A Novel Idea
Structurally, Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, a story of the main character’s development from childhood to adulthood. This causes a lot of scholars to view Jane’s forward progression as the sole importance of the book. For example, in her essay “Plain Jane’s Progress,” Sandra Gilbert uses the first line to exemplify the book’s odyssey:
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.” Both the occasion (“that day”) and the excursion (or the impossibility of taking one) are significant: the first is the real beginning of Jane’s pilgrim progress toward maturity; the second is a metaphor for the problems she must solve in order to attain maturity. (475).
So why does Bronte include dreams at all? A scholar must ponder this. Perhaps it’s for realistic purposes. As Frederick J. Ashe argues, in his essay “Jane Eyre: The Quest for Optimism”, that Jane has always been a depressed little girl. Depression is certainly a condition that lends itself to dreams and fantasy. One could certainly have a daydream while laying, Doritos stained and motionless, on the couch for several hours. Even realistically, dreams are useful. To prove just how useful they can be I will now share my own personal pillow fairy. I dreamt this and recorded the incident in a blog entry called “Secondary Revision and... The Shadow”:
Something felt wrong. The room I was in had a strange glow. I was in a modern looking office building. The colors were realistic but everything had a halo around it, like it was being viewed through a soft filter. I feel like my head's being tumbled in a clothes dryer. I was sitting at a table. Two literary agents were flanking me. Apparently they work for me.
They hand me a manuscript that they say is a play the other half of my brain wrote.
- This is ridiculous, I protest. This is absolute absurdity!
I looked across the table and I saw my self, my shadow (archetype). I didn't get a great look at him. He looked sloppy, almost deranged, but younger that my current self because his hair was shorter.
- This is the play, they say as they open the manuscript for me.
I looked directly at the script as it opened-- and then I woke up, probably from the absurdity I felt, and I had a violent urge to go to the bathroom.
I remember one sentence manifesting itself in my mind as I faded back into waking consciousness. Your brain will take care of you. It was after this I had the courage to write a play (which went pretty well, by the way). See, practical dreaming happens in real life too.
But realistic or not, dreams serve a practical purpose in Bronte’s book. Dreams are essential to the development of the plot in Jane Eyre. Some of these dreams are outright helpful to Jane, giving her a solution to something she’s been mulling over, but other times they are not. However, when following the plot, it’s plain to see that all of Jane’s actions are precursored by a dream, daydream, or trance.
*upper left- here's a title you're sure to recognize.
*lower right- novel good!
Read more:
The Practical Use of Dreams in Jane Eyre
The Pillow Fairy
Big Bad Bertha
A Novel Idea
Suggested Reading
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