Motifs In Jane Eyre

Frances Ponicki

Ap English & Lit - 5

Kreutzer

Witty Title

The “fire and ice” motifs have permeated literature for many years: from the very obvious “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost to “Inferno” by Dante Alighieri, authors have been utilizing these motifs to highlight the idea that fire accompanies positive forces and passion while ice emphasizes negative forces and that perhaps the very worst people are the ones who use their cold intelligence to commit cruel acts, such as Satan in “Inferno.” In Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre the use of these motifs continues these ideas as Brontë makes use of the two motifs to emphasize the characters, places, and stages of Jane’s life which are symbolized by either fire or ice. While cruel or detached characters

The best example of this is how Helen Burns is a foil to Jane. Unlike Jane, Helen is detached from most earthly desires, constantly reminding Jane to endure, that God and her future in heaven are more important than revenge (55). While Jane is filled with blazing passion, Helen is peacefully submissive. When Helen is punished or unjustly mistreated, Jane would find “the fury of which [Helen] was incapable had been burning in [Jane’s] soul all day” (74). Helen’s cool nature directly foils Jane’s fiery one, making the use of the fire and ice motifs in regard to Jane very emphatic. Jane, unlike Helen, is not willing to turn the other cheek. Rather, Jane craves to be loved and dramatically claims she would willingly submit to harm to gain love (69), a desperate, passionate idea to say the least. Further, the fire motif is also used to emphasize the positive forces in Jane’s life, specifically Miss Temple, the beautiful and kind superintendent at Lowood, whose apartment contained a “brilliant fire” and who was capable of rekindling the “radiance” in the pale and sick Helen (73). Miss Temple, with her overwhelmingly kind nature, is evidently a positive force in young Jane’s

As opposed to the fiery feelings that Jane experiences for Mr. Rochester, St. John, the evangelist who takes Jane into Moor House, is associated with very different feelings. Jane never portrays him as a person of warmth; rather, apart from the intensity both he and Mr. Rochester contain, St. John’s personality is in complete contrast to Mr. Rochester. Previously the ice motif was associated with the negative forces which Jane must overcome to find happiness, and this idea pertains to her experiences with St. John. Jane writes that with St. John, “I fell under a freezing spell. When he said “go” I went. “come” I came, “do this,” I did it” (398). This notion that he placed her under a “freezing spell” illustrates the idea that St. John keeps her from her heart’s desires. Further, this concept is demonstrated once more when St. John asks Jane to marry him. Jane depicts the proposal itself as cold, stating, “Reader, do you know, as I do, what terror those cold people can put into the ice of their questions?” (412). She rejects him knowing that a union with a cold man such as St. John will only make her unhappy, saying, “"...as his wife-at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked-forced to keep the fire of my