'While disease had thus become an inhabitant of Lowood, and death its frequent visitor; while there was gloom and fear within its walls; while its rooms and passages steamed with hospital smells: the drug and the pastille striving vainly to overcome the effluvia of mortality; that bright May shone unclouded over the bold hills and beautiful woodland out of doors.' What has been personified in these lines?

MCQs on the language in Jane Eyre, which draws on emotion, ideas of justice, nature, law, education and religion.

Descriptions of people are detailed in terms of their physical appearance and behavior; these portrayals are explicitly linked to inner character. The natural environment is depicted through language which is lyrical and evocative. Jane’s powerful emotions are effectively conveyed through Charlotte Brontë’s mastery of the affective vocabulary, that is to say, language related to feelings.