Landscape and Nation in Jane Eyre and Paradise Lost.
In literature, landscape and nation can be reflections of the owner, of the prevailing level of spiritual or figurative health of the owner or community, and are direct connections between the characters and the society in which they live. Two works, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Bronte's Jane Eyre, employ landscape as a reflection of the characters. Social movements of pre-industrial England, were to shy away from the press of the urban areas, to describe them in terms of stark limitations where the soul could not grow - literally and figuratively. In the countryside, however, there is both beauty and isolation that symbolize a person's soul and path in life. Nation is used in literature to imply the unifying precepts upon which a life is built but it is also used at times as a symbol of imperialism. Nation is the archetype that guides all behaviors and makes all behaviors variations on their theme it is also that which justifies the manipulation of the land - nation is Manifest Destiny. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the relationship between landscape and nation in Jane Eyre, and Paradise Lost.
