“Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adele came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.”
This is one of the only few examples of symbolism that the author Charlotte Bronte presents in the novel and also the most obvious one. As it turns out, under that same tree that was split away, Jane had confessed her love to Mr. Rochester, and he had proposed to her the evening before. The author is clearly trying to get at the reader by placing such a strong and strange symbolic event. The question in this matter is, what exactly does the author want the reader to conclude from such occurrence? Perhaps the author wants the reader to look ahead and try to draw a conclusion to how the outcome of this story will come to be, or perhaps she just wants to warn the reader of a complete turn of events in the following chapters. To me, this symbol of the tree splitting in two because of the the lightning can be drawn out into two different categories. The first category is that this symbolizes a bad such as maybe Jane's heart being broken, or that Jane and Rochester will not last or aren't meant to be. The second category is that of a good saying that a first things will not work out the way they are planned and Jane and Rochester will have difficulties and want to end it all, but the love that they have for each other keeps them strong and still rooted together such as the two halfs of the tree are by its roots in the above flickr picture taken by the user smenzer.
Posts
I always saw the tree as a bad omen. However, I believe that everything will work out in the end. What side are you leaning more on? Do you think things are going to end or they will keep going strong? I believe this symbolism in the book is giving us a different incite that we have yet to seen. What if this foreshadowing is to warn us about something else?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think, Eduardo? Give some idea of how you would answer your questions? Connect your ideas to what Kevin has said here?
ReplyDeleteKevin, look at the way the tree symbol is described in the book? Are there any clues for how you might interpret Bronte's signs?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice image, Kevin. It adds to your blog. I don't think the link goes where you want it to, however. Be sure to include your page citation.
ReplyDeleteHow does what you have to say here relate to your life? Do you learning anything from this part of the novel?
I like how you state that the tree spliting can be seen as two different signs. One meaning that Jane and Mr. Roschester aren't going to work out, and the other meaning that they aren't going to work out as planned but work out in the end.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you think of the tree being struck by lightning if you were in Janes situation? Would you see it as a sign or would you see it as a meaningless coincidence?