The significance of names in Charlotte Bronte's in Jane Eyre

Abstract EN

The objective of this paper is to explore the significance of the names Charlotte Bronte gives to the characters, places and animals in her masterpiece, Jane Eyre.

These names may suggest different connotations when taken at face value, but the reader will not be able to comprehend the, full significance of the names of most of the characters unless he obtains a solid idea of the way Bronte uses the four earthly elements of air, fire, earth and water and the way she associates her characters with them.

Further, the significance of these names crystallises when the reader knows with what characters the writer's sympathy lies, and how the action develops to suggest in a way what she means to say by connecting or associating certain characters with certain earthly elements.

This method of naming characters, places and animals in the novel goes beyond the convenient way of knowing things and enriches the names, as their meanings and significance become clearer with the development of the action and the roles the characters play, especially as they are seen from the point of view of the heroine who is herself the narrator of the novel.