The Space of Gateshead Hall in Jane Eyre

Abstract

Rereading Jane Eyre from the perspective of space can reveal several previously unnoticed layers of culture and gender-related meanings in this Victorian classic. In the novel Jane has to struggle a lot until she eventually finds her place in the world. One of the most significant spaces in the novel is Gateshead Hall, where Jane grows up. On a symbolical level Gateshead Hall is a very complex space and plays an important role as the first stage of Jane’s long journey or Bildung as a female subject. Rereading the space of Gateshead, it becomes clear that space and gender are closely interwoven in the novel and it is revealed in the way Jane is treated in the spaces in question. She is excluded as an orphan and as a governess; she is locked up as a rebel and as a woman. So the space of Gateshead establishes the major problematic issues of the novel Jane has to cope with.