The descriptive passages from Bewick's History of British Birds draw Jane into a world different from her own that absorbs her and excites her imagination. As she puts it:
With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way.
The descriptions of the cold, melancholy "Northern Ocean," with the sea swirling around the lonely, melancholy islands, mirrors the cold, stormy day that has kept the children indoors, as well as the lonely status of the orphaned Jane Eyre. Jane no doubt feels some identification with the sea fowls she reads about who live on solitary rocks, much like her solitary spot behind the crimson curtain on the library window seat. It is also clear that the terrors of the narrative and its pictures, which feed her belief in phantoms, will contribute to her fit in the Red Room when she thinks she sees the ghost of her dead uncle Reed.
Jane reads Bewick's History of British Birds in Volume One, Chapter One of Jane Eyre. This history describes the habitats of wild "sea-fowl" as cold, isolated places where the tumultuous ocean "whirls" and "boils" around the shore. These images not only feed the young Jane's imagination, but also serve as a symbol for Jane's separateness and isolation in Mrs. Reed's home. While Mrs. Reed's own children are treated with warmth, Jane is coldly treated as an outsider. This bird imagery, however, also brings up the theme of freedom, which is something Jane will later pursue.
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