Throughout Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë sets Jane apart from the society. In some

cases, such as her years at Gateshead, she is an exile from the established society. In

other instances those around her may accept Jane, but something in her nature sets her

apart from the rest of the people around her, such as her time as a Governess at

Thornfield. There are many reasons for this distance, such as family ties, her status within

society, or her passion. As a way to express Jane’s place as an outsider Brontë

incorporates some of the Celtic legends of fairies and changelings into Jane’s character.

Jane’s very name; Eyre has linguistic ties to the fairy. The word faerie (the Gaelic

spelling) is “probably a combination of the [Gaelic] words fae ‘friend’ and eire ‘green’”

(Fairy). Eyre could be from the same eire green.

A Changeling is a kind of fairy from Celtic folklore. A changeling is the result of

the fairies’ “practice of carrying away and exchanging children” (Scott 317). The human

baby would be hauled away and a fey child left in its place. There was also the thought

that “the fairies [would] steal away the [human] soul, and put the soul of a fairy in the

room of it” (Scott 317). Jane exhibits many characteristics of the Celtic fairies as well as

characteristics of the changeling type of fairy. This association helps to highlight Jane’s

status as an outsider in the normal society. It is possible that the Irish tales Charlotte

Brontë’s father told her could have had an influence on her creation of Jane.

From the very start Jane is different. When Mrs. Reed is sick towards the end of

her life she remembers Jane in her childhood, “Her continual unnatural watching of one’s

movements! I declare she talked to me once like something mad, or like a fiend – no

child ever spoke or looked as she did” (Brontë 241). Mrs. Reed describes Jane as “a

sickly, whining, pining thing! [She] would wail in [her] cradle all night long” (Brontë

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242). The most common identifier for a changeling is that the fairy child will be small

and withered and cried all day. Another of the tell tale signs of a changeling is the fact

they act unnatural. Jane exhibits these identifiers for a changeling child.

When Jane questions Mrs. Reed about what her crimes were, Mrs. Reed answers,

“there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner”

(Brontë 1). Jane acts far more mature then she is. Through out the book we are given the

idea that Jane is far wiser then her age suggests. This too is a sign of a changeling. In

many of the stories to prove that the strange child is a changeling the mother will boil

water in an eggshell and wait for the child to ask what she is doing (unusual for a baby

already). The mother will answer she is making a brewing caldron. The changeling will

then give an answer like “A brewing caldron? I am far more than three hundred years old,

and I never yet saw a brewing caldron like that!” (MacDougall 103). The claim of

extreme age is the sign a baby is a changeling. Jane’s taking up with her elders as Mrs.

Reed suggests is a sign of preternatural maturity much like that of the changeling child

exclaiming he has lived for over three hundred years. The housekeeper at Gateshead

Miss. Abbot reflects the household’s opinion of Jane as she is about to be hauled off to

the red room, “But it was always in her, . . . I’ve told the missis often my opinion about

the child, and missis agreed with me. She’s an underhanded little thing; I never saw a girl

her age with so much cover” (Brontë 7).

It is in the red room that Jane experiences a metaphoric trial by fire that is also

used on changelings. Besides the eggshell caldrons, fire could be used to reveal a

changeling. In one story the father takes “the tongs and [burns] the child with a piece of

glowing turf, the boy screamed awfully” (Evans-Went 133). The screaming is the sign

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the child is a changeling. It is an odd test, as most people would assume any child burned

would scream, but this test is much like the floating witch test where if a woman floats

when thrown into a pond she is a witch. The red room can be seen as metaphoric fire to

test Jane’s fey nature. When Jane sees the light in the red room she screams. Miss Abbot

refers to the scream as both “a dreadful noise,” and “what a scream!” (Brontë 12). If the

red room is seen as metaphoric fire then Jane’s scream could be a sign she is a

changeling.

Jane describes her outsider status while interned in the red room.

I was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I have nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage. If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathize with one among them – a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them inn temperament, capacity, in propensities – a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest or adding to their pleasure. (Brontë 10)

Changeling children were often useless creatures of discord in their homes. Their

excessive crying and sickly bodies would have severely disrupted any home they were

placed in. In a way Jane Eyre can be seen as a changeling story from the point of view of

the changeling.

The red room also yields many clues to how Jane’s association with fairies makes

her an outsider. The room’s color is the first indicator; most of the furniture is covered

with crimson cloth, and piled with white pillows. The colors red and white are an

indicator of the fairy world in Celtic legends. In the Mabinogi, a collection of Welsh

tales, Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed stumbles upon a strange pack of hunting dogs,

He looked at the color of the hounds, . . . and for all the hunting dogs he had seen in the world he had never seen dogs the color of them. Glittering bright white was their color, and their ears red: the redness of the ears glittered as brightly as the whiteness of their bodies. (Mabinogi 37)

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The color of the dogs is a clear indicator they are not of the normal world. The pack turns

out to belong to a fairy king. The colors in the red room can be seen as an indicator of the

fairy world.

As she walks about the room Jane catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror. The

reflection

looked colder and darker. . . than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear were moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit; I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy half imp. (Brontë 9)

Mirrors were seen as a possible portal to the fairy world. Jane sees her fairy nature in the

mirror as she passes. The light that causes Jane to scream is an enigma, but still holds

some evidence to her fairy nature. Fairies are said to be invisible to humans and only

visible to humans “during a full moon” (Fairy). Given that the light probably appears to

Jane around the evening it is safe to say the moon is full, or nearly so. For the moon to

give off that much light at that time of night it has to be at least close to full, if it had

risen earlier it would be a much dimmer light. The light that “glided up to the ceiling,

and quivered over [Jane’s] head” could be a fairy come to see Jane (Brontë 12). The full

moon would explain why Bessie saw the light. If Jane is a fairy she does not need the

moon to see another fairy. There is only the idea that if the red room is actually within the

fairy realm Jane would not need he moon to see a fairy.

Bessie’s description of the light is important to consider. Bessie tells the

housemaid “Something passed her [Jane], all dressed in white, and vanished . . . a great

black dog behind him” (Brontë 14). This description counters Jane’s earlier admission

that “I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was in all likelihood a beam

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from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn” (Brontë 12). The great black dog is a

common legend in all of the British Isles. The Black Dogs were known by many names

depending on what part of the Isles they were in; barghest, Gwyllgi, Mauthe dogs, as well

as Gytrash were all names for the black dogs (Barghest). The Black Dogs are tied in with

the fairy world. According to legend the best companion to have with you if you should

see a black dog is “a descendant of Ean MacEndroe of Loch Ewe. He rescued a fairy

once and in return he and his descendants were given perpetual immunity from the power

of the black dogs” (Black Dogs). This description comes across as gossip, but it speaks to

Jane’s connection to the fairy world, emphasizing how her strangeness, in the eyes of the

Reeds and their servants, makes her an outsider at Gateshead.

In a way when Jane emerges from the red room she is reborn (does this make the

red room a womb?). Her manner is changed, as is her method of dealing with the Reeds.

The fairy visitation in the fairy realm of the red room has a dramatic affect on Jane; it

bolsters her passion against her unfair treatment and allows her to become confrontational

to the Reeds instead of passively hiding in the corner. This change leads Mrs. Reed to

send Jane away to the Lowood School. These beginning chapters are Jane’s literary birth,

here she is conceived and delivered for the readers. It is important to note that none of the

legends about changelings deal with what happens if the fairy does not leave and the

original child replaced. In the case of Jane her fairy nature might be discovered, but it is

not purged as it normally is in the legends.

Jane’s fairy characteristics are placed in the background while she is at Lowood.

However Jane’s fairy nature is still shown. Once the winter is over during her first year at

Lowood the girls are allowed out in to the garden. There Jane’s “favorite seat was a

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smooth and broad stone, rising white and dry from the very middle of the beck” (Brontë

76). In Celtic mythology the middle of a beck, or stream was a sacred place. It could act

as a portal to the realm of the fairies as it was a liminal place, like a doorway. In Robert

Burn’s poem Tam O’Shanter after Tam has caught the attention of the witches dancing he

tells his faithful horse "A running stream they dare na cross” (Burns). The evil witches

cannot cross the middle of the stream; they cannot cross into the realm of humans. Jane

choosing the middle of a stream could be seen as her fairy nature desiring to be closer to

the fairy realm.

Once Jane reaches Thornfield she again is an outsider. Here it is due to her class

within the house, not her status in the family. As a governess Jane is in-between classes.

She is above the house servants, but under the lord and his family. While she is an

outsider at Thornfield Jane does not feel its sting as she does at Gateshead. Before

Rochester’s arrival the fair aspect of Jane is still in its subdued state from Lowood. It is

Rochester’s arrival at the house that brings Jane’s association with fairies back into her

life.

On the night Jane first encounters Rochester there are several references to fairies.

Like the red room it is again a full moon as Jane is slowly wandering towards the nearest

town. Jane set out in the afternoon and instead of heading strait to the town she instead

enjoys the nature around her. As she is walking on the causeway a noise disturbs her.

Jane hears this noise as she crossing the stile in the path. The stile represents the

threshold that must be crossed in order to enter into the realm of the fairies. As it

approaches she speculates as to the nature of the creature making the noise, “I

remembered certain of Bessie’s tales, wherein figured a North-of-England spirit, called a

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‘Grytrash,’ which in the form of a house, mule of large dog, haunted solitary ways”

(Brontë 114). As mentioned above the Grytrash is simply a form of the Black Dog

legends. As Jane waits she hears a noise under the hedge and “close down by the hazel

stems glided a great dog, whose black and white color made him a distinct object against

the trees. It was exactly one mask of Bessie’s Grytrash – a lion like creature with long

hair and a huge head” (Brontë 114).

While it seems an unimportant detail the fact the dog comes through hazel wood

is a possible clue. Celtic legends held that the hazel was a tree of wisdom and sacred to

the fairies (Austin). There is also the belief that fairies either lived in hazel thickets, or

that they were an entrance into the fairy world (Franklin). The black dog that comes

through he thicket does in fact fulfill its legendary role, in a way. To see a black dog was

to know your death was near. For Jane a death is near, a kind of spiritual death. The dog

is of course Rochester’s faithful hound Pilot, and Jane meats Rochester just after the dog

passes her. Her meeting with Rochester is the start of a change in Jane. She falls in love.

While it is not a literal death this change can be seen as a kind of spiritual death, a death

of the old self and the inevitable birth of the new self.

All of the fairy references could point to Rochester having fairy aspects as well.

Rochester is, like Jane, an outsider throughout the book. Unlike Jane, Rochester knows

enough about his society to play the game and fit in, but eventually every group of people

he belongs to excludes him, accept Jane. Rochester’s family marries him off to Bertha,

excluding him from the decision, and forcing him to live on another continent for some

time. Rochester excludes himself from the gentry surrounding Thornfield. The gentry

accept him until he spreads the rumor of his finances to test Ingram’s reasons for wanting

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a marriage. Rochester’s involvement with Jane, a governess, is counter to the opinions of

the gentry. When Miss Ingram learns of Jane’s occupation in Thornfield her feelings

about governesses come through in her remembrance of her own governesses “half of

them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi” (Brontë 182). Miss Ingram’s

opinion of governesses is shared by the bulk of the gentry visiting. Jane remarks when

watching Rochester and Miss Ingram that “she could not charm him1” Ingram,

supposedly the most eligible female in Rochester’s circle could not charm him (Brontë

193) and even she eventually excludes Rochester. Rochester’s disfigurement by the fire

causes his greatest self-exile, that of Ferndean, one that only Jane can remedy. As with

Jane, Charlotte seems to be using subtle fairy references to highlight Rochester’s

exclusion from the normal society he is born into. Rochester does once call himself a

kind of fairy. When referring to his affair with Adèle’s mother he references the

“preference of the Gallic sylph for her British gnome” (Brontë 144).

Rochester also pulls a classic fairy prank in his gypsy disguise. In many fairy tales

a fairy of some kind will dress up as an old woman to test the hero of the story.

Sometimes the fairy places a curse on the poor hero that he or she must break. The

Beauty and the Beast story has this, and has some parallels with the Jane and Rochester

love story. Fairies were believed to have a power called a glamour. This ability was like

their magic; sometimes they could use it to enable humans to see them, and sometimes to

hide from them with a disguise (Fairy). Jane is allowed to see through Rochester’s

glamour when he takes off the costume. None of the other girls were let in on the secret,

1 Charlotte’s italics

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only Jane. By taking off his glamour for Jane he allows her a special privilege, to see a

bit of his true self, something not even Miss Ingram has seen.

“One midsummer eve” Rochester proposes to Jane (Brontë 258). Midsummer’s

night eve is said to be a day of celebration for the fairies. Shakespeare uses this idea in

his play A Midsummer’s Night Dream. It was believed on that magical night a mortal

could see a fairy as they danced and sang (Fairy). When Rochester proposes to Jane his

language invokes a fairly like quality in Jane. He tells Jane “I summon2 you as my wife”

(Brontë 266). Fairies, it was thought, could be summoned by a variety of methods from

music, to incantations, to potions. One such potion even has hazelnuts in it. A little later

in the same conversation Jane claims she has not faith in Rochester and he retorts “You –

strange – you almost unearthly thing!” (Brontë 266). Fairies are unearthly so Rochester

here is almost labeling her a fairy. As their relationship progresses Rochester labels Jane

with several fairy like traits and names, in one conversation he says to her “you little

elfish-,” later Jane states that instead of “darling” Rochester uses names like “‘malicious

elf,’ ‘sprite.’ ‘changeling,’ etc” (Brontë 273, 287). Rochester reinforces the fairy nature

of Jane, and in fact revels in it. He takes delight in the fact Jane is outside normal society.

That distance is one of the traits that attracted Rochester to Jane, and keeps him loving

her even after her escape.

While waiting for the wedding night Jane and Rochester take a ride into town.

Adèle, who has come along, asks Rochester “if she was to go to school ‘sans

mademoiselle’” (Brontë 279). Rochester replies: “absolutely sans mademoiselle; for I am

2 My italics

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to take mademoiselle to the moon and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys

among the volcano-tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and only me”

(Brontë 279). As mentioned the moon has special ties to the fairy. In a full moon one can

see a fairy. When Adèle asks how they will fly to the moon, as Jane has no wings

Rochester tells her a story.

“I sat down to rest me on a stile . . . when something came up the path and stopped two yards off me . . .It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said; and its errand was to make me happy: I must go with it out of the common world to a lonely place -- such as the moon, for instance -- and it nodded its head towards her horn, rising over Hay-hill” . . . “But what has mademoiselle to do with it? I don’t care for the fairy: you said it was mademoiselle you would take to the moon?” “Mademoiselle is a fairy,” he said, whispering mysteriously. (Brontë 280)

Rochester’s story is to delight young Adèle, but also to explain why she and Jane are to

be parted. The portrait of Jane as a fairy is used by Rochester to isolate Jane from Adèle

the way the fairy imagery has been used throughout the novel to isolate Jane away from

her societies. Many of the imagery used earlier in the book appear in this little story, the

moon, the stile, and the evening he speaks of is the same midsummer’s eve that he

proposed.

After the discovery of Bertha, Jane has another experience similar to her red room

visitation. As Jane is trying to decide what to do after discovering Rochester’s marriage

she lays down, but sleep escapes her, “I [Jane] was transported in thought to the scenes of

childhood; I dreamed I lay in the red room at Gateshead; that the night was dark, and my

mind impressed with strange fears” (Brontë 336). Her remembrance calls back the fairy

nature of the red room, particularly the color as an indicator of the fairy world, for that

thought is the beginning of a strange supernatural visitation, like that of the red room, but

more defined. As she lays in her bed “The light that long ago had struck me [Jane] into

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syncope, recalled in this vision, seemed glidingly to mount the wall” (Brontë 336). Upon

investigation the source of the light is found.

The gleam was such as the moon imparts to vapors she is about to sever. I watched her come – watched with the strangest anticipation; as though some word of doom were to be written on her disk. She broke forth as never moon yet burst from cloud: a hand first penetrated the sable folds and waved them away; then, not a moon, but a white human form shone in the azure, inclining a glorious brow earthward. It gazed and gazed on me. It spoke to my spirit: immeasurably distant was the tone, yet so near, it whispered in my heart, “My daughter, flee temptation.”(Brontë 336)

Instead of an unknown light the strange light is explained. By starting this passage with a

remembrance of the red room this visitation can be seen as the same entity that visited

Jane in the red room. Instead of a frightening visitation here the moon is a soothing

mother that helps Jane decide what course to take. The luminous figure that Jane sees

might only be a figment of her imagination, but by invoking the red room the previous

fairy connections make this figment a very fairy like visitation. If this is seen as a fairy

visitation then the command of “My daughter, flee” could be Jane’s fairy mother helping

her changeling child.

In her flight from Thornfield Jane encounters another preternatural mother.

Abandoned at a crossroads Jane must seek shelter for the night. She decides that as “I

[Jane] have no relative but the universal mother, Nature; I will seek her breast and ask

repose” (Brontë 339-340). Jane discovers a dry moor covered in soft moss. As she lies

awake in the soft heath Jane muses:

Nature seemed to be benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness. To-night, at least, I would be her guest, as I was her child; my mother would lodge me without money and without price. (Brontë 340)

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Fairies are considered to be of nature. They were thought to inhabit old trees and dark

forests. Jane’s take on nature as a mother draws her closer to fairy world. At this moment

Jane is alone in the world, outcast from all she knew with no place to go and no one to

turn to. By having Nature as her only recourse Jane is no longer completely alone and no

longer a total outcast. Here she is suckled and kept from harm by the very thing fairies

were said to protect, nature itself.

Jane is eventually rescued by her cousins and stays with them for some time. St.

John, her cousin, asks for her to marry him and sail to India to be missionaries. Jane

thinks this over, St. John does not lover her, and she does not want to marry without love.

Torn about the decision Jane makes an appeal to heaven to show her the path. Jane

describes her response: “I saw nothing: but I heard a voice somewhere cry: ‘Jane! Jane!

Jane!” – nothing more . . . it was the voice of a human being – a well known, loved, well

remembered voice – that of Edward Fairfax Rochester . . . ‘I’m coming!’ I cried. ‘Wait

for me! Oh, I will come!’” (Brontë 444). This strange voice leads Jane to go in search of

Rochester. Her search eventually takes her to Ferndean where the now blind and

deformed Rochester has isolated himself away from the world. After being reunited with

Rochester he tells her of an interesting event: “I pleaded; and the alpha and omega of my

heart’s wishes broke involuntarily from my lips in the words – ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’. . . a

voice – I cannot tell whence the voice came, but I know whose voice it was – replied, ‘I

am coming; wait for me’”(Brontë 474). Jane explains “Reader, it was on Monday night –

near midnight – that I too had received the mysterious summons: those were the very

words by which I replied to it” (Brontë 474). Fairy elements have been used to help

portray Jane and Rochester as outcasts, here along with that aspect it can bee seen as

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drawing them together. Whatever magic allows their voices to travel such distances

brings Jane to Rochester, and happiness to both.

Ferndean will be the home of Jane and Rochester once they are married. The

estate is dark and overgrown with nature. The path to the house is simply a grass-covered

trail that is flanked by deep forest on both sides (Brontë 455-456). This natural heaven is

where for the first time both Rochester and Jane are no longer outcasts, but have a society

where they belong. This abundance of nature calls in the idea of fairies living in their

sacred grove away from the eyes of the human world. Away from this world Jane finally

finds the happiness she has dreamed of with Rochester. Back before Jane ran from

Thornfield she scolded Rochester when he first talked to her of marriage: “It can never

be, sir; it does not sound likely. Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this

world. I was not born for a different destiny to the rest of my species; to imagine such a

lot befalling me is a fairy-tale – a day-dream” (Brontë 270). Jane’s description of her life

with Rochester is: “I hold myself supremely blest – blest beyond what language can

express” (Brontë 477). It seems Jane does enjoy complete happiness in her married life.

By her own words to Rochester, Jane is living in a fairy-tale.

The fairy-tale that Rochester tells Adèle can be seen as a version of Jane Eyre. As

with all great fairy-tales Rochester and Jane do live happily ever after. In a way

Rochester does take Jane to a far away place like the moon where they can be happy.

Ferndean is isolated, and far from civilization, like the moon in Rochester’s tale.

Jane’s status as an outcast is highlighted by Charlotte throughout Jane Eyre by the

use of fairy imagery and aspects in Jane’s character. The imagery of Jane as a changeling

makes it clear from the start that Jane is different then those at Gateshead. The imagery

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continues to emphasize Jane’s isolation at Lowood. Once at Thornfield while it isolates

her from the rest of society it draws her closer to Rochester bringing out the notion of

Jane and Rochester being meant for each other. Once she rejoins Rochester after the fire

the fairy imagery changes to show how her marriage to Rochester gives her a home

where she is no longer an outcast. The effect adds a small touch of magic to the novel and

brings in Charlotte’s Irish heritage. Because of this Jane Eyre has the feel of a fairy-tale

told from the point of view of a changeling fairy.

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November, 2004 [http://merganser.math.gvsu.edu/myth/trees.html].

“Barghest.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2004. Encyclopedia Mythica Online. Internet: accessed 22 November, 2004 [http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/barghest.html].

“Black Dog.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2004. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.Internet: accessed 22 November, 2004 [http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/black_dog.html].

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Hurst & Company, n.d. (inscription on inside cover mentions 1905).

Burns, Robert. Tam O’Shanter. Internet: accessed 13 November, 2004 [http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/poem.html]

Evens-Wentz, W. Y.. The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries. 1911. Internet: accessed 06 November, 2004 [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/britchange.html].

“Fairy.” Encyclopedia Mythica. 2004. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.Internet: accessed 06 November, 2004 [http://www.pantheon.org/articles/f/fairy.html].

Franklin, Anna. “Fairy Plants”. Internet: accessed 23 November, 2004 [http://www.geocities.com/annafranklin1/plants.html].

The Mabinogi. Translated by Patritia K Ford. Berkley: University of California Press, 1977.

MacDougall, James. Folk Tales and Fairy Lore in Gaelic and English. Edinburgh: John Grant, 1910. Internet: accessed 06 November, 2004 [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/britchange.html].

Scott, Sir Walter. “On the Fairies of Popular Superstition” Introduction to "The Tale of Tamlane," Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Poetic Works. Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1833, Internet: accessed 06 November, 2004 [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/britchange.html].

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