The supernatural — Jane Eyre — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
The supernatural
Themes
What you need to know
How Brontë explores the supernatural and the Gothic, from the red-room to dreams, omens and the voice that calls Jane back across the text, and why it matters to the text's meaning.
Where it appears, the key quotations that show it, and different ways it can be interpreted.
Evidence from the beginning, middle and end of the text.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'herald of some coming vision from another world', 'my heart beat thick, my head grew hot', 'a North-of-England spirit called a Gytrash', 'For the men in green', 'you had bewitched my horse', 'Thornfield Hall was a dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owls', 'I dreamt another dream, sir', 'Down superstition!', 'It is the work of nature'.
Context: Gothic conventions of ghosts, omens, dreams and imprisoned women, and the female Gothic.
How the novel explains most of its mysteries, such as the laugh and the torn veil, but leaves the voice that calls Jane back unexplained.
Edexcel's novel question has two parts, and neither marks context: part (a) on the printed extract marks language, form and structure (AO2); part (b) on the novel elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1), not language analysis. Use context only where it explains a reading, and say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
