Use of Weather in Jane Eyre

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, good weather is Bronte’s tool to foreshadow positive events or moods and poor weather is her instrument for setting the tone for negative events or moods.

This technique is exercised throughout the entire novel, alerting the readers about the upcoming atmosphere. Jane’s mood is 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” 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 predicted: after it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud: hear, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat plant.

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 lightning half of it split away. Following this description, the truth of Mrs. Rochester was later revealed However, sometimes Bronte uses the weather to contrast the mood of the characters: For example, a warm and beautiful spring is the backdrop for all of the typhus and consumption at Lowood.

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Sometimes the contrast presages 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” Taking everything into consideration, I may conclude that the author was clever with her use of the weather to prefigure upcoming moods and events. Although this strategy followed a strict rule, the scenes in the novel were not expected or plain. She gave the readers hints of what was to be expected, but only in the way to encourage the readers to read on.