Analysis of Literary Devices of Jane Eyre

Analysis of the Theme of Jane Eyre and its Literary Devices Jane Eyre is an outstanding and meaningful novel which was written by Charlotte Bronte who didn’t have a fascinating appearance, a perfect figure and a glorious family and who had the similar fate with the heroine of the novel. The essay is focused on the first chapter, life at Gateshead, in which it tells us the little Jane Eyre’s miserable and menial life at Gateshead and that her cousins and Mrs. Reed treat her badly. In this chapter, the author intends to show us Jane Eyre’s resistance toward their torture and scolds. In order to demonstrate the motif, the author uses some gothic characters and depicts evil images of persons who bully Jane Eyre. Firstly, many gothic elements are adopted in this chapter in order to set the fundamental tone and manifest what a cruel and miserable life little Jane Eyre leads. It uses many delicate and horrified words to depict the weather, the season and some other things concerning the environment. Not only does it makes us feel that it’s really bad weather, but also we can feel Jane’s emotions and feelings at that time, upset, hopeless and so on, which will incite her resistant power. Secondly, Bronte is an expert in depicting characters’ images. We can find many vivid figures in front of us via reading the chapter. Take Jane’s cousin, John, as an example. From the novel, we can see that John’s mother spoils and dotes on him and she satisfies his demands no matter how ridiculous they are. Because of those, he shapes a naughty, arrogant and capricious personality. Jane is a poor girl whose parents are dead, so she has to live with her aunt. John always teases and bullies her, for she is a fragile and obedient stranger in his eyes. And what is much worse is that his mother always gives a cold shoulder to little Jane. As time goes by, John’s maleficences become more and more violent. One day, little Jane can’t stand it and she resists. She says: â€Å" you are like a murderer, you are like a slave-driver, you are like the Roman emperors. † It uses metaphor and parallelism to depict a vivid figure of John in front us. Figures of speech made the image brighter and clearer. Third, the setting of the chapter is dark, miserable and depressive. At the beginning of the chapter, a cold, dark and rainy evening was presented in front of us, which give readers a depressive impression. The description sets the basic tone of the chapter and implicates the terrible environment in which little Jane live. In this chapter, the author intends to present Jane’s resistance to life to readers. Its dark, cold and miserable setting implicates Jane’s poor living condition and her fragile emotion, which hide the foreshadowing of her resistance. Also gothic elements employed in the chapter deepen the theme. And depictions of each character promote the development of the theme.