The Ways Charlotte Bronte Creates Sympathy for Jane Eyre in the Novel

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The Ways Charlotte Bronte Creates Sympathy for Jane Eyre in the Novel Charlotte Bronte created sympathy for Jane Eyre in many ways during the first 10 chapters of the novel. Charlotte Bronte is a fictional autobiography. It tells us, the reader, the story of an imaginary person, yet Bronte can relate to Jane in several ways. Several individuals i.e. Brocklehurst, her Aunt Reed and her cousins, John,Eliza and Georgiana, subject her to hardship and inequality. In the first chapter Charlotte Bronte uses pathetic fallacy to reflect Jane's mood. Jane is being kept away from Mrs. Reed - her aunt and her cousins so she goes to sit on the windowsill. "A scene…storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless…wildly before a long and lamentable blast." Bronte describes the weather outside as 'storm-beaten' and 'cold' and 'sombre'. These words do not only refer to the weather outside, but also to Jane's mood; Jane being cold herself, frozen out of a relationship with her aunt and cousins, she has nobody to talk to; a sad and lonely person. Also, in the first paragraph of the book, Jane talks about the walk the family were not allowed to go on, as it was raining. Jane does not like these walks, she speaks of them as 'dreadful' the fact that she is made to go on these walks shows the brutal treatment she is shown. She comes back cold and miserable with 'nipped fingers and toes'; this shows that she is made to tolerate pain. This creates a sense of sympathy for Jane, as the reader sees straight away that her life is unhappy, that she is treated poorly at such a young age and made to do things she doesn't want to. Jane is isolated from the Reed fa... ... middle of paper ... ...m of Jane's "deceitful nature". Jane can immediately see that she cannot defend herself. She has no power at all. How can a young child defend herself from unjust accusations? She is helpless. This makes us feel sympathetic towards Jane. In Lowood School, Mr Brocklehurst humiliates Jane. He makes her stand on a stool in front of everyone and tells everyone what he thinks of her. "a little castaway…an alien… - this girl is - a liar" Mr Brocklehurst calls Jane a liar in front of the whole school. He calls her an alien, a little castaway. You feel sympathetic towards Jane because of way she treated as an outcast rather than a human being. She is made to feel as if she is not part of the human race. Jane is portrayed as a helpless, innocent child that is neglected and blamed for mishap by her so-called relatives.

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