Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adele came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. In the last lines of this chapter we learn that the great chestnut tree, a symbol of Jane and Rochester’s relationship, has been struck by lighting. It was underneath it that Rochester proposed to Jane. The splitting of the tree foreshadows that the couple will also be split by the revelation of the existence of Rochester’s secret wife Bertha. This is a dramatic example of the use of pathetic fallacy.