Look Close! There is a hidden Allusion to Paradise Lost:
"...; and anon the devilish face off Judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemed gathering life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor- of Satan himself- in his subordinates form." (213).
This does not come from a direct quote from Paradise Lost, but Bronte in still referencing the story of the fallen angel and his minions into the lake of fire. She refers to Judas and the arch-traitor by connecting them to her own characters that may have displayed similar devilish, traitor-like, or rebellious attitudes that resemble that of Satan in Paradise Lost.
See Here! Do you notice another Allusion to The Scarlett Letter?
“She had been dreaming of a little child; and to dream of children was a sure sign of trouble, either to one’s self or one’s kin...."
"a dream of an infant...sometimes watched it playing with daisies on a lawn; or again dabbling its hands in running water...it failed not for seven successive nights to meet me the moment I entered the land of slumber...It was from companionship with this baby-phantom I had been roused on that moonlight night I heard a cry...” (223-224).
Taken this quote from Jane Eyre, it can be related to the a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorn's novel The Scarlett Letter:
"Children have always a sympathy in the agitations of those connected with them; always, especially, a sense of any trouble or impending revolution, of whatever kind, in domestic circumstances; and therefore Pearl, who was the gem on her mother's unquiet bosom, betrayed, by the very dance of her spirits, the emotions which none could detect in the marble passiveness of Hester's brow." (164-StudyMode)
Like the demon child
Pearl in the Scarlet Letter, little Pearl was a bad omen, or rather a
reincarnation, of Esters bad doings and thus an omen to bad things on
the future. Similarly, baby-phantom that frightens Jane was
another omen. Though Jane was not literally with child, she was holding certain suspicions and doubts that questioned her truth and sanity, and clearly ones that she had wished that she had never encountered.
It was explained in Hawthorn's quote the significance of Pearl being a connection to her mother, in that case a poisoned soul stricken with grief and loneliness. In Jane Eyre, this connection between infant and mother/carrier was to communicate and connect more unconscious emotions and thoughts by Jane herself.
Lastly, both infants were bad omens. Pearl was an uncontrollable, wicked, 'demon-child' of the novel in The Scarlett Letter, and the unnamed infant was a bad omen for destruction or death in Jane's circumstance.
Alas! Here is another! This time from the story of Frankenstein:
Notice that it very much resembles this quote from Frankenstein:
"As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed" (Shmoop).
Both of these scenes that featured an utter destruction of a tree both occurred before the appearance of a tragedy or a significant event. In Jane Eyre, it symbolized and foreshadowed Jane's relationship with Mr. Rochester, as they became engaged under a giant oak tree. However, just as the oak tree was destroyed, so was their relationship that spearheaded both characters into a long period of agony and heartbreak.
For Victor Frankenstein, it was the moment that foreshadowed the loss of Victor's mental stability. From that night of the storm, Victor endured a long and horrible journey of emotional depression and physical and mental deterioration.
Nature had something to say in both of these stories. They symbolized the extremes of human emotion as well as agony of the human spirit.
Alas! Here is another! This time from the story of Frankenstein:
“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 lighting in the night, and half of it split away”(261).
Notice that it very much resembles this quote from Frankenstein:
"As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump. When we visited it the next morning, we found the tree shattered in a singular manner. It was not splintered by the shock, but entirely reduced to thin ribbons of wood. I never beheld anything so utterly destroyed" (Shmoop).
Both of these scenes that featured an utter destruction of a tree both occurred before the appearance of a tragedy or a significant event. In Jane Eyre, it symbolized and foreshadowed Jane's relationship with Mr. Rochester, as they became engaged under a giant oak tree. However, just as the oak tree was destroyed, so was their relationship that spearheaded both characters into a long period of agony and heartbreak.
For Victor Frankenstein, it was the moment that foreshadowed the loss of Victor's mental stability. From that night of the storm, Victor endured a long and horrible journey of emotional depression and physical and mental deterioration.
Nature had something to say in both of these stories. They symbolized the extremes of human emotion as well as agony of the human spirit.
I really enjoyed your posts! The Paradise Lost quote is definitely an allusion, but the other two are more like connections. An allusion is something that the writer directly references (like mentioning the "arch-traiter" from PL). With that being said, however, these posts are so excellent that I still love them! :-)
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