When Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre in 1847, it was her first completed novel. It has since become known as a classic coming-of-age story and a landmark in the art of fiction. The novel follows Jane Eyre from childhood into maturity as she develops her moral compass and sense of self. At the story’s start, she is an orphan marooned in an abusive foster home; by the end, she is navigating the shoals of courtship. The novel is renowned for the richness of its first-person narration, which filters and processes the world through Jane’s lively mind. One of the cornerstones of Jane’s narrative voice is allusion, which she uses to make meaning out of her experiences.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Allusions activity gives students an opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing allusions. Allusions broaden the scope of a text and imbue passages of the text with deeper meaning by subtly drawing on literature, history, science, geography, philosophy, mythology, or other cultural sources. The main components of this activity include the following:

• A contextualized paragraph of the text
• A handout defining “allusion” with examples from classic works
• A list of tips for spotting allusions
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• An example answer

In completing this activity, students will be able to identify, analyze, and interpret allusions, thereby accessing deeper meanings within the text.