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e of elemental image in Jane Eyre, sustained throughout the novel both metaphorically and literally, is one of Charlotte Bronte's major stylistic devices. The natural opposition of the two elements of fire and ice highlights the need for the titular heroine to find equilibrium between points identified as extremes. However, as David Lodge notes, “we should be mistaken in looking for a rigidly schematic system of elemental image and reference in Jane Eyre”. Fire and ice images in the novel have their shifting associations, which reflect on the characters of Jane, Rochester and St John Rivers. The broad suitability of the images shows that they can be both destructive forces and agents of renewal. Using them as both allows Bronte to show how far the characters have learnt to reconcile the Romantic desire for passion with the need for restraint, for it is only in that way that true personal selfhood can be realised. And this search for a personal selfhood, where one is judged on one's own character, not society's usual manner of judgment based on title, money or beauty, can be said to be the focus in the novel.
 
Fire is perhaps the strongest mataphor in the novel, but it is always contrasted with ice. In the elemental scheme, air lies between fire and ice; likewise, this Eyre must find her equilibrium point between the two. Jane is drawn to ice, as seen in her poring over the pictures of arctic regions in Bewick’s History of British Birds and in the fact that all three of her paintings which come from her imagination depict ice, or allof them are described using ice imagery. But like fire, ice poses the danger of overcoming her, and Jane must guar against overreacting to the disappointment caused by her passion. Ice imagery, in the Thornfield portion of the text, mirrors Jane’s movement from the awakening of her desire to Rochester to the realisation of her foolishness. Jane uses water to put out the fire set by Bertha, and in in doing so, causes the stirrings of the relationship. At that point, she describes herself as being “tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea, where billows of trouble rolled under surges of joy”. After the revelation of Rochester’s marriage, more a bracing cold shower than a refreshing bath, the sustained use of water images (to select a small sample: “A Christmas frost had come at midsummer”, “I heard a flood loosened in remote mountains, and felt the torrent come”, “the floods overflowed me”) depicts Jane’s despair. This shows the consequences of Jane’s actions in allowing herself to be swept up by her love for Rochester.
 
The two images of “ice” and “fire” appear in the novel frequently, which are closely related to the hero’s and the heroine’s fates. One has become the symbol of sadness, misery and despair, and the presentation of ice is always in the time when the heroine is in most miserable conditions and in the most despair mood. If fire symbolizes the heroine’s rebellion aganist fate, ice more or less represents that the heroine’s temporary concession and yielding to the fate. This temporary cowardice and concession always need to be melted by fire which will transform cowardice into angry and transform concession into rebellion. Thus, it directs Jane and Mr. Rochester to pursue their freedom and happiness. One as the purifying fire makes the revival of the love between the hero and the heroine. The presence of fire is always associated with Jane’s rebellion for the fate本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。