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p.58: "...at the latter end of January, all was wintry blight and brown decay. I shuddered as I stood and looked round me: it was an inclement day for outdoor exercise; not positively rainy, but darkened by a drizzling yellow fog; all under foot was still soaking wet with the floods of yesterday. The stronger among the girls ran about and engaged in active games, but sundry pale and thin ones herded together for shelter and warmth in the verandah; and amongst these, as the dense mist penetrated to their shivering frames, I heard frequently the sound of a hollow cough."

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What do you know about the Victorian Disease Etiology? Do you know any of the prevailing theories on contagion? Feel free to demonstrate your prior knowledge by commenting under this post ;).

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Want to learn more about the miasma theory? Click on this video!

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According to the Victorian Web, it was the "prevailing medical theory [that] linked disease to impurities in the air." = Miasma

--> "[Impurities] thought to derive from organic matter"

--> Air was also thought to be polluted by "dirt, feces, and even perspiration"

--> Air had furthermore a foul smell back then (Museum of London)

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Want to know why Victorian London smelled so bad? Let's blame it on bad hygiene, overcrowding, and leaving human and animal waste on the street. Using the river Thames as a big sewer, in which even corpses were thrown might have seemed like a great idea back then...(Museum of London=MoL) No one imagined that "diseases, [...] were caused by germs in polluted water." (MoL). --> instead wide-spread belief in miasma theory!

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Smelly Facts About London's The Great Stink of 1858

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 1?

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 1?

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Feel free to comment your thoughts below!

Now let me share my answers with you:

Foreshadowing with the help of environmental conditions:

Jane speaks of an "all wintry blight and brown decay" (Bronte 58)

As the plants (nature) are sick and decaying, this forebodes the sickness and metaphorical decay of our characters.

The day is "darkened by a drizzling yellow fog" (58), which is "dense" (58) and "penetrate[s] into the[] shivering frames" (58) of the "pale and thin" (58) girls.

The description corresponds with the Victorian view:

Miasma theory suggests that the containing agents spread through the air, "directly causing illness" (MoL).

After the fog is described and how it penetrates the bodies of the girls multiple coughs are heard. --> Connection between disease and fog shown

However, only the "sundry pale and thin ones herded together" (58) are affected. The strong girls still seem to be fit.

Victorians believed that "overcrowded slums" (MoL) were at the highest risk of falling ill. --> Ill girls sticking in herds together reflects that

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p.90-91: "How different had this scene looked when I viewed it laid out beneath the iron sky of winter, stiffened in frost, shrouded with snow!-- when mists as chill as death wandered to the impulse of east winds along those purple peaks, and rolled down "ing" and holm till they blended with the frozen fog of the beck! That beck itself was then a torrent, turbid and curbless: it tore asunder the wood, and sent a raving sound through the air, often thickened with wild rain or whirling sleet; and for the forest on its banks, that showed only ranks of skeletons."

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 2?

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 2?

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Feel free to comment your thoughts below!

Now let me give you a little insight into my findings:

Fog was believed to be one of the main causes of death

Many gravestones in the early 19th century reported "fog related deaths" (Britannica)

Mist as a form of light fog is described as "chill as death" (Bronte 90-91) --> foreshadowing that the weather/air/fog will bring death to characters

"a torrent, turbid and curbless; it tore asunder the wood" (90-91)--> even more death --> if smth. as hard as wood cannot stand the torrent not even humans have a chance of survival

"ranks of skeletons" (90-91) --> forebodes many deaths due to the cold/winter/fog/bad weather conditions

deaths mostly "induced by weather and pollution" (Britannica) in Victorian era

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p. 91: "That forest-dell, where Lowood lay, was the cradle of fog and fog-bred pestilence; which, quickening with the quickening spring, crept into the Orphan Asylum, breathed typhus through its crowded schoolroom and dormitory, and, ere May arrived, transformed the seminary into a hospital.

Semi-starvation and neglected colds had predisposed most of the pupils to receive infection: forty-five out of the eighty girls lay ill at one time."

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 3?

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How are the characters in Jane Eyre affected by environmental changes and how is disease transmission portrayed in Scene 3?

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Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Here are my results:

"the cradle of fog" (Bronte 91) represents a place where fog likes to lay and to grow (like a baby in a cradle)

"fog-bred pestilence" (91) shows the belief that disease is carried by fog, which reproduces and spreads more and more --> fits Miasma theory and the fear of the "polluted fog" (Britannica) which was thought to be deadly

The fog "crept into the Orphan Asylum, breathed typhus through its crowded schoolroom and dormitory" (Bronte 91) --> The smell of the fog, in the Victorian era penetrated through crevices and into homes and buildings (MoL). Thus, they believed that the death-bringing fog was in their homes making them ill.

Fog transforms "seminary into a hospital" (Bronte 91)

"neglected colds had predisposed most of the pupils to receive infection" (91)

During the Victorian era people in London/England looked pale, and weak and breathed "heavily through their mouths due to their congested nasal passages" (MoL) --> were already ill/had colds and thought the cause for its worsening were the fogs

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Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Penguin, 2006

Cook, Beverly and Alex Werner. Breathing in London's history: from the Great Stink to the Great Smog. Museum of London, 24 Aug. 2017, https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/londons-past-air. Accessed 06.12.2023.

Martinez, Julia. Great Smog of London. Britannica, 28 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Smog-of-London#ref1273797. Accessed 06.12.2023.

"Miasma Theory, Explained." YouTube, uploaded by Patrick Kelly, 2 May 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epi3O4zuaXA.

Porter, Dale H. The Miasma Theory of Disease and London Pollution. Victorian Web, 1999, https://victorianweb.org/science/health/porter8.html. Accessed 06.12.2023.

"Smelly Facts About London's The Great Stink of 1858." YouTube, uploaded by Weird History, 5 July 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au_Ut95-MIo.