"I lingered at the gates; I lingered on the lawn; I paced backwards and forwards on the pavement: the shutters of the glass door were closed; I could not see the interior; and both my eyes and spirit seemed drawn from the gloomy house- from the grey hollow filled with rayless cells, as it appeared to me- to that sky expanded before me,- a blue sea absolved from taint of cloud; the moon ascending it in solemn; her orb seeming to look up as she left the hill tops, from behind which she had come, far and farther below her, and aspired to the zenith, midnight-dark, in its fathomless depth and measureless distance: and for those trembling stars that followed her course; they made my heart tremble, my veins glowed when I viewed them" (119).
Throughout Bronte's novel, there is a lingering gothic feel to it. As Jane is describing scenes, she often uses descriptions that have a dark aura. For example, when Jane is describing the house that she lives at, she uses the words "grey hollow filled with rayless cells". The rayless cells that she is referring to are the rooms at Thornfield. Rather than describing them with a positive feel, the word cell makes it feel as if Jane is living in a prison. She also describes the sky with "fathomless depth". This does not necessarily have a dark association with Jane's word choice, but the image portrayed is one of infinity. To the reader, the sky is limitless and these images are very powerful.
No comments:
Post a Comment