Passion and Motherhood:
Since Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre in a first person narration she had to use a lot of symbolic imagery to show the hidden emotions of other characters and the relationships between them. The imagery in relationships is particularly interesting because of the symbolic context that it gives to characters. The relation ship between Helen and Miss Temple is a combination of passionate love and motherly love. Bronte uses fire to represent passion and images of the moon to represent motherly love. She also gives the characters symbolic names that indicate the roles they play in the novel. Fire is used to depict the passion of Helen and Miss Temple's relationship. As Helen and Jane are in Miss Temple's room the fire that the three are seated around controls the atmosphere of the moment, the fire becomes an extension of Helen's passion, and more specifically her love. "...The brilliant fire, the presence of and kindness of her beloved instructress...had roused the powers within her. They kindled at first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek...then they shone in the liquid luster of her eyes..."(Pg 85). Through the short time Helen is in the novel she is always shown around small subdued fires, glowing embers or c
Throughout time the moon has been regarded in a motherly protective way, and in the novel Jane refers to it as "mother" (Pg358) and addresses it as a person. Jane is not the only person that this moon symbolism refers to; it also described the bonds between Helen and Miss Temple. "Some heavy clouds, swept from the sky by the rising wind, had left the moon bare and her light streaming through a window near, shone full on both of us and on the approaching figure, which we at once recognized as Miss Temple."(Pg 82) This quote is important because with Jane's continued use of moon references, Miss Temple has now been introduced as a material figure for Helen. Helen Burns name is symbolic because she is dying of an illness that is probably tuberculosis, but was often referred to as Consumption because the disease consumed a person from the inside, just like a burning fire consumes fuel and air. Tuberculosis was viewed as a passionate and romantic disease because the victims often experienced fervent outburst of passion. "...The brilliant fire, the presence of and kindness of her beloved instructress...had roused the powers within her. They kindled at first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek...then they shone in the liquid l
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Approximate Word count = 838
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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