escape, the idea of flying above the toils of every day life. Several times the narrator talks of feeding birds crumbs. Perhaps Bront is telling us that this idea of escape is no more than a fantasy-one cannot escape when one must return for basic sustenance. The link between Jane and birds is strengthened by the way Bront adumbrates poor nutrition at Lowoodthrough a bird who is described as "a little hungry robin."Bront brings the buoyant sea theme and the bird theme together in the passage describing the first painting of Jane's that Rochester examines. This painting depicts a turbulent sea with a sunken ship, and on the mast perches a cormorant with a gold bracelet in its mouth, apparently taken from a drowning body. While the imagery is perhaps too imprecise to afford an exact interpretation, a possible explanation can be derived from the context of previous treatments ofthese themes. The sea is surely a metaphor for Rochester and Jane's relationship, as we have already seen. Rochester is often described as a "dark" and dangerous man, who fits the likeness of a cormorant; it is therefore likely that Bront sees him as the sea bird. As we shallsee later, Jane goes through a sort of symbolic death, so it makes sense for her to represent the drowned corpse. The gold bracelet can be the purity and innocence of the old Jane that Rochester managed to capture before she left him.Having established some of the nature themes in "Jane Eyre," we can now look at the natural cornerstone of the novel: the passage between her flight from Thornfield and her acceptance into Morton.In leaving Thornfield, Jane has severed all her connections; she has cut through any umbilical cord. She narrates: "Not a tie holds me to human society at this moment." After only taking a small parcel with her from Thornfield, she leaves even that in the coach she rents. Gone are all references to Rochester, or even her past life. A "sensible" heroine might have gone to f...
