(英语论文)《简爱》文学评论a critical literary analysis of jane eyre by charlotte bronte.docVIP

You can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a book by its first scene A critical literary analysis of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 《简爱》文学评论  “There was no possibility of a walk that day” (p. 7). In this simple sentence, Charlotte Bronte establishes the motif of entrapment and subsequent independence that recurs throughout the novel Jane Eyre. In the first scene of the novel, the setting helps to shape Jane’s character. Jane introduces the first of numerous images of birds as she reads Bewick’s History of Birds, and also the parallel imagery between humans and animals. Jane’s first articulation foreshadows the plot of the novel, predominantly the persistent thread of her mobility. These literary elements, which have their foothold in the first scene of Jane Eyre, manifest broader themes throughout the novel. Jane’s first utterance establishes the space that she occupies throughout the novel: “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day…I was glad of it” (p. 7). Jane’s simple ascertaining of the fact she must remain inside the dreary, hostile Gateshead environment foreshadows her continued plight as a prisoner of personal and circumstantial constraints, and her endeavors to break free from these constraints. Jane’s entrapment begins at Gateshead, where circumstances have placed her under the care of her cruel aunt. The inclement weather situates her inside the Gateshead library, enshrined in the window-seat: “Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day” (p. 8). Here, although she is a prisoner within the house, she is also a captive of the fantasies of literature: They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of ‘the solitary rocks and promontories’ by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindesness…Each picture told a story” (p. 8-9). Physical