It seemed, sir, a woman, tall and large, with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back. I know not what dress she had on: it was white and straight; but whether gown, sheet, or shroud, I cannot tell.
Chapter 25 · Jane Eyre
Context
Jane describes to Rochester the mysterious figure she saw in her room the previous night, when someone entered and examined her wedding veil. She recounts the woman's appearance in detail.
Analysis
The uncertain syntax—'whether gown, sheet, or shroud, I cannot tell'—collapses wedding, sickbed, and grave into a single image, making marriage indistinguishable from death. The list escalates in morbidity: 'gown' is domestic, 'sheet' suggests illness, and 'shroud' names burial cloth outright. Jane's inability to 'tell' (distinguish) these possibilities reflects her sense that all three futures are equally plausible. The adjective 'white' connects the garment to her own bridal costume, hinting that the intruder is a dark mirror of the bride Jane is about to become.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Bertha functions as Jane's Gothic double—the figure Jane sees in her room wears white like a bride but also like a corpse, literalizing Jane's fear that marriage to Rochester will be a form of living death.