“Once you decide to send your story out into the world for the enjoyment of readers, it doesn’t belong to you anymore and you must optimize its presentation to benefit them, not to indulge your own obsessive passion about ultimately irrelevant details.” (Weiland).
For imagery to be effective it must be inviting to the reader, captivate their attention and create emphasis and coherence throughout the novel however, Charlotte Bronte's descriptions in Jane Eyre have a tendency to alienate her readers, invoke a lack of interest and are not distributed appropriately throughout her novel. These factors, therefore, render her imagery ineffective.
Charlotte Bronte has a gift for presenting vivid landscapes and architecture however, her descriptions …show more content…
Due to length of her depictions and the fact that these details are not contributing to the storyline, Bronte loses the interest of her readers. For example, when Jane describes Thornfield, she states that “ It was three stories high, of proportions not vast, though considerable: a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. Its grey front stood out well from the background of a rookery, whose crawling tenants were now on the wing: they flew over the lawn and grounds to alight in a, from which great meadow, from switch these were separated from a sunk fence, and where an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, knotty, and broad as oaks, at once explained the etymology of the mansion’s designation.”(Bronte 86). Most individuals will have skipped to this explanation of that quote and not read its entirety because it was lengthy and they know that the point is in the clarification not the actual quote. Likewise, the readers of Jane Eyre lose interest when the description is too long because they know that the message of the story is portrayed through the plot and not the minor details. In 2013 the attention span of the average individual was eight seconds, less than that of a goldfish (Microsoft). This means that an author has eight seconds to prove to the reader that what they are reading is worth …show more content…
Bronte goes to extensive lengths when describing what Jane sees which has proved to be overwhelming. However, her style is underwhelming when it come to addressing the rest of the senses. This has lead her to be insufficient when portraying important moments of the book. Studies show that “The brain often treats real experiences and reading about them as the same thing. If you really want to place your reader in the story, your writing should take advantage of our collective faulty wiring whenever you can.” (Gingerich). By forsaking the readers smell, touch, taste and hearing, they cannot fully immerse themselves in Bronte’s story. An important sound that was void of description was Rochester's voice. His voice was of great importance to the book because his cries of “Jane! Jane! Jane!”(Bronte 378) are what brought Jane back to him in the end of the novel. However, in spite of this, his voice is never described. If the reader was provided with a better understanding of what his voice sounded like, this moment would have made a more dramatic impact. Another example of this is when Jane and Mr. Rochester share their first kiss:“Enclosing me in his arms, gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips”(Bronte 226). Bronte describes what Rochester did but not what Jane felt. The reader has been in anticipation of this kiss for most of the book and a solitary line is not sufficient
For imagery to be effective it must be inviting to the reader, captivate their attention and create emphasis and coherence throughout the novel however, Charlotte Bronte's descriptions in Jane Eyre have a tendency to alienate her readers, invoke a lack of interest and are not distributed appropriately throughout her novel. These factors, therefore, render her imagery ineffective.
Charlotte Bronte has a gift for presenting vivid landscapes and architecture however, her descriptions …show more content…
Due to length of her depictions and the fact that these details are not contributing to the storyline, Bronte loses the interest of her readers. For example, when Jane describes Thornfield, she states that “ It was three stories high, of proportions not vast, though considerable: a gentleman’s manor-house, not a nobleman’s seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look. Its grey front stood out well from the background of a rookery, whose crawling tenants were now on the wing: they flew over the lawn and grounds to alight in a, from which great meadow, from switch these were separated from a sunk fence, and where an array of mighty old thorn trees, strong, knotty, and broad as oaks, at once explained the etymology of the mansion’s designation.”(Bronte 86). Most individuals will have skipped to this explanation of that quote and not read its entirety because it was lengthy and they know that the point is in the clarification not the actual quote. Likewise, the readers of Jane Eyre lose interest when the description is too long because they know that the message of the story is portrayed through the plot and not the minor details. In 2013 the attention span of the average individual was eight seconds, less than that of a goldfish (Microsoft). This means that an author has eight seconds to prove to the reader that what they are reading is worth …show more content…
Bronte goes to extensive lengths when describing what Jane sees which has proved to be overwhelming. However, her style is underwhelming when it come to addressing the rest of the senses. This has lead her to be insufficient when portraying important moments of the book. Studies show that “The brain often treats real experiences and reading about them as the same thing. If you really want to place your reader in the story, your writing should take advantage of our collective faulty wiring whenever you can.” (Gingerich). By forsaking the readers smell, touch, taste and hearing, they cannot fully immerse themselves in Bronte’s story. An important sound that was void of description was Rochester's voice. His voice was of great importance to the book because his cries of “Jane! Jane! Jane!”(Bronte 378) are what brought Jane back to him in the end of the novel. However, in spite of this, his voice is never described. If the reader was provided with a better understanding of what his voice sounded like, this moment would have made a more dramatic impact. Another example of this is when Jane and Mr. Rochester share their first kiss:“Enclosing me in his arms, gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips”(Bronte 226). Bronte describes what Rochester did but not what Jane felt. The reader has been in anticipation of this kiss for most of the book and a solitary line is not sufficient