How Does Charlotte Bronte Use Water In Jane Eyre

Choose two contrasting recurring images and demonstrate how Charlotte Brontë uses them in Jane Eyre.

One of the most interesting aspects in the story of Jane Eyre is Charlotte Brontë's ability to use metaphors in order to convey Jane's feelings towards the world around her, and her feelings for it. The most frequently appearing example of this is the use of water and fire imagery, which is displayed through the emotions and actions of the main characters, Jane Mr. Rochester, and to a certain extent St. John Rivers.

The characteristics attributed to fire and water have can have positive or negative implications. For example, in the beginning of the novel, "ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly" refers to waters as a destructive force, and fire is
John's coldness when she felt as if she had "fell under a freezing spell" cast by him. She could no longer talk, laugh, or be merry within his presence. Jane even described St. John's kisses as "marble kisses, or ice kisses". When St. John asks Jane to marry him, she really starts to think about all of this: "As his curate, his comrade, all would be 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". This time Jane is compares her own mind and soul to that of a fire. She comes to the realization that her own inward fire, representing happiness, would have to go down. This idea of keeping her fire low indicates the unhappiness that would follow the marriage St. John. In the end, Jane decides to stay in England, and she refuses his marriage proposal and won’t be travelling to India with him either. Later that night, St. John is retiring to bed and as he leaves, he gives a kiss to both of his sisters, and leaves the room without even shaking Jane's