When reading Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope” is the thing with feathers, much of the plot of Jane Eyre and Jane’s feelings in the book can be related back to the poem.  “Hope” is the thing with feathers, in short summary, is saying that hope is a bird that stays in your soul and is always singing, meaning that hope is a constant force, and is strengthened when storms or hard times are near, and could only be weakened in the extremest of storms.  Hope is there in the coldest, hardest times, and will always be there for you, without asking for anything in return.  I think this feeling and sense of hope is extremely common throughout the novel Jane Eyre even though it is not always explicitly mentioned.  In the beginning, when Jane was still living at Gateshead and being mentally and physically abused, she still had the hope of going to school, getting educated and getting out.  This is similar to the part of the poem where Dickinson mentions that one can hear hope even “in the chillest land – and on the strangest Sea”.  The chillest land in this case is Gateshead.  Another moment where Jane feels hope is in her love for Mr. Rochester.  Even though there is a part of her thinking that a governess has no shot with her master, she has hope that Mr. Rochester can reciprocate the feelings that she has, towards her.  I believe that the bird of hope is what summoned up the courage to tell Mr. Rochester how she felt and allow her to stumble into all new territory.

-Kaitlyn Moriarty

Upon reading “I Dwell in Possibility” by Emily Dickinson, immediately what came to mind was the scene we discussed in class where Jane is standing on the roof of Thornfield and just staring out. When reading the poem I first focused on the literal words, not their symbolic meanings. I started picturing a huge castle like mansion with different rooms, each with different views of the surrounding area. When I started to focus on the meaning of the words, I thought of these rooms being different possibilities and the speaker is just standing stagnant with possibilities around them that they have missed out on. The speaker has many open doors they can go in, but if they choose one opportunity, they miss out on the other opportunities. Jane looks out to Thornfield and is filled with a sense of longing. I feel that she looks out thinking of the other things that she could have done, but she ended up at Thornfield. She could have had other opportunities such as possibly travel the world and find her Uncle, but she’s staying at Thornfield and possibly stagnant in her life because of the way she’s being treated.

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is a Thing with Feathers” , reminds me the similar feeling in Jane Eyre. At the beginning, Jane regarded Mr. Rochester “a royal eagle, chained to a perch, should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor.” She did hold sympathy to Mr. Rochester, but her adoration was more than that because she thought that royal eagle, although getting injured, still remained its charm and temperament. In the latter part of the text, Jane comforted Mr. Rochester that he was a green, vigorous tree and she described herself as plant that have to lean on the tree to grow. Jane said she was a sparrow and a plant, while Mr. Rochester was an eagle and a tree, which reflected that Mr. Rochester was outstanding and excellent in her eyes. The most famous word in Jane Eyre is that ‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart!’ Jane said this to Mr. Rochester when he pretended to want to get married with Miss Blanche.

During that time, Jane felt hope when Mr. Rochester talked to her, said lovely words to her, but at the same time, Mr. Rochester walked close to Miss Blanche. To Jane, hope of love is like “feathers, that perches in the soul,… and never stops – at all-“

Jane loves Rochester deeply always-from the beginning to the end. The process to chase true love is explicitly expressed by the poem, “Sweetest – in the Gale – is heard – And sore must be the storm-“

-Can Wang

From my point of view the enlightenment legacy in the earlier years had a big impact on the society and is even the reason of our new life style, people ways  of thinking, leaders and all others. you can assume that people believed in their self esteem and had a big respect for their leaders ans would follow no matter what all the instructions they were ask too in order to accomplish their role as a citizen of the country. Both American and European enlightenment has changed people in many different ways comparing than it used to be. Now a day our contemporary life  enlightenment has changed in so much ways because we have more freedom and power to express ourselves, women right, equality between man and women ,and opinion to the public and even our leaders. even though we have more right and freedom a lot of things got better when it comes to politics. because of the enlightenment legacy we now pay less attention to our cultures and tradition which is very important in the society. people do not really care about cultures like its used to be due to a such freedom that we have and our democracy which lead us to big misunderstanding and problems around the world. With the enlightenment legacy the world had changed for sure in good ways but it has brought other negative impact i  people behavior. we have many right and power to do many things that we want in our society but we losing many things also which really matter in the society. Now the focus on individual which used to be the society.

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “The Soul selects her own Society,” can be used to analyze the scene of Chapter 27 in, Jane Eyre. In this chapter, Jane listens to Mr. Rochester’s reasonings and at the end, reluctantly, leave him for good.

Part of Dickinson’s first stanza talks about how the “The Soul selects her own Society.” This gives the connotation that “society” means family, love or even divine beings, and that after choosing the “society,” the mind or “the soul” of the person is not open to other contradictory beings or beliefs any longer. In the case of Jane Eyre, I can see that Jane at the start of Chapter 27 had chosen two “societies.” One was God, Himself, as Jane was a devoted Christian and strongly held Christian beliefs. Second, was Mr. Rochester, to whom she had decided to devote her happiness towards. She was able to choose two “societies” as they were, initially, not in conflict against one another.

Second stanza talks about how “the soul” or the mind is “unmoved” even toward those beings of high class status, as depicted by the line: “Unmoved–an Emperor be kneeling/ Upon her Mat–.” This illustration was explicit when Mr. Rochester was trying to justify his act of locking Bertha up and his desire for wanting a new bride. In this scene, Jane was battling between the two “societies” she had chosen, as both, unlike before, were now in conflict. As Jane had found out that Mr. Rochester was a married man, the choices left to her was either let God go and commit bigamy or let Mr. Rochester go and devote herself to her Christian beliefs. As her dedication towards God was more dominant, she decided to let her other “society,” Mr. Rochester, go. This was accomplished through Jane’s unmoved-ness towards Mr. Rochester’s affection. First instance was when Mr. Rochester had tried to kiss Jane but Jane moved away: “he stooped toward me as if to kiss me; but I remembered caresses were now forbidden. I turned my face away, and put his aside.” Another instance was when Mr. Rochester opened his arms wide for Jane’s embrace after Jane had kissed him; however, Jane denied Mr. Rochester the embrace and left him there: “he held his arms out, but I evaded the embrace and at once quitted the room.”

Later half of first stanza and the third stanza talks about how once decision made, by the “soul” or the mind, it’s decisions are inflexible, finalized and there will be no going back: “Choose One–/Then–close the Valves of her attention–/Like Stone–.” This illustration was clearly executed when Jane decided to leave Mr. Rochester no matter how much he pleaded with Jane and how much she loved him. Just like the “closing of the valves of her attention like stone,” Jane persisted in her decision made and went as far away as she could, from Thornfield and more importantly, from Mr. Rochester, choosing the “society” of God rather than that of Mr. Rochester.

-Tun