Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was published in 1848, under the name of
Currer Bell. Although the novel is over 150 years old, there are still themes that we can relate to today, such as bullying, prejudice and hypocrisy. In this essay, I am going to discuss the three themes mentioned and also consider admirable characters from the novel; the authors narrative technique and the part that I found appealing. The first issue that I will discuss will be on the bullying that Jane received at Gateshead Hall: the home of her Auntie and cousins.
She is bullied by not just her cousins, but her aunt as well. In
Chapter one, it shows the bullying from her cousins and aunt, when she has begun reading and John Reed, her cousin, throws the book at her head, and she retaliates. But because she retaliated, John's sisters ran up to their 'mamma' and blamed the fight on Jane. She was then escorted upstairs and locked in the red room. This could be counted as a form of bullying, as she only puts her in the red room as a punishment for attacking John, but we, the readers, already know that
John started all of the commotion. Verbal bullying is also used in chapter one, where John Reed calls her names for throwing a punch at him (QUOTE: CHAPTER1/LINE 16: "I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me 'Rat!, rat! ')
During Jane's First term at Lowood, Jane is bullied out of food, when there was very little and the older girls wanted some more food to devour. Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative, related in the voice of the protagonist, or heroine. Jane Eyre is the "I" of the story, the person whose voice we hear as we read, and everything that happens is seen from her point of view. Nowhere in the novel does the author break the flow of the narrator's voice to give us an objective view of her main character. However, she does remind us once in a while that the story is being told by Jane as a mature woman, looking back on events that happened some years earlier. The mature Jane occasionally comments on the younger Jane's reactions to those events, and sometimes she even addresses you, the Reader, directly. You'll also find occasions where her narrative includes long stories told to Jane by other characters
(such as Rochester's accounts of his past), conversations that Jane overhears between other characters, and even accounts of Jane's dreams. These not only add variety to the style but give the reader a
I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle blackness, burning! No human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better then I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol. (311; ch. 27)
In the yellow wallpaper, she is virtually imprisoned in her bedroom, and does not even have a say in the location or decor of the room. She is forbidden to work and write, as she says “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman8). She is forced to spend almost every moment in her room. She is not even allowed to have visitors, as he does not allow her to have any sort of mental or physical stimulation. She has even been forbidden to leave the home supposedly to allow her to rest and recover her h...
St. John Rivers makes some very intriguing choices in Jane Eyre. He is constantly faced with difficult decisions to make. Whether it be refusing his true love or moving to India to give his life serving others, there is always an interesting twist where St. John is concerned. His importance in the novel may be evident to readers, but they may not always understand his decisions and his actions. The choices he makes are exemplary of a man who has given his life to serve God and His people.
Upon entering the room, the narrator comments, "I don't like our room one bit" (367). The windows are barred, there are rings in the wall, the wallpaper is torn in certain spots, the furniture is bolted to the floor, and the floor itself is splintered and scratched. The narrator mistakenly identifies the signs she sees in the bedroom as belonging to a former nursery, playroom, or gymnasium. She believes the "windows are barred for little children" (367), the "great, heavy" bed is nailed down to the floor so that the children would not have hurt themselves. She also believes that the gate at the top of the stairs serves the same purpose-- the previous owners of the home did not want the children to injure themselves by falling down the stairs. A closer reading of the different objects, however, reveals a room that once housed mental patients. The barred windows and gated stairs were to stop the patients from escaping; the torn wallpaper was a result of patient's fits of madness - after which they would be chained to the rings in the wall. These surroundings serve as a sign of the narrator's imprisonment. While she is not literally chained to the wall, she is confined to the room by her husband.
On their final day in the house she completes her plan by stripping all that she could of the rest of the wallpaper from the walls. Her intention was to bring a sense of shock to her husband. This seems to be her way of punishing him for the part he played in trapping her in the room with this hideous wallpaper. I think it goes further than just the room to make a statement of how she feels trapped in her entire life with her husband. She is “freeing” the woman who is trapped...
From an early age Jane is aware she is at a disadvantage, yet she learns how to break free from her entrapment by following her heart. Jane appears as not only the main character in the text, but also a female narrator. Being a female narrator suggests a strong independent woman, but Jane does not seem quite that.
When General Rochambeau met General Washington in 1781 to determine their next move against the British, Washington wanted to attack New York City. Rochambeau convinced him that the wiser move was to move South. Word had come from General Lafayette in Virginia that Cornwallis had taken up a defensive position at Yorktown. Cornwallis was situated next to the York River. If they could surround the city by land and cut off Cornwallis' escape route on the river, Washington and Rochambeau would strike an enormous blow to the British forces. Planning for the elaborate campaign began immediately.
The red room is the place that ignites Jane's passion. The red room is one of the novels great paradoxes as it parallels with ice in that it restricts Jane's freedom and imprisons her; yet the experience gives her the courage to stand up to her aunt. The fire that the red room ignites in Jane allows her to jump the 'containment lines'; to break the bonds of her Aunt that are restricting her, and achieve freedom. The red room becomes very symbolic of Jane's fight for freedom. Whenever she suffers from there on, Jane emotionally comes back to the red room, and adds new fuel to the fire, as she reminds herself why she wants to break free of oppression.
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre as her base to find out how a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with her responsibilities. . Mistreated abused and deprived of a normal childhood, Jane Eyre creates an enemy early in her childhood with her Aunt Mrs. Reed. Just as Mrs. Reeds life is coming to an end, she writes to Jane asking her for forgiveness, and one last visit from her.
In 2006, Al-Shabab threatens the Somali government in Baidoa by trying to overthrow the local government and to setup its own Islamic Courts Union (ICU) courthouses. Somalia was not going to hand over the city, but did not have ...
Trace the development of the bullying. How convincing are the situation and Elaine's feelings are portrayed.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre chronicles the growth of her titular character from girlhood to maturity, focusing on her journey from dependence on negative authority figures to both monetary and psychological independence, from confusion to a clear understanding of self, and from inequality to equality with those to whom she was formerly subject. Originally dependent on her Aunt Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and Mr. Rochester, she gains independence through her inheritance and teaching positions. Over the course of the novel, she awakens towards self-understanding, resulting in contentment and eventual happiness. She also achieves equality with the important masculine figures in her life, such as St. John Rivers and Mr. Rochester, gaining self-fulfillment as an independent, fully developed equal.
There are many stages throughout the book in which the reader can feel sympathy for Jane Eyre; these include when she is locked in the Red Room, when Helen Burns dies at Lowood, and when she and Mr. Rochester are married the first time.
that may not be real. Jane is afraid to go into the 'Red Room', when
In the novel ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte, Jane shows self-confidence throughout the novel by having a sense of self-worth, and a trust in God and her morals. Jane develops her self confidence through the capacity to learn and the relationships she experiences. Although an oppressed orphan, Jane is not totally with confidence, she believes in what is right and shows passion and spirit at an early age. Helen and Miss Temple equips Jane with education and Christians values that she takes on throughout her life. Jane later also blossoms in self confidence under Mr. Rochester’s love and her family, the Rivers and newly discovered wealth. Bronte uses dialogue and 1st person narration to give an insight of the characters for the reader to see what the characters are saying and suggest what they are really thinking, and it shows Jane’s self-confidence growing in every stage of her life.