So I must confess, I've never read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights before.  I've never read anything by the Bronte sisters.  And I didn't realize that Jane Eyre was a gothic novel.  Watching the movie, it didn't seem really what I would consider gothic, but I guess I have always associated gothic with horror, like Dracula and Frankenstein (both of which I have read).  However, Jane Eyre does contain many of the elements of a gothic novel.

One of the first gothic elements that struck me was the threatening of women by a powerful and tyrannical male, i.e. the man who ran the boarding school Jane attended when she was young.  Another gothic element, women in distress, is present throughout the entire story, as Jane is often in distress.  There are significant, meaningful names.  Helen Burnes, Jane's childhood friend, has fiery red hair, and is one of only two characters to show Jane warmth in her sad childhood.  There is also metonymy.  For instance, ice, cold, and snow are used as metaphors for Jane's unhappiness, for the coldness with which she has been treated by others, and for the coldness she feels inside.  

Jane Eyre contains traces of the mystery and suspense of a gothic novel, primarily having to do with Mr. Rochester's secret.  This part of the plot at times adds an air of the supernatural to the story, as well, although in the end everything has a rational explanation.  There is talk of ghosts and a creepy disembodied laugh (though in the end, we learn that both have to do with Mr. Rochester's mad wife). 

Jane Eyre also contains some elements of gothic romance.  There is uncertainty of reciprocation (Jane loves Mr. Rochester, but doesn't know if he loves her back), and a rival lover (Blanche Ingram).  When Jane discovers that Mr. Rochester has a wife, her love is so powerful and her emotion so overwrought that she actually becomes physically ill.