In a first-person narrative reflecting on the past, like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Jean Rhys’ expansion thereof, Wide Sargasso Sea, the presentation of the memories which constitute the story immensely affects the thematic impact of the work...

In life, different variables affect an individual’s growth. These variables can include any aspect of a person’s life, ranging from family influence to personal passions. In the novels Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, the authors use certain...

Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847) is commonly read as a feminist metanarrative of women’s writing in which a young English woman rises out of class-based oppression and finds her independence. There is a tendency to read Jane Eyre as an...

Across Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and ‘For My Lover, Returning to His Wife’ by Anne Sexton, jealousy is presented as both resulting in self-deprecation and anger. Whereas in ‘After the Lunch’ by Wendy Cope a form of love that does not contain...

From the late-eighteenth to the early-nineteenth century, known as the Romantic period, there existed a shift in some cultural and artistic elements that leaned towards a revival of the Gothic. As well as a revival of the Gothic through...

Bennett and Royle, in their book `An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory’, state that `the relationship between literature, secrecy and secrets is fundamental1’. In the novels I have chosen, this `fundamental’ dynamic is seen in their...

One reason why Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, is a huge success is because of the intriguing narrator-reader dynamic. The narrator – Jane herself – develops a certain kind of intimacy with the readers throughout the autobiography. Although...

Fifty years before the publication of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Mary Wollstonecraft released The Vindication of the Rights of Women, a predominate piece of feminist philosophy, and one of the first of its kind. This piece works to analyze...

From Romeo and Juliet to Cinderella and Prince Charming, there are a few romantic couples whose stories have been echoed time and time again throughout literature and film. Famous pairs such as these have love tales so well-known that nearly every...

Gothic literature focuses on the darkest aspects of humanity. It was written in response to the change the authors faced in everyday life, as well as the challenges of world events. Gothic literature is a sub genre of the Romantic Movement, a...

The supernatural elements and events involving them are an important facet of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre. Many mythological creatures are referenced, and omens are used as symbols throughout the novel, making up some of the instances where...

When readers first encounter Jane Eyre, the fiery protagonist of Charlotte Brontë’s eponymous novel, we are met with an intelligent and rebellious child. As we follow her growth into governess at Thornfield, many critics feel as though her...

To ascertain whether or not the ending of a novel is ‘adequate’, one must first isolate components of adequacy. For the purposes of this essay, four general categories of adequacy have been defined: moral adequacy, artistic adequacy, narrative...

Narrative techniques are a powerful tool that authors use to impart their themes and messages on their audience. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, is the story of Jane Eyre, a girl growing up in 19th century England, and her battle to find a balance...

With the 1847 publication of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë—publishing under the androgynous pseudonym “Currer Bell”—effectively obscured her gender along with her identity. While Brontë did not unanimously pass for male, debate about the author’s...

“I am malicious because I am miserable… if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear” (Shelley 129). The creature in Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, is speaking to his creator when he says this line. His “maliciousness”-- his violence and bad...

In the novel, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Mr. Rochester is introduced in the story just as Jane reaches the age of 18 and has become a teacher at Lowood Institution; she advertises for the governess position, which Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper...

To what extent do literary texts silence the voices of women? Discuss with reference to William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (1589-94) and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847).

Through questioning the extent to which literary texts silence female...

Jean Rhys’ novel Wide Sargasso Sea develops an intertextual relationship with Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre by inventing a backstory that can explain the tragic fate of Bertha Mason – the most marginalized character. The oppressive binary...

Charlotte Brontë and Edgar Allen Poe use elements of the gothic in Jane Eyre, and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” respectively, to provoke individual feelings of suspense and fear. As is common to the gothic tradition, both writers use choppy,...

Wide Sargasso Sea uses the erasure of Antoinette’s story from Jane Eyre to challenge a canon which is misrepresentative of British colonialism. However, Wide Sargasso Sea “does not adopt the adversarial strategy of dehumanizing Rochester” (Thieme...

In Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre the protagonist paints four pictures during the plot. These paintings carry meanings in themselves. In addition, the act of painting is important for the main character, since it means her a way of escaping...

In Marina MacKay’s The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel, she discusses the types of characters used in a novel in light of the humanists and structuralists debate. She explains that humanist critics tend to give characters a human dimension...

The struggle between women and authority has been a central concern for novelists throughout the ages, yet the rise of the novel in the 18th century brought with it the increase in number of female narrators and authors, giving women a platform...