Jae Eyte Temas

Fire and Ice
Fire and ice appear throughout Jane Eyre. The former represents Jane’s passions, anger, and spirit, while the latter symbolizes the oppressive forces trying to extinguish Jane’s vitality. Fire is also a metaphor for Jane, as the narrative repeatedly associates her with images of fire, brightness, and warmth. In Chapter 4, she likens her mind to “a ridge of lighted heath, alive,glancing, devouring.” We can recognize Jane’s kindred spirits by their similar links to fire; thus we read of Rochester’s “flaming and flashing” eyes (Chapter 26). After he has been blinded, his face is compared to “a lamp quenched, waiting to be relit” (Chapter 37).
Images of ice and cold, often appearing in association with barren landscapes or seascapes, symbolize emotional desolation, loneliness,or even death. The “death-white realms” of the arctic that Bewick describes in his History of British Birds parallel Jane’s physical and spiritual isolation at Gateshead (Chapter 1). Lowood’s freezing temperatures—for example, the frozen pitchers of water that greet the girls each morning—mirror Jane’s sense of psychological exile. After the interrupted wedding to Rochester, Jane describes herstate of mind: “A Christmas frost had come at mid-summer: a white December storm had whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hay-field and corn-field lay a frozen shroud . . . and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and fragrant as groves between the tropics, now spread, waste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry Norway. My hopes were alldead. . . .” (Chapter 26). Finally, at Moor House, St. John’s frigidity and stiffness are established through comparisons with ice and cold rock. Jane writes: “By degrees, he acquired a certain influence over me that took away my liberty of mind. . . . I fell under a freezing spell” (Chapter 34). When St. John proposes marriage to Jane, she concludes that “[a]s his curate, his comrade, all wouldbe right. . . . But as his wife—at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked—forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable” (Chapter 34).

By Aaron Biterman, John Machi, and Dan Russell.
September, 2000
Significance of the Theme of Ice andFire
Fire symbolizes the compelling emotion of the characters. Fire is portrayed throughout the novel to encapsulate the growing passion of the specific characters. On the contrary, ice is used to represent stoicism, the indifference to pleasure or pain. The characters that are symbolized by ice are calm and soothing characters who take whatever life grants them.
Important Characters Who ReflectThis Theme
Jane Eyre (Fire)
-Hits John Reed
-Yells at Mrs. Reed
-Controlling
-Against traditions
-Stubborn
-Feminism
First, there is Jane Eyre, clearly the most passionate and zealous individual in the novel. The first lucid example of Eyre's fiery lust is the striking of John Reed, her cousin, at a time when women were not to challenge men. Yet another example of Jane's internal inferno iswhen she yelled at Mrs. Reed, her aunt, exposing her staunch individualism. Thirdly, when the decent clergyman, St. John Rivers, proposed to Jane, she steadfastly refused, citing lack of love as her rationalization. ("But as his wife -- at his side always, always restrained, and always checked -- forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter acry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital -- this would be unendurable". Contrarily, when Rochester, is around Jane she feels quite different. Jane lets her passion consume her. "'I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not (again he stopped) did not (he proceeded hastily) strike delight to my very inmost heart for nothing... My cherished...