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