Weather in Jane Eyre

      So I'm back at it with analyzing Charlotte Brontë symbolism; this time, weather. Brontë uses weather as a way to represent and highlight Janes current situation. While Jane was staying at Gateshead the weather was described as possessing "cold winter wind" (9) and "could so somber... that further outdoor exercise was... out of the question" (9). Gateshead was a terrible period for Jane fraught with pain, sorrow, and loneliness. The dreary weather emulates her internal condition. The winter weather follows Jane to her first semester at Lowood, where the cold and snow made it impossible to move about and function normally. The weather improved and blossomed into a warm beautiful spring once Jane learned to accept her situation and started doing well in her classes. The weather, described as "so serene, so warm... [and] promis[ing] [other] fine day[s]" (94)., reflects's Jane's change of heart once the cruel leadership of Mr. Brokleherst was lifted. Later at Thornfield, The weather overall is dreary but not terrible, representing Janes conflicting opinion about her emotions over Rochester. The most obvious use of weather as symbolism is the terrible rain and lighting that follows Mr. Rochesters proposal of marriage. The violent storm, causes the tree where Rochester and Jane become engaged to be "struck by lightning in the night, and half of it [spliting] away" (119). The splitting of the tree foreshadows the terrible events that follow Jane's engagement to Rochester.; and their eventual "split" Specifically, the discovery that Rochester is already married and to raving madwoman to boot. Charlotte Brontë uses weather as a literary tool to foreshadow and underscore the emotional high and low's Jane endures.