Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Clare Walker Gore, Space and Place in Jane Eyre (1947)
Charlotte Bronte is powerfully associated with a particular place: the parsonage at Haworth, and the moors that surround it. Her most famous heroine, meanwhile, the homeless orphan Jane Eyre, is associated with mobility, the desire for ‘liberty’ that drives her from place to place and shocked her first readers.
In this lecture, I will argue that Jane Eyre is a novel profoundly concerned with both the longing for home and the longing for escape, and that this tension is expressed in Jane’s relationships to the succession of places in which she finds herself variously tormented, imprisoned, and sheltered. From Jane’s miserable beginnings at Gateshead to her repressive schooling at Lowood, her complex love affair with the gothic castle of Thornfield and her uneasy sojourn at Marsh End, I will explore Bronte’s vivid depictions of a succession of settings, arguing that they are vital to the novel's generic hybridity, and its lasting imaginative power.
Saturday 9 January 2027
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning or Lunchtime in the Americas
Lecture fee
£33.00 full price
£30.00 CAMcard holders
£30.00 students on a low income
Prices include VAT at 20%
Zoom link
We will send you a Zoom link by email approximately 24 hours before the course begins. If the link does not arrive, please let us know by email in good time, at least an hour before the session begins, so we can re-send.
Recordings
The lectures will be recorded so that participants can listen again for 48 hours after the live event. The seminars are not recorded.
If you cannot attend a course you have booked
Please note that, because places are limited, we cannot usually give refunds if you cannot attend a lecture or course. But if you contact us in advance, we might be able to transfer your booking to a different course.
Clare Walker Gore, Space and Place in Jane Eyre (1947)
Charlotte Bronte is powerfully associated with a particular place: the parsonage at Haworth, and the moors that surround it. Her most famous heroine, meanwhile, the homeless orphan Jane Eyre, is associated with mobility, the desire for ‘liberty’ that drives her from place to place and shocked her first readers.
In this lecture, I will argue that Jane Eyre is a novel profoundly concerned with both the longing for home and the longing for escape, and that this tension is expressed in Jane’s relationships to the succession of places in which she finds herself variously tormented, imprisoned, and sheltered. From Jane’s miserable beginnings at Gateshead to her repressive schooling at Lowood, her complex love affair with the gothic castle of Thornfield and her uneasy sojourn at Marsh End, I will explore Bronte’s vivid depictions of a succession of settings, arguing that they are vital to the novel's generic hybridity, and its lasting imaginative power.
Saturday 9 January 2027
18.00-20.00 British Time (GMT)
19.00-21.00 Central European Time
Morning or Lunchtime in the Americas
Lecture fee
£33.00 full price
£30.00 CAMcard holders
£30.00 students on a low income
Prices include VAT at 20%
Zoom link
We will send you a Zoom link by email approximately 24 hours before the course begins. If the link does not arrive, please let us know by email in good time, at least an hour before the session begins, so we can re-send.
Recordings
The lectures will be recorded so that participants can listen again for 48 hours after the live event. The seminars are not recorded.
If you cannot attend a course you have booked
Please note that, because places are limited, we cannot usually give refunds if you cannot attend a lecture or course. But if you contact us in advance, we might be able to transfer your booking to a different course.