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ARNAB SENGUPTA
S0MAELIT20200292
M.A. ENGLISH LITERATURE

Ecocritical Approach to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

The novel’s narrative is intertwined with the forces of nature. In the first chapter itself the
relationship between Jane and the natural world is established. Mike Edwards asserts that, “the nat-
ural world is not used mechanically: the relationship between human events and nature is used in a
creative and flexible manner.” (Edwards 17)

The phrases “cold winter wind”, “rain so penetrating” establishes the acute weather which
seems to be synchronous to Jane’s mental state. It reflects the heartless treatment of Jane by Mrs.
Reed at Gateshead Hall. She asserts that, “I was a discord in Gateshead-hall: I was like nobody
there: I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage. If they did
not love me, in fact, as little did I love them.” (Brontë 19) Edwards asserts that, “The wintry
weather expresses Jane's feelings, as we have noticed, but also reflects the hostile family environ-
ment in which she lives. The words 'cold' and 'sombre', and the reference to 'penetrating' rain, cast
their shadow over the scene that follows. The walk in the 'leafless shrubbery' tells us that the action
takes place after leaf-fall; but it also encourages us to feel a sense of loss or deprivation or even des-
olation - a feeling which is appropriate to Jane's loveless situation.” (Edwards 9)

The natural surroundings seems to foreshadow events or rather predict the sentiments of
Jane eyre. In her years at Lowood institution. We get to know how Mr. Brocklehurst did not care
enough for the institution and was invested in the capital gain rather than looking after the young
girls. Helen Burns, Jane’s close friend was isolated from her as she was suffering from Tuberculo-
sis. Jane say, “I only saw her from the schoolroom window, and then not distinctly; for she was
much wrapped up, and sat at a distance under the veranda.” (Brontë 93) This isolation from her
friend makes Jane escape into the lap of nature. Interacting with nature seems to soothe and caress
her soul amidst the chaos in Lowood. Jane expresses, “it was such a pleasant evening, so serene, so
warm; the still glowing west promised so fairly another fine day on the morrow; the moon rose with
such majesty in the grave east. I was noting these things and enjoying them as a child might, when
it entered my mind, as it had never done before” (Brontë 94) Jennifer Fuller notes, “Jane who ap-
preciates wilderness and freedom of the woods, is not affected by disease but instead strengthened
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by her time in nature. For Victorians like Brontë, escaping from the boundaries of towns and
schools was essential for the health and wellbeing of children.” (Fuller 156)

The garden at Lowood Institution was a “wide enclosure, surrounded with walls so high as
to exclude every glimpse of prospect; a covered verandah ran down one side…at the latter end of
January, all was wintry blight and brown decay. . .It was an inclement day for our-door exercise;
not positively rainy, but darkened by a drizzling yellow fog” (Brontë 58) Lowood Institution defi-
nitely helps Jane to explore nature but controls and restricts her. The idea of the “brown decay” por-
trays the decaying garden which seems to predict the upcoming tuberculosis outbreak in Lowood
Institution.

Jane after advertising herself seeking a situation, she is accepted as a governess in Thorn-
field Hall. Shobha Rani expresses that Charlotte Bronte presents us the healing aspect of nature on
woman through Jane’s changing mood. Jane is benefited by the touch of nature, distance from na-
ture causes havoc to those who are denied of this contact. Alienation from nature causes great harm
to Grace Poole, the apparent madwoman in the attic. Grace Poole, remains away from nature and is
locked up and restricted to the attic of Thornfield Hall. This degrades her physical and mental
health. So she becomes “enigmatic”, “mysterious”, “uncomely”, “dry” and “strange”. (Rani 98)

Upon her arrival at Thornfield Hall, Jane gazes upon the lavish, extravagant chamber
which she occupies as governess and describes the glorious location's ability to excite her: "I
thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me…My faculties, roused by the change of scene,
the new field offered to hope, seemed all astir. I cannot precisely define what they expected, but it
was something pleasant: ” (Brontë 116).

Jane eyre calls her chamber in Thornfield Hall as a "bright little place" and she is able to
associate with the ways in which the sun shines "in between the gay blue chintz window curtains"
(Brontë 116). The natural sunlight piercing through the curtains improves the aesthetic quality of
the her chamber, which enhances Jane's mood.

Fuller asserts that “while the novel does portray the struggle for a female to escape the con-
fines of Victorian society, it also illuminates the struggle to find a harmonious balance within the
'wildness of nature" (Fuller 163). In context to this quotation, Jane expresses power over the sur-
rounding nature because she cannot exercise her power elsewhere. Jane is able to find freedom be-
neath "the warm and comforting 'embrace' of the hills that enclose Thornfield.” (Fuller 157). It
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seems Fuller's assertion provides us with a natural world, which is free and peaceful in Jane's imagi-
nation.

Mr. Rochester’s declaration of love is foregrounded and can be anticipated by the way na-
ture has been described. In the fourth paragraph of chapter twenty-three, Jane says that, “No nook in
the grounds more sheltered and more Eden-like; it was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers: a very
high wall shut it out from the court, on one side; on the other, a beech avenue screened it from the
lawn…” (Brontë 286) This further romantic description of “trees laden with ripening fruit” and
“nightingale warbling” makes Rochester’s confession of love predictable. It is a picturesque de-
scription of an orchard, which has been tamed by man and not the wild nature which Jane confronts.
Rochester's arrival in the orchard is expected by the scent of his cigar. Initially, it is “a subtle, well-
known scent”; then it turns into a “warning fragrance” which alerts his proximity to Jane.

The image of the moth is also significant when we analyse their resonance with nature.
“The moth roamed away. I was sheepishly retreating also; but Mr. Rochester followed me”. (Brontë
288) The moth reminds Mr. Rochester of “a West Indian insect”; and foregrounds the arrival of
Mr. Mason from the West Indies who disrupts the relationship of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.

Another important image is of the horse- chestnut. At the end of chapter twenty-three, Jane
says that the “great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the
night, and half of it split away.” (Brontë 296) The storm causing the cloven being split foregrounds
the future of their relationship.

Later in the novel, when she leaves Thornfield Hall and finds herself in Moor House, the
wild nature seems to have built her character stronger and more resilient. She is able to live peace-
fully amidst the nature. She describes the landscape as, “I saw the fascination of the locality. I felt
the consecration of its loneliness: my eye feasted on the outline of swell and sweep—on the wild
colouring communicated to ridge and dell by moss, by heath-bell, by flower-sprinkled turf, by bril-
liant bracken, and mellow granite crag. These details were…pure and sweet sources of pleasure.”
(Brontë 403) The peaceful surroundings of the Moor House turns her into a woman of courage. Her
resilience and inner strength increases through nature. It is the wilderness of moor land where Jane
finds her true self. She instantly divides her fortune among Moor family and becomes ready to serve
Mr. Rochester.
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Mike Edwards says, “Bronte worked hard at her writing, but there is more than hard work
at the root of the setting in Jane Eyre; she uses nature to bind the action together in a rich web of
varied and interrelated imagery and symbolism.” (Edwards 73) From an ecofeminist perspective, it
is quite clear that nature resonates with the conscience of Jane eyre. We get a better insight of her
mental and spiritual growth by studying the forces of nature.
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WORK CITED

Akdogan, Sera. “View of Humans as Geological Forces of Nature: How Jane Eyre Establishes a
Common Ground between the Natural and Social”, 2017, course-journals.lib.sfu.ca/in-
dex.php/eng435/article/view/16/39.

Brontë Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New Delhi, Penguin Classics, 2006.

Edwards, Mike. Charlotte Brontë: the Novels. New York, Macmillan, 1999.

Fuller, Jennifer D. “Seeking Wild Eyre: Victorian Attitudes Towards Landscape and the Environ-
ment in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.” Ecozon: European Journal of Literature, Culture
and Environment, vol. 4, no. 2, 2013, pp. 150–165, doi:10.37536/ecozona.2013.4.2.534.

Rani, Shobha. “Reading of Charlotte Bronte’s and Susan Hill’s Fiction: An Ecocritical Approach.”
University of Kota, 2018, www.uok.ac.in/notifications/Shobha%20Rani%20English.pdf.
Accessed 14 June 2021.