ABSTRACT
Introduction 'There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.' The opening ofJane Eyre takes us directly to the heroine's thoughts on a bleak November afternoon. A 'cold winter wind', 'sombre' clouds and 'penetrating' rain are observed by Jane from her window seat (Bronte, [1847] 2000, 1.1; p.7; all subsequent page references are to this edition). From the outset we are aware of the intense relationship in Bronte's novel between the description of external conditions and the portrayal of individual thoughts and feelings. This technique helps establish Jane's consciousness at the centre of the narrative where it remains throughout the novel. Sequestered between the window curtains and 'the drear November day' outside, Jane is poised between two scenes jointly eloquent of her circumstances. Beyond the curtains, the Reed children cluster around their mother at the fireside, enjoying a family intimacy from which Jane is excluded. Outside the window lies 'a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast' 0.1; p.B), In her cold hiding-place Jane reads Thomas Bewick's A History ofBritish Birds by the dim light of the fading day. The desolation of the scene is enhanced by her contemplation of the 'solitary rocks and promontories' and bleak shores of the northern wastes depicted there 0.1; p.B).
