All references
Thematic echo

Jane Eyre

Appears in 3 songs

Associated with Charlotte Brontë

mad woman
Folklore · 2020

Uncle Jerry discusses Jane Eyre at length in connection with The Madwoman in the Attic. He highlights two characters: the literal mad woman (Mr. Rochester's wife trapped in the attic) and Jane herself, whose character is subversive as a small, homely heroine who cuts across social norms. The trapping of a woman in the attic rather than treating her is directly thematically parallel to the song's treatment of how women are labeled mad and confined.

StructuralThematic echoInferred
Podcast analysis
Blank Space
1989 · 2014

Got a long list of ex-lovers They'll tell you I'm insane

Angela & Uncle Jerry draw a thematic parallel between Blank Space and Jane Eyre. Uncle Jerry notes that Jane Eyre says 'I'm short, I'm plain, but I have agency too, I have power too,' and connects this to Taylor Swift embracing the 'insane' label in Blank Space. He argues that Taylor, like Jane Eyre, is criticized for asserting female power and self-determination, and that she is 'in some way the mad woman in the attic.' Charlotte Brontë was criticized for some of Jane's attitude, and Uncle Jerry sees Taylor receiving similar criticism.

StructuralThematic echoInferred
Podcast analysis
Peter
The Tortured Poets Department · 2024

she said she was trying, Peter, was she lying? My ribs get the feeling she did

Community readers trace "My ribs get the feeling she did" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, where Rochester speaks of a string somewhere under his left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in Jane. The same Brontë image underlies the thread Taylor draws in invisible string, so even as the goddess of timing is exposed as false, the rib still holds a buried cord of connection.

IncidentalAllusionInferred
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