In this passage from Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Jane stands in front of a white stone pillar in the north-midlands of England. She has left her master and past fiancée Edward Rochester after a disastrous wedding. To her shock and horror, Jane learned of Bertha Mason, Rochester’s previous wife who had been locked in the attic of his manor, Thornfield Hall due to her mental illness. Fleeing the anguish of Rochester’s betrayal, Jane takes a coach to the aptly named Whitcross, located a distance from any villages or hamlets, surrounded by rolling hills and misty moors. Jane is alone, and is at a crossroads. After being controlled by others for so long, Jane now faces a conundrum that is entirely her own. Through the use of picturesque diction, repetition …show more content…
She claims, “Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was whom from man could anticipate mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her filial fondness” (lines 56-59). The language used here acts to personify nature, contrasting it with the company of man, who Jane feels has failed her. Nature is described as gentle, loving, and warm. It offers Jane a home in the vast emptiness of the moors and the uncertainty of her crossroads. Her description of the heat as “warm with the heat of the summer day” (lines 53-54) and her later statement that “a low mossy swell was my pillow” (lines 72-73) are examples of this description of nature. They describe nature as comfortable compared to her description of the company of man. Jane earlier states, “not a tie holds me to human society at this moment” (line 27), and we can see why. Nature has offered to her what mankind could not. It offers her comfort and acceptance even in the dead of night, and so Jane finds solace in her path, and we see this through the repetition of natural elements in this section, such as the heath, dew drops, a mossy swell, and the moors. They all signify Jane’s turn to