davip p
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
Several natural images keep appearing through the novel, one of which is the image of a stormy sea. It first appears in her reading of Bewick's History of British Birds in the opening pages of the novel. Here it suggests that Jane’s life is stormy and she will need to be strong to survive. After Jane saves Rochester's life, she uses the metaphor in reference to their relationship: "Till morning dawned I was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea … I thought sometimes I saw beyond its wild waters a shore … now and then a freshening gale, wakened by hope, bore my spirit triumphantly towards the bourne: but … a counteracting breeze blew off land, and continually drove me back." The gale represents all the forces that prevent Jane's union with Rochester. Later, Brontë conjures up the image of a buoyant sea when Rochester says of Jane: "Your habitual expression in those days, Jane, was … not buoyant." In fact, it is this buoyancy of Jane's relationship with Rochester that keeps Jane afloat at her time of crisis: "Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life? Because I know, or believe, Mr. Rochester is living." The relationship between the two has to be a strong one, as it has to face up to a range of difficulties, including the fact that Edward is still married.<br> <br>Brontë brings the buoyant sea theme and the bird theme together in the passage describing the first painting of Jane's that Rochester examines. This painting depicts a turbulent sea with a sunken ship, and on the mast perches a cormorant with a gold bracelet in its mouth, apparently taken from a drowning body. While the imagery is perhaps too imprecise to afford an exact interpretation, a possible explanation can be derived from the context of previous treatments of these themes. The sea is surely a metaphor for Rochester and Jane's relationship, as we have already seen. Rochester is often described as a "dark" and dangerous man, who fits the likeness of a cormorant; it is likely that Brontë sees him as the sea bird. Maybe she could have painted him as the albatross for the ill-fated end that his marriage plans eventually reach.<br><br>After the desperate collapse of their wedding, Jane feels obliged to leave Edward as she sees no morality in staying as anything other than his wife. This again shows Jane’s strength. In leaving Thornfield, Jane severed all her connections; she cut through any metaphorical umbilical cord. She narrates: "Not a tie holds me to human society at this moment." After only taking a small parcel with her from Thornfield, she leaves even that in the coach she rents. Gone are all references to Rochester, or even her past life. <br><br>The hard strength of a rock is the very thing that makes it inflexible. Jane is as strong as the rock but just as inflexible at times. Her heart desperately wants to stay with Edward but her head, where her strength is seen to lie, decides she cannot. However, there is one crucial advantage in human nature: it is flexible in the end. Jane is able to learn to let her heart draw her close to Edward again.<br>