Sentence Structure and Vocabulary

Her sentence structure is often quite complex and her vocabulary is sophisticated.  She will go deep into her descriptions and use specific word choice to create a carefully crafted image.  For example, in The Professor the narrator writes, "Being left to myself, I took the stuffed easy chair, covered with red morocco, which stood by the fireside, and while my eyes watched the flames dart from the glowing coals, and the cinders fall at intervals on the hearth, my mind busied itself in conjectures concerning the meeting about to take place. Amidst much that was doubtful in the subject of these conjectures, there was one thing tolerably certain—I was in no danger of encountering severe disappointment; from this, the moderation of my expectations guaranteed me. I anticipated no overflowings of fraternal tenderness; Edward's letters had always been such as to prevent the engendering or harbouring of delusions of this sort. Still, as I sat awaiting his arrival, I felt eager—very eager—I cannot tell you why; my hand, so utterly a stranger to the grasp of a kindred hand, clenched itself to repress the tremor with which impatience would fain have shaken it.”   

Although I was already committed to a properly procured courtship, my eyes could not be restrained from seeking the lines of the horizon for any trace of his carriage, any hint of his arrival, as all sound was extinguished by the throbbing heartbeat filling my ears.  While I attempted to busy myself with the elaborate routine of preparing for an evening social engagement (my plainness required a good deal of primping, powdering, and displaying of jewelry for compensation), I repeatedly found excuses to cross the room, away from my dressing table and towards the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the moors tinted violet by the retreating sun, to seek the promise of an evening with a meaningful conversation, instead of the usual perfunctory exchanges.

Faintly, a regular tapping of drizzling rain pittered upon the roof, seemingly in time with my heart.  The freshness of the early evening summer sprinkle cleansed the windows of any remaining dust from the earlier day; my view only sharpened.  A deeper tap broke me from my investigation of the entry to the Fritz Manor.  “You may enter,” I said.

“The staff has everything arranged for the guests.”

“Excellent Mrs. Ball.”  

"Your mother is waiting for you in the parlor,” she remarked.

“Please inform her that I will join her in just a moment.”  

Stealing one last, longing look out the window, I then proceeded in my ruby red slippers towards my mahogany dressing table for my finishing touches. Sliding a tortoiseshell comb with a mother-of-pearl inset into my dull blonde hair, I investigated my image in the mirror.  I had done my best and the reflection would have to do.  More than being concerned with an attractive profile, I would need to be cautious of revealing my feelings this evening when the entitled, stagnant man to whom I was promised and the intense, intelligent man to whom my heart desired were side by side in the same room, one man’s deficiencies only exacerbated by placement near the other man’s amplitude.

Hearing the bustling downstairs broke me from my deep thought and I rose from my chair, traversed down the hall to the imposing oak staircase, grasped the gleaming handrail and began the initial steps into a journey with an unknown destination.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND VOCABULARY: 

Since Brontë often uses complex sentence structure, I constructed sentences with multiple modifiers and dependent clauses.  What I would normally separate into several sentences, I combined into one.  I also searched to find more sophisticated vocabulary such as  "procured", "perfunctory", "stagnant", and "traversed".  These words all have a more formal tone to them, which mimics Brontë's diction.

CHARACTERS:  

The piece is in the first-person poin of view, like Brontë's other pieces.  It is also written from the perspective of a plain young woman with a reserved outward temperament, but a passionate inward personality.  Her dialogue is brief as Jane's was with the other characters in Jane Eyre. She is reminiscent of a Romantic-period character due to her focus on emotions over reason.