orphan, she lives a miserable life in Orphanage and she becomes a governess later. But she is a pure, affectionate, thoughtful and strong woman. She is brave to fight against oppression, humiliation and any nasty evil deeds. She is bold to express her strong loathing. She dares to defend her independent personality and dignity. She appeals to the call of times and adopts amazing language and horrible action to prove woman‟s dignity. Jane Eyre fights against the injustice of life, remains her self-independence, and refuses to endure social oppression. She is an artistic model for woman who is in the struggle for liberation. Jane Eyre in the novel knows that she is born of humble origin and inferior society, but she does notobey to her fate. She enriches herself with rich knowledge and improves herself with fine quality through her own efforts.She becomes an independent person with inner beauty rather than a simple woman. Jane Eyre is tender and considerate, she is faith to love and she has a noble quality. She fully reflects woman‟s strong-mind, independence, self-respect, self-esteem and self-improvement. She maintains the woman‟s awareness of independence and dignity.At the beginning of the novel, the author displays Jan e Eyre…s revolted spirit in her character through her fierce words and brave deeds. For her imperious cousin, she scolds his evil deeds rather than puts up with that “wicked and cruel boy!” “You are like a murder—you are like a slave-driver—you are like the Roman emperors!” (Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 10) She fights with his cousin desperately. The reader‟s eyes are attracted by a thin girl with brave deeds. Facing with formidable enemy, she does not give any impression of weakness and she never surrender. She retains her own dignity.4.2 The Interpretation of the Early Feminist Theme in Jane EyreAlthough Jane Eyre is born of humble origin with a homely appearance and small figure, she does not have a sense of inferiority. When she calmly appears at Thornfield as a governess, she does not flatter the proud owner Mr. Rochester. She is elegant, frank and honest. She behaves naturally and gracefully even before gorgeous women ofupper class. Jane Eyre‟s quality of self-respect, self-esteem, self-reliance and abundant inner world attracts Mr. Rochester deeply and they fall in love with each other. In the twenty-three chapter, Mr. Rochester says on purpose he will marry Miss Ingram, and he demands that Jane Eyre leave Thornfield. Jane Eyre feels that she is the loser and that she loses her eagerness for love completely, and she cannot help shedding tears. She thinks that she will leave Mr. Rochester and Thornfield forever. Therefore, she fully pours forth her true feelings to Mr.Rochester. For Mr.Rochester‟ request for her staying, Jane Eyre feels annoyed, the most classic dialogue between them show before the eyes of readers.“Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you？Do you think I am an automation?—a machine without feelings? ……”. “Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you, —and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;— it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God‟s feet, equal, —as we are!”(Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 342)Jane Eyre‟s righteous expression is the maintenance of self dignity and her personality declaration. Her self-respect, self-esteem and self-reliance as well as her confidence help her to win Mr. Rochester‟s heartfelt admire and sincere love.When their wedding is hindered, Rochester suggests that they go to France to live a delightful, safe as well as carefree life. But Jane Eyre refuses firmly, she does not want to be his mistress, and she does not want to violate her principle. She answers him assertiv ely: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man.” (Charlotte Bronte, 2007: 429) Therefore, she leaves Thornfield r esolutely. Jane Eyre‟s revol ted personality and self-esteem, self-esteem spirit embody fully at that time. Jane Eyre‟s strong personality is particularly attractive in adversity. She tries her best to seek a path for herself, which she can live uprightly, independently, and freely. This is Jane Eyre, a female image who is full of courage and a persevering spirit which never compromises to adversity.The language of the novel is in line with character‟s specific personality, which contributes to the mould of portrait of character. Whenever readers read these words, the image of Jane Eyre comes to life before the readers.5. ConclusionThe novel Jane Eyre not only uses the traditional Gothic style, but also transcends and develops the Gothic style. It reflects description of protagonist‟s inner world, the author puts protagonist into extreme environment, and for instance, Jane is lingered in a horrible “red house”, Mr.Rochester‟s dilemma when his marriage with Jane is hindered. Charlotte Bronte uses the technique of Gothic to explore the ethics, and to challenge V ictoria‟s main dominant ideology. It performs and explores deeply conflict between sense and sensibility, humanity and morality. The novel adopts Gothic technique to develop hero‟s depth psychology, which presents persecution and torment that capitalism to people especially to women of lower class vividly.From here we can see that the novel Jane Eyre becomes a masterpiece in the literature world which cannot be separated from the usage of Gothic technique. She uses traditional Gothic style to endow the novel with a color of gloom, terror, mystery and agony, which arouses readers‟ fear and mercy and strengthens charm. Through the application of Gothic style, Charlotte Bronte fuses cruel truth into the pursuit of romantic love ingeniously. On one hand, she pours fresh content into traditional shape and develops the old form; On the other hand; through glowing and ghastly environment and protagonists‟ revolt to violence, women ventureto resist authority and dominance and they obtained happiness finally.The theme of Jane Eyre reflects the early feminist image and women call for equality. To a larger extent, the people in the whole world are equal. Feminine consciousness means the self-consciousness of women. Feminine consciousness focuses on women‟s perceptions and life experience, and it expresses the desire and pursuit of women, and confirms the experience and value of women. The nineteenth century of Britain is “the time of feminine novel”.Jane Eyre, the work of the critical realist writer, Charlotte Bronte, creates a protagonist who surpasses the times, basing on the theme of vivid feminism. The protagonist is neither “the angel of family”, nor “the ideal lady”. Her arrogance and rebellion are out of the main stream consciousness of the time. However, she becomes a classic character of feminine literature because of her brave challenge against the stereotype controlled by male power and her pursuit of wo men‟s independence and equality.In addition, women should be independent and have their own goals, and they should not rely on men, they are not the pet of men, so the plot that Mr. Rochester becomes disabled at the ending part of the novel is arranged on purpose by the author Charlotte Bronte, in that way Mr. Rochester needs Jane‟s love both mentally and physically. In order to illustrate women‟s economical independence the plot that Jane inherits his uncle‟s heritage at last is arranged by the author Cha rlotte Bronteintentionally.According to the elemental analysis of Gothic style, our readers can understand the novel‟s theme deeply; at the same time, the usage of Gothic style in Jane Eyre helps us to have a deep understanding of the novel. Women should learn to maintain their dignity, and they should understand the meaning and value of the equality. Women also need the ability to live independently and endure loneliness and hardship; only in this way can they live happily in the traditional system of masculinity and get the love and desirable life ultimately.BibliographyCharlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre [M]. 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