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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Prologue
Explanation and Analysis—Vanity Fair:
The prologue makes an allusion to a popular Victorian novel, William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair. Brontë thinks Thackeray's satire is far better than that of previously popular satirists, and she dedicates Jane Eyre to him:
[Thackeray] resembles Fielding as an eagle does a vulture: Fielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray never does. His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightning playing under the edge of the summer-cloud does to the electric death-spark hid in its womb. Finally, I have alluded to Mr Thackeray, because to him – if he will accept the tribute of a total stranger – I have dedicated this second edition of ‘Jane Eyre.’
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Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Gulliver's Travels:
In Chapter 3, Jane rereads Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. This allusion introduces the novel's colonial backdrop, and it also emphasizes that Jane might be an unreliable narrator when it comes to distinguishing facts from fantasy:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I considered [Gulliver's Travels] a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: [...] Lilliput and Brobdingnag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth’s surface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the cornfields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women of the other.
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Chapter 19
Explanation and Analysis—King Lear:
In Chapter 19, Mr. Rochester dresses up as a Romani woman (called a "gypsy" in the novel, but this term is now considered a slur) and pretends to tell Jane's fortune. When he reveals himself, he makes an allusion to Shakespeare's King Lear:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘There, then – “Off, ye lendings!”’ And Mr Rochester stepped out of his disguise.
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Chapter 33
Explanation and Analysis—Marmion:
In Chapter 33, while St. John fights through a snow storm outside, Jane barricades herself inside by the fire with a book. Jane's reading material is an allusion to a popular poem:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I had closed my shutter, laid a mat to the door to prevent the snow from blowing in under it, trimmed my fire, and after sitting nearly an hour on the hearth listening to the muffled fury of the tempest, I lit a candle, took down ‘Marmion’ [...]
I soon forgot storm in music.
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Chapter 36
Explanation and Analysis—King Lear:
In Chapter 19, Mr. Rochester dresses up as a Romani woman (called a "gypsy" in the novel, but this term is now considered a slur) and pretends to tell Jane's fortune. When he reveals himself, he makes an allusion to Shakespeare's King Lear:
Unlock with LitCharts A+‘There, then – “Off, ye lendings!”’ And Mr Rochester stepped out of his disguise.
Related Themes:
