Circular Evolutions of Imaginative Maturation in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Villette

Abstract

This project investigates how Jane Eyre and Villette, two of Charlotte Bronte’s famous gothic novels, investigate the notions of “self,” “imagination,” and “reality.”  In both works, protagonists Jane Eyre and Lucy Snowe are forced to confront and deconstruct the paradigms of their gender on a combination of symbolic and psychosocial levels, while likewise mimicking the themes of Darwinian evolution on an imaginative plane.  As a result, they are able to expand their gender roles in a comfortable, liminal setting, while undergoing profound interior growth.