Eleanor Grant

“Wherever there are birds, there is hope,” said Turkish playwright, Mehmet Murat Ildan. This idea is amplified through Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, we see how birds affect the characters and enhance Bronte’s storytelling, as the motif adds to the characters, atmosphere, and plot.

Our first interaction with Jane is as a child, she has slipped into the breakfast-room, away from her cousins and Aunt in the drawing room. In this room there is a bookcase, she grabs a large book full of pictures and hides herself in the window behind the curtain. Creating a safe space for herself and the book that she has, Bewick’s History of British Birds is her favorite. This is not because of the words but because of the images. She says “the letterpress thereof I cared little for” (ch. 1) but instead valued the many words the pictures held. To her, each picture told a story and to the readers, we know that this is her escape. But soon after the harsh realization we have to face with Jane is that she is not safe or loved. She is inherently trapped in a cruel and harsh punishment for existing. Unlike a real bird, it is not so simple for Jane to fly away. In her lonesome, Jane is much more connected to nature and animals over the desire to be with those associated with the Reeds family, “my vacant attention soon found livelier attraction in the spectacle of a little hungry robin” to which she left it crumbs on the window from her breakfast. While she has been hurt by those who are supposed to love and protect her, she still has a high capacity for kindness. Yet it also foreshadows how Jane will suffer from food insecurity later in Lowood and again when she leaves Thornfield Hall.

Once at Thornfeild Hall, she tours the third story with Mrs. Fairfax, Jane is acutely aware of the beauty it holds. But at the same time, it is strange and untouched. “All these relics gave to the third story of thornfield hall the aspect of a home of the past – a shrine of memory.” She continues talking about the physical setting saying “with wrought English old hanging crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings – all which would have looked strange, indeed, by the pallid gleam of moonlight” (ch. 11). Mrs. Fairfax even makes a comment that no one ever sleeps in this area of the hall but “if there were a ghost at Thornfield Hall, this would be its haunt”(ch 11.). This foreshadows the revelation of a dark presence in the third story of Thornfield Hall, which is revealed to be Bertha. The description of the third story as a “home of the past” and a “shrine of memory” creates an eerie and foreboding atmosphere. While the description “effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings” further contributes to the ominous tone of the passage, as it suggests that there is something unsettling and abnormal about this part of the house. There was no necessity for the use of bird imagery in this instance, it was only Charlotte Bronte’s desire to include it. It is clear that using it creates a gothic atmosphere, I believe it also connects to Jane’s love of nature and the complexities of the natural world. It is very clear that it is supposed to be ominous and dark, but there’s also a beauty that connects to both Jane and Bertha as characters. 

Rochester aims to paint them as two very different characters which I believe they are, but they also have many similarities. Both are seen as outsiders in the places that is meant to be their homes, they are very strong-willed and independent women, and they both heavily deal with passion and desire. The idea of freedom really affects both characters so in a sense both characters are akin to birds. One that was caged by Rochester and the other one that Rochester seeks to free from its cage. While talking with Rochester after dinner, he comments on Jane’s behavior saying that she rarely laughs and that she is constrained to the behaviors that she was taught at Lowood. He hopes over time she will become more natural and comfortable with him, saying “I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the closed set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud high” (ch 14). This observation of Jane as a “vivid, restless, resolute captive” trapped by the constraints of society, particularly those imposed by Lowood, highlights the theme of individual freedom versus societal restrictions is clear in the novel. Jane is a strong-willed character who desires independence and autonomy, but she is limited by the social norms and expectations of her time. I interpret Rochester’s statement as the fact that he sees himself as the one who can offer Jane the freedom she desires, but ultimately, his intentions are not entirely pure. We see this later demonstrated in the book when he requires her to pick out expensive dresses she does not want. He seeks to control her and mold her into the woman he wants her to be, rather than allowing her to be her true self. This is contrasted with Bertha, who is a literal captive of Rochester’s, trapped in the attic of Thornfield Hall and denied any agency or freedom.

In conclusion, Jane Eyre and Bertha are two complex and multi-faceted characters in Charlotte Bronte’s novel, they are two little birds. One survived and the other does not as I believe their hope for freedom disappeared and turned to madness. Through these characters and the use of birds, Bronte challenges societal norms and the female desire for autonomy and freedom. I hope in their own ways Bertha and Jane are as free as they dreamed.

This was my speech final for Gothic Mysteries in Spring 2023. This course goes over major Gothic texts of the nineteenth century and early twentieth, including works by English, Irish, and Russian writers. It examines the spatial, architectural, and archeological features of the Gothic, as well as the tropes, motifs, and linguistic patterns that are the hallmark of the genre.