Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is novel by Charlotte Bronte: the eponymous heroine is a penniless orphan who goes to live with her aunt, uncle and cousins. The children treat Jane as their inferior and she is very unhappy there, ending in a terrifying experience of being locked in the Red Room, where her uncle had died.

Jane is then sent to a charity school for orphan girls, Lowood, where she has a difficult time, but eventually makes friends and becomes a teacher herself. She then gains a position as a governess to a little girl called Adele, the ward of Mr Rochester her employer, whom she falls in love with.

Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman; a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

Bronte uses different literary techniques to create a sense of atmosphere and build audience expectations. These include pathetic fallacy and the use of gothic features.

In groups of 3 or 4 you will look at 3 areas of narrative craft:

• the use of gothic features• the use of pathetic fallacy• the use of powerful description

In the next 3 lessons you must complete the task together, after reading the extract provided.