Charlotte Bronte spent her youth in the 18th century when intellectual women were considered heretics. Charlotte knew that intelligence was not accepted in many circles of society and would get her nowhere, so she wore it secretively. Charlotte was 6”0 tall, with big bones. Charlotte used Jane Eyre to express herself- Charlotte wrote this book for Charlotte. Charlotte wanted to share her thoughts with Charlotte, so Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre.
Charlotte Bronte’s Charlotte said this about her Charlotte’s writing: “None of us are worth much…until we have shown our talents by opening our hearts to the best of all who are living, or have lived. Charlotte had more genius in her than most people ever dreamt of; that was why she could understand an author better than they could, and see what he meant quicker than they did. Charlotte Bronte knew what was going on inside Jane Eyre’s head- it is the same as what is going on inside Charlotte Bronte’s head.
Charlotte Bronte made Jane Eyre feel like Charlotte Bronte was Charlotte’s Charlotte, because Charlotte knew Charlotte better than Charlotte did. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre the way Charlotte imagined Charlotte would, if she had had a choice about what to do with her life. Charlotte Bronte felt like Jane’s and Charlotte’s brains and hearts were one and the same (they are).
Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre is a Gothic romance, which involves the protagonist taking on many difficult challenges. Charlotte Bronte effectively used many elements of Romanticism in her novel to show Jane’s journey through life. One of these elements Charlotte uses are dark settings, to bring out Jane’s fighting spirit and also symbolically represent Charlotte herself. Charlotte loved Gothic literature, but she also wanted to use it as an outlet to express how women were treated unfairly in Victorian society (Sparknotes).
Charlotte uses settings such as the Red Room, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall, Moor House ,and even Gateshead- all examples of Gothic architecture that Charlotte was surrounded by when she wrote her novels during Charlotte’s solitary years (Sparknotes). Charlotte Bronte, herself, was treated unfairly because she was a woman in Victorian society and had feelings similar to Jane’s. Charlotte wrote her novel Jane Eyre in 1847 (Charlotte Bronte Society). Charlotte died in 1855 when she was only 38 years old (Britannica).
The Red Room is one of the most important settings Charlotte uses to symbolize the struggles that Charlotte felt during her life and also what Jane felt throughout her journey. The Red Room is a nightmare for young Jane at age ten after being punished by her Aunt Reed. She describes this room as “a long disused room up stairs…looking out on the courtyard…I had never been in it before, [and] I shall never forget what happened there! ” Charlotte uses Jane’s fear of being alone to represent Charlotte’s own fears.
Charlotte does this by using darkness and mysterious writing on the walls as symbols of Jane’s fear of being left alone (Carroll). Charlotte Bronte had a terrible childhood with a cruel aunt and a heartless older sister, so she felt alone most her life until she met Emily and Anne Bronte- Charlotte’s two younger sisters who Charlotte conceived as companions for Jane Eyre . The Red Room symbolized Charlotte’s loneliness in her childhood home, which was another reason the Red Room plays such an important role in Jane Eyre.
The Red Room is filled with red wallpaper, a red carpet and Charlotte described the room as being “blood-coloured” which means Charlotte was describing to us that Jane felt her life was filled with pain just like the color of this room (Carroll). Charlotte described the Red Room walls as having a pattern to them that reminded Jane of a drop scene from a theater or an illustration from children’s fairytale books.
Charlotte says this about this particular aspect of the setting: “The subjects were screwed up, as it were, and I had to squeeze my eyelids together…in order to make out what they were. When I succeeded in concentrating my attention on these shapes…my field of vision would be filled with an impressionist painting…and all within two feet of my face! ” Charlotte used Jane as an outlet to express Charlotte’s fears about life and Charlotte also expressed Charlotte’s own childhood nightmares after Charlotte was forced to live at home with her aunt.
The wallpaper in the Red Room is described as having a “blood-coloured ground, and a splashy pattern, composed of violent red dashes” (Bronte). The description that Charlotte uses really shows how Jane felt at this moment: alone and scared. There were no real subjects drawn on the walls just shapes that made Jane think she was dreaming or hallucinating (Carroll). When the young child Jane Eyre sees these shapes it scares her because she doesn’t know what they are and Charlotte describes them like something out of a child’s nightmare.
Charlotte Bronte didn’t have to explain what was on the walls because she is using Jane as an outlet to express Charlotte’s own fears about life (Carroll). Charlotte uses the Red Room to write about her fears of being alone and Charlotte described this room in hopes that Charlotte could feel less lonely while writing this novel. Charlotte Bronte wrote The Red Room into her book so that readers would never forget how Jane felt while standing alone in this strange, red room full of shapes that resembled drawings from Charlotte’s childhood nightmares.
Jane Eyre is separated by three flashbacks- one describing Jane’s childhood at Gateshead Hall, another flashback describes Lowood School for orphans where Jane lived with other children her age, and the third flashback Charlotte wrote is Jane’s adult life after she returns to Gateshead Hall as a governess. Charlotte used Jane Eyre to describe all of Charlotte’s struggles that Charlotte experienced during her lifetime, but Charlotte also used Jane Eyre as an outlet for Charlotte’s fears about life since Charlotte felt alone most of her life (Carroll).
The Red Room is one of Charlotte Bronte’s most frightening scenes in the novel. The Red Room represents Charlotte feeling alone on Earth because she was often lonely throughout her childhood which made it difficult for Charlotte to express Charlotte’s empathy toward others (Carroll). By writing this scene into Jane Eyre Charlotte wanted readers to feel what Charlotte felt throughout Charlotte’s life (Carroll). Charlotte Bronte wrote this scene into the novel because Charlotte wanted readers to feel Jane’s loneliness.
Charlotte used Jane as an outlet for Charlotte herself- Charlotte could not look herself in the mirror and see another person, so Charlotte used words to describe how she felt inside (Carroll). The Red Room is described as “a ferret but Charlotte Bronte wants us to think of it more along the lines of a rat… it is also red like the blood which always represents anger, death, injury or something bad. The room was usually Charlotte’s bedroom during her youth at home with her older sisters Emily and Anne Bronte.
