Jane Eyre by Charlotte

157 ‘the pinnacle of an iceberg piercing a polar winter sky: a muster of northern lights reared their dim lances’ – Jane’s third painting implies a strong – though frozen – masculine presence with its ‘piercing’ ‘pinnacle’ of ice and the aurora’s ‘dim lances’.

157 ‘a colossal head, inclined towards the iceberg…a sable veil, a brow quite bloodless, white as bone, and an eye hollow and fixed, blank of meaning but for the glassiness of despair’ – In terms of symbol, the head is, perhaps, most naturally taken for Rochester by the reader – at least at first. There is certainly something ‘colossal’ about Jane’s descriptions of him (on page 162 he is actually described as having a ‘massive head’), and he is emotionally ‘cold’ in his manner towards her, hence the iceberg. If this is indeed the case, then the picture is symbolic, presumably, of the ‘despair’ that has overtaken his life as a result of his disastrous marriage to Bertha Mason, as well as being proleptic of his despair upon losing Jane. However, see below.

157 ‘“the likeness of a kingly crown;”…“the shape which shape had none.”’ – These two quotations are from Milton’s Paradise Lost , Book II and they, again, suggest the Romanticism that provides an obvious context for both Jane and Rochester. The lines describe Death, met, along with Sin, by Satan as he travels to the Gates of Hell, and they were a favourite subject of illustrators of Milton in the Romantic period. It is tempting, though, still to see this figure as Rochester: Jane experiences an emotional death as a result of his actions; his ‘iceberg’ brings her to experience ‘shipwreck’ and ‘drowning’ (to make use of Jane’s most vivid images of her isolation and exile from love). In Milton, Death is paired with Sin, and it is the temptation to stay with Rochester as his mistress that Jane recoils from when she flees.

Chapter 14
164 ‘which are galled with dwelling on one point – cankering as a rusty nail’ – Rochester’s first reference to being troubled by his secret. He turns to Jane for diversion.

166 ‘But I don’t mean to flatter you: if you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it.’ – Rochester sees Jane’s uniqueness in Romantic terms. In fact, Brontë has created a very believable ‘past’ for Jane which goes a long way to explaining the more remarkable traits of her personality.