Dreaming of Eyre

Introduction to the Dreams of Jane Eyre

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:05:56 +0000

Did I wake or sleep? Had I been dreaming? Did I dream still?"

These words, uttered by Charlotte Bronte’s protagonist in Jane Eyre, poignantly draw the reader into Eyre’s dream world, brimming with innumerable visions that reveal pieces of her psyche, and shape the significant events which occur from her childhood to her residence at Thornfield Hall. Undeniably, it is Jane’s vivid imagination, her outlet for feelings of repression and separation from others, that allows the dreams to occur. Indeed, it becomes clear Eyre has learned “to approach reality through the mediating agency of books” as author Charlotte Bronte and her sisters were frequently known to do, which conditions her ability to have symbolic dreams (Gilbert 250). Jane utilizes her strong imagination through her maturation, which ultimately leads her to have power over her unconscious life. Exploring Eyre's development, I have illuminated the symbolic and prophetic nature of Eyre's dreams, outlets of her innermost thoughts.

Before we begin on our journey through the Dreams of Eyre, it is imperative to introduce C.G. Jung, a twentieth century psychologist who devised his own influential dream theories. Although Jung never put forth a formulated theory on dreams, he has revised Freud's ideologies, and has written much on the subject. It is my task to interpret and analyze the dreams, visions, and incidents of the Victorian novel Jane Eyre using a philosophical Jungian lens. His major theories of the archetype, imago, and shadow, stemming from a collective unconscious theory, aid in the analysis of Jane's unconscious thoughts.

This video clip, taken from the BBC.COM production of Jane Eyre, exhibits Jane escaping through reading, and her poor self-perception. Photo of Bronte is from: www.bronte.brain-jogging.com/images/bronte1.jpg

Jung's Principles

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:05:21 +0000

Although many critics have added to the conversation of the novel, very little has been written about how the dreams help contribute to the subjects of restraint and freedom with regard to Jane Eyre’s psyche. Exploring Jane Eyre through the philosophical eyes of dream analyst Carl Jung, a predecessor of Freud who has studied dreamers and dreaming in a unique perspective, may help readers view the struggle for autonomy in a new fashion through the use of imago, archetype, and shadow. Jung initially began searching for his patients “mythology” when he heard them discussing their dreams and visions (Bair 246). Since he could never consent to Freud’s theory of dreams as “facades,” Jung himself separated and devised theories of the unconscious that deal with the imago, archetype, and shadow (Jung, Memories, 161). Jung’s theories stem from the collective unconscious, the concept that all human beings are equipped with ancestral history that supplies us innate knowledge, explaining why humans attach emotional reactions to universal objects. Consequently, this knowledge facilitated informing the idea of the archetype (Jung, Dreams, 78). The archetype is literally considered an “original model,” formed by all the “content of the collective unconscious” (Hall 38). As Jaffe adds, archetypes, which are “inner dispositions or propensities,” can be revealed through various mediums (15,16). In Jane Eyre, then, the looking glass becomes an archetypal figure, defined as a universal motif objectified in dreams, visions, and delusions (Jung, Memories, 392). The mirror is an archetypal image that illuminates Eyre's insecurity, which forms the from the imagos, or perceived images, of the Reed family she lives with. The shadow is another archetypal images. Jung explains that the shadow “ is everything that the subjects refuses to acknowledge about himself” (Jung, Memories, 399). More so, the shadow is also considered the conformity archetype, since it encompasses society’s rules. It also deals with conflicts of conformity and “man’s basic animal nature” (Hall 48). It has been my goal to prove that through Jane's stellar imagination, “the freak image imposed on Jane at Gateshead and Lowood reveak the more hideous manifestatio when she meets her shadow, Bertha Mason (Chen 381). Using this knowledge of Jung's principles, I have compiled a chronological structure of Jane Eyre's dream development. Starting in adolescence, Jane's is met with the mirror, a major image that holds power to her. She haunted through the mirror all the way to Thornfield Hall. Moving further, we will also use Jung's theories to interpret a major prophetic dream of Eyre's, made possible by her vivid imagination. Photo of C.G. Jung is from Sangraal.com

Mirrors on the Wall: Early Imaginative Unconscious

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:04:39 +0000

With knowledge of Jung’s dream theories, one can better understand Eyre’s first pivotal vision, which occurs when an incident with cousin John Reed forces Jane to a punishment in the Reed’s “red room.” The room was once inhabited by her dead uncle, and was covered with red festoons, and a crimson bed (Bronte 10-11). Jane crosses about the room, and peers into the “looking glass” which reveals a vision of a “strange little figure […] gazing a [her] with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear” with “a real spirit,” like a phantom, being “half fairy, half imp” (Bronte 11). This is a moment where her imagination, strengthened by the frequent perusal of books in the seclusion of the Reeds’ library, is initially seen at work. As Polly Young-Eisendrath and Terence Dawson, writers of The Cambridge Companion to Jung have suggested, all significant images are considered part of the person’s subjective relationship to the object (106). And so, Jung would probably assert the looking glass is symbolic because Jane has some concern or problem with her physical body. Growing up in a house where she was simply disregarded as plain, and going through her life looking almost like a child could show its impact on her psyche (Bronte 363). In addition, Jung confirms, an “individual is not conditioned by himself alone but just as much by his collective relationships” which is fitting since her family has such poor perceptions of her physical attractiveness and social decorum (Jung, Dreams, 43). And so, the looking glass becomes an archetypal figure objectified in Eyre's visions because she has a personal reaction to it. The mirror becomes the outlet where Jane sees how other people view her, and transforms into how she perceives herself. Additionally, the visage of the wild creature follows her to her adulthood (Jung, Memories, 392). Jane not only sees the image of an unfamiliar imp when she looks are her reflection in the mirror in the red room, but she also feels separated from herself at other times during the novel. For instance, she says on the day before her wedding that not she, but a Jane Rochester she has not met, will be her way to London (234). Jane continues to say that Jane Rochester has not been born yet. In addition, Jane experiences disconnectedness when she stares blankly in the mirror at a stranger when she puts on the veil before her wedding. Jane says, “I saw a robed and veiled figure, so unlike [her] usual self that it seemed almost the image of a stranger (Bronte 244). The looking glass plays a large role in Jane Eyre’s self-perception. She can look at the glass, and it is ultimately when she looks into herself, but she can not recognize a familiarity between the external and within. The looking glass is also the place of her encounter with Bertha Mason. She does not actually meet Bertha’s face directly, but rather through a reflection in the mirror. The mirror is the medium that presents Jane Eyre to her prospective shadow, Bertha Mason. Photo of Eyre in mirror is shared from the BBC. COM production of the movie.

Awakening the Imagination

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:04:16 +0000

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

Making Meaning of Prophetic Dreaming

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 01:03:51 +0000

Jane clearly does show power over her dreams through the latter portion of the novel, as Rochester hears her and refers to Bertha’s visage as “a creature of an over stimulated brain,” which proves that other characters are aware of her impressive imagination (Bronte 242). One of Jane Eyre’s most significant dream sequences revolves around a young child. In the beginning of the novel, a young Jane overhears dreams of children are a “sure sign of trouble,” and as an adult has seven nights of recurring infant dreams (Bronte 187). Jane’s dreams gives her physical contact with the baby, the child having been “hushed on [her] arms, […] dandled on [her] knee,” as well as laughing and crying at various moments (Bronte 188). My theory is the orphan child in her dream goes back to hearing a servant sing at Gateshead Hall, confirmed by professors Gilbert and Gubar, showing Eyre’s incapability of detaching from adolescence (358). Eyre’s dream adds to Jung's theory that to understand dreams, one must “turn to the past and reconstruct former experiences,” which would be compensatory dreams (70). Jane Eyre again dreams of this “very small creature, too young and too feeble to walk” that shivered and wailed in her hands, but this dream is possibly prospective as well, since it predicts a ruined Thornfield (Bronte 240). Jane has this dream, and before she can confide in Mr. Rochester she tells him that she wishes time to cease, because she fears the future (Bronte 238). She continues to tell him about her dream of “Thornfield [as a] dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owl” (Bronte 241). She dreamt of the house as fragile and “shell-like,” and all around her lay fragments.” Ultimately, this prospective dream is prophetic because it becomes a reality. Possible Interpretations: Although the child could be representative of her youthful self, the connection between her childhood and Thornfield expose that it may be more complex than that alone. Writer of The "Image of the Child and the Plot of Jane Eyre," William Siebenschuh, has noted that child figures could represent fear of her responsibilities to Adele, or her feelings of “new” love for Rochester, the authoritarian of adult Eyre. Siebenschuh’s article additionally explores the child as a sign of “subliminal knowledge of the existence of the mad woman in the attic,” Jane’s shadow (307). Calvin Hall and Vernon Nordby, writiers of A Primer of Jungian Psychology, consider the shadow as a conformity archetype, encompassing society’s rules, and conflicts of conformity from “man’s basic animal nature” (48). In Knapp’s Exile and the Writer, the description of a house for “Edo and Enam” can also be applied to the function is serves in Jane Eyre. The house is said to function as a “centering device” and the “locus within which the events are dramatized” (114-115). The house is a place of imprisonment and containment in this particular description, but the description alone is enough to understand the symbolism of this action (Knapp, Exile, 115). Jane, who refers to the life that lay ahead after her marriage as Rochester’s life, is feeling extremely repressed moments before her bridal day (239). It can be hypothesized, then, that the vision of a shattered Thornfield Hall may the intentional workings of a woman looking to break free from the containment of marriage. Yet, again, it comes to the reader’s attention that a proper woman like Jane can only envision such horror, and never act it out as Bertha has the means to. Indeed, Jane Eyre’s prophetic dream of Thornfield Hall becomes a reality through the hands of her dark shadow, Bertha Mason. Collage of photos collaborated from the BBC.COM photo gallery

Shadows: Reflections of the Self

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:57:32 +0000

Dreams, as Jung has said, allow us to “gain a ‘self-portrait’ of the psyche” (Lauter 3). In Jane Eyre, her adult dreams not only become prophetic, but also reveal much of her psychological apprehension. Bair has noted that Jung himself has treated patients who have experienced dreams of houses. Bair states, “when patients bright him [Jung] dreams of houses, or even when he himself dreams of them, they were always unfinished” (297). Yet, there is something more interesting about this dream, the entire house falls to ruins and fragments. The dream is also fascinating because it occurs right before Jane and Bertha come face to face.This may directly connect Jane's “psychic wisdom” of Bertha, who ultimately makes her dream of ruined Thornfield become reality (Hall 89). Jane explains that immediately after having a dream of a ruined Thornfield Hall, she wakes to find “a form emerg[e] from the closet” scanning her bridal wear ( Bronte 241). Jane describes the woman as “tall and large, with and dark hair hanging long down to her back,” and explicates how the figure tried on her veil and looked in the mirror (Bronte 242). It is at this moment that Jane Eyre comes to see the face of Bertha, a “savage face” with “red eyes” and “swelled and dark” lips (Bronte 242). It is at this instant that Jane Eyre gets to see this darkened figure that tramples are her veil. It is with the use of the reflection that can show Bertha has the shadow of Jane Eyre. This connecting moment between Jane and Bertha can be enhanced by understanding Jung’s principles. Jung explains that the shadow “ is everything that the subjects refuses to acknowledge about himself” (Jung, Memories, 399). And so, when Jane views Bertha in this grotesque description, it can be said she is witnessing her shadow, and viewing all of unattractiveness she has hidden deep within herself that comes to surface through Bertha’s physical form. As found in Young-Eisendrath’s work, the shadow is the “unconscious aspect of the personality” with characteristics the person does know exists in themselves (319).
In the novel, just as it is true in reality, the shadow is considered one of the most dangerous archetypes to have because it is the “source of the best and worst in man” (Hall 48-50). The writer of Boundaries of the Soul, Singer, has stated that the shadow is the “dark side to our personality” (192). The shadow is the part of our personality that is inferior and the side we wish to hide from others (Singer 192). In the novel, there are signs Jane is aware of the presence of her repressed shadow. Since the repressed shadow is moved to the unconscious, it often has to find its own means of expression, perhaps through dreams (Singer 192). Images taken from the BBC.COM website

Afterthoughts

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 03:54:20 +0000

Through the course of the novel, Jane attempts to achieve a “desired female selfhood” after her meager beginnings (Chen 369). Strengthened solely by her imagination, it appears that Jane’s unconscious life is preparing her to meet her for her prophetic, prospective dreams, as well as prepare her for the dark side of her personality, and “confront the demon of rage that has haunted her since the red room” (Gilbert 347, Singer 192). Jane has such connection that it is only when she leaves, and comes back to know Bertha is truly dead that she feels a sense of liberation she has long desired since her days as a “bad animal” and a “mad cat” ( Bronte7,9). Ultimately, Jane's imagination is what prepares her for her various dreams and visions. Her imagination, strengthed from days of reading and subjugation, is powerful enough to recieve visions and dreams that are ultimately prophetic. Thanks to good, old Jung, we gain a new perspective into what the dreams mean, and what connections those dreams make to the novel. Photo of red room from Americaslibrary.gov.

Critics

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:03:44 +0000

Many critics have shed light on the conversation of Jane Eyre, so I thought it would be helpful to have a brief compilation of their ideas: Chih-Ping Chen: writer of “Am I A Monster: Jane Eyre Among the Shadows of Freaks” who believes Jane Eyre is at conflict between her desire to be a moral Victorian woman, and her craving to think and act without consequence. Indeed, it appears as though Jane fears not being a proper female. Chen has asserted that Eyre gains power from the training of her imagination. “Her artistic imagination had provided a place of escape” (Chen 375). It appears as though Jane's dreams would be the result of her active imagination which is the place where Jane goes to escape from her problematic existence. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: professors who co-authored A Madwoman in the Attic. They believe that Jane’s incident in the red room exposes her to the “larger drama that occupies the book,” which may show the dreams and visions she experiences enhance her inner struggle and her connection to Bertha (341). In addition, they conclude Bertha is Jane's "own secret self” who asks out what Jane wishes to do (359). The professor believe that Jane is destined “ to confront the demon of rage who has haunted her since the red room” (Gilbert 347). William Siebenschuh: author of "Image of the Child and the Plot of Jane Eyre,” who analyzed the dream of the infant hushed on [Jane’s] arms, […] dandled on [her] knee” (Bronte 188). William Siebenschuh, has noted that this child figure could represent fear of her responsibilities to Adele, or her feelings of a “new” love for Rochester. Indeed, Jane is progressing in a relationship with one of her authoritarians, or her responsibilies to Adele. In addition, this critic has also hypothesized that the dream explores the child as a sign of “subliminal knowledge of the existence of the mad woman in the attic” (Siebenschuh 307). This is due to the idea hiding Bertha was like "covering a child with a cloak" (Bronte). Valerie Beattie: writer of "The Mystery at Thornfield: Representations of Madness in ‘Jane Eyre,’' does not agree with the idea that Bertha is “Jane’s truest and darkest double” because she thinks the idea is too figurative ( Gilbert 360). Beattie feels that this explanation detracts the importance Bertha has in the novel since she would merely be a “metaphor” (2,3). Jungian critics, however, would reason if Bertha and Jane are doubles, it would make sense that Bertha could figuratively be the shadow of our protagonist. In turn, this itself means that without Bertha, Jane would be “incomplete” (Singer 192). And so, this perspective, indeed, also heightens Bertha’s importance, while showing her as the more active of the characters. Adlai Murdoch: author of "Ghosts in the Mirror: Colonialism and Creole Indeterminacy in Bronte and Sand," believes that believes that Bertha does not so much work with Jane, but against her, showing the opposites of the colonized Creole, and the British colonizer. Indeed, her perspective uses “Bertha Mason as a foil constructs a social identity for Jane Eyre” through marginalization. Although this is a valid argument, it does not account for the similarities the two share, and coincidences that occur between the two of them.

About the Author

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:11:32 +0000

Tina is a proud to be part of the graduating class of Queens College, CUNY, 2007. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and concentration in Secondary Education and Counseling and Advisement, Tina intends to be a high school English educator, and hopes to receive an MA in English and an MFA in Poetry writing. She has been writing poetry since the age of twelve, and also enjoys cooking, watching baseball, shopping, playing THE SIMS 2, and eating. Tina's favorite foods are pizza with sausage, eggplant parm, vienna mocha chunk icecream and chocolate chip cookies. Fortunately, Tina also likes weight training and cardio! Tina totally loves golden retriever puppies. Her next goal is to purchase or adopt one after graduation!