How Brontë's form, structure and language create meaning: the first-person narrator looking back on her life and speaking directly to the reader,
the Bildungsroman shape of five settings, Gothic elements, symbols and motifs such as fire and ice, the red-room and the chestnut tree,
weather and pathetic fallacy, and dialogue that shows Jane as Rochester's equal.
The first-person narrator looking back on her life, and her direct addresses to the reader, as in 'Reader, it was on Monday night'.
The Bildungsroman's five settings, each a stage in Jane's growth, and the patterns that mirror one another: two homes with cousins, three proposals and two fires.
Gothic elements from the red-room to the torn veil, symbols of fire and ice, and the chestnut tree split by lightning and later recalled by Rochester.
Weather and setting, from the cold rain of the opening to 'A splendid Midsummer shone over England' before the proposal.
OCR's question on this novel is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the novel elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the novel, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts when it is relevant to the question, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
