Awakening the Imagination
As a child, it appears as though Jane Eyre’s unconscious is wild. She wakes up, and can merely acknowledge when she has dreams or nightmares (Bronte 14). Yet, as she gets older, and her experiences become more focused on her as an inferior, it appears as though she has more control over the power of her unconscious. It is evident that Jane gains control over her dreams, since at Lowood she says “the night passed rapidly: I was too tired even to dream” (Bronte 37). It can be implied that since she “was too tired to dream” she believes she has some control over her unconscious and chose not to dream because of her fatigue. At strict, regimented Lowood school, Eyre’s self-concept and experiences further exhibit her heightened feelings of inadequacy, but once again her outlet for her feelings is her use of imagination and the strengthening of her unconscious. Chih-Ping Chen, writer of “Am I A Monster: Jane Eyre Among the Shadows of Freaks,” has noted, Jane gains power from the training of her imagination. “Her artistic imagination had provided a place of escape” (Chen 375).
Fittingly, Jane uses this time, as she did at Gateshead, to form an understanding of dreams and visions. Her moments of visions and dreaming expose a true need of being autonomous and acceptance. She uses these dreams and other workings of her imagination to separate herself from the reality which is her life. Jane's dreaming is also a way to control her consciousness since as Jung emphasizes, dreaming has both prospective and compensatory purposes (Jung, Dreams, 41).
Jung's DREAM functions:
Prospective: Dream that are anticipatory of future events
Compensatory: Dreams that add to conscious aware of elements from the previous day
The film clip, and film photos on various pages were compiled from the Jane Eyre Episodes from BBC.COM
Read more:
Introduction to the Dreams of Jane Eyre
Jung's Principles
Mirrors on the Wall: Early Imaginative Unconscious
Awakening the Imagination
The Building of Prophetic Dreams
Connections to the Shadow
Concluding Thoughts
Critics
Further Reading
About the Author