In the very beginning of part 2 of Jane Eyre (2006), Lady Ingram says that Mr. Eshton told her that a bird, a swallow, which is flying around Thornfield, migrates south, to the “very southern tip of Africa” during winter, and returns to England in the summer. When Blanche asks him why they do not stay where it is warm, Mr Eshton responds that it is in their nature to return home (5:30-5:55).

More specifically, British swallows, such as those in Jane Eyre at Thornfield, spend the winter in South Africa (RSBP). During migration, swallows are prone to starvation, as well as dying from exhaustion and in storms (RSBP). Swallows migrate to South Africa from the UK in search of food twice a year (British Trust for Ornithology). While nesting in the UK, their food supply of insects starts to deplete in autumn, forcing them to migrate at this time (British Trust for Ornithology). When returning home to the UK, swallows are likely to return to the same nest, even after making the long journey to and back from South Africa (British Trust for Ornithology).

In the film, this swallow migration metaphor is brought in explicitly when Jane returns from visiting her aunt in Gateshead. Rochester announces that their “swallow” has returned home (16:53). While throughout the film Jane has shown to have an interest in traveling to and living in a warmer climate, this metaphor does not really work here, as Jane did not travel to a warm climate. Instead, she just came back from Gateshead, which is only a short distance from Thornfield, and is nowhere near warm, nor did Jane want to stay there at all. And while Jane was gone for a month, and so this probably felt like a migration to Rochester, Jane is yet to experience her difficult, dangerous migration when she flees Thornfield and is found by St. John. 

When she is found by St. John, although they are still not in a warm climate like South Africa, Jane is obsessed with having fires going in the house to keep warm. In addition, in the film adaptation, St. John asks Jane to accompany him to Africa, instead of India, like in the original text. When Jane tells Diana and Mary of this, they say that both Jane and St. John are too pale to go to Africa, and they will “shrivel up and die" (1:34:37-:1:34:40). Eventually, Jane feels Rochester call out to her, and like the swallow leaving South Africa, returns home to Thornfield. Jane’s dangerous migration, and almost migration to Africa, and return back home to Thornfield, seems to be the implicit meaning and foreshadowing out of the swallow metaphor at the beginning of the episode.

Another part of the film that implicitly shows this swallow metaphor is when Rochester is recounting his experience in the Caribbean to Adele and Jane. Although the Caribbean and South Africa are not the same place, in Jane Eyre the characters who live in the UK group these warm and tropical places together as seductive, exotic places. Almost echoing when Blanche asks why swallows would not stay where it is warm, Rochester says that he came back home to England in order to “escape" (24:50-24:58).

Works Cited:

British Trust for Ornithology. “Swallow Guide: Migration, Nesting and Where to See.” Discover Wildlife, 1 Dec. 2021, https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/facts-about-swallows...

Jane Eyre, written by Sandy Welch, directed by Susanne White, BBC One, 2006.

Nissen, Richard. “Swallow Migration Map.” Animal Navigation, Dec. 2011, https://www.animalnav.org/swallows/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2022. 

“Swallow Migration Route & Trends.” The RSPB, https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/swal....