Superstitions in "Jane Eyre": How the Supernatural Affects the Rational

When reading literature from different cultures around the world, most readers become familiar with certain aspects of each region's folklore. Every tribe or nation has heroes and villains, mythical or historical, which figure into its everyday conversation. As powerful as heroic men and women may be, often the more potent characters are the mysterious ones: the ghosts, the vampires, the banshees. These beasts are the visions dreamed in darkness, when people are less sensible of …

…much more practical event. In doing so, she sets up a Gothic mood for the novel while keeping it realistic and altogether rational. Then, when the reader least suspects it, she can use the supernatural to emphasize Jane and Rochester's most crucial feelings through an inexplicable connection. The contrast between most of Jane's mild superstitions and her final episode effectively convince the reader at least one, if only one, of these incidents is truly supernatural.