Chapter 1- The novel starts on a rainy day in Gateshead as the characters in the Reed family are introduced. Jane reads a book by herself before her cousin John comes and insults her. Jane has two other cousins named Eliza and Georgiana also. John throws a book at Jane’s head and Jane starts to bleed because of this. Jane then attacks John back for the first time as they both fight until they are broken up by their servants. Mrs. Reed, who is Jane’s aunt, sends Jane into the room where her husband died and two servants carry Jane to the room. Chapter 2- The two servants that carry Jane to the room are Bessie and Miss Abbot. Jane is about to be restrained in the room when she tells the servants that she will stop fighting against them. Jane …show more content…
Helen tells Jane that most students felt bad for Jane and Jane goes to speak with Miss Temple about how she is not a liar. Jane recounts her childhood to Miss Temple to explain that she is not a liar and Miss Temple writes a letter to the apothecary to see if what Jane is saying is true. Mr. Lloyd writes back saying that Jane is telling the truth and Miss Temple offers Jane and Helen food as Jane is branded innocent to the school. Jane focuses on her academics as she is really good at art. Chapter 9- Jane slowly becomes more content with life at school, but many students at the school start to get typhus. Jane doesn’t contract typhus and continues to pass her time. Helen is sick, but not with typhus and Jane made another friend named Mary. Helen is dying as Jane goes to see her for the last time and Helen dies when they are both sleeping together. Helen’s grave is said to be marked after many years by Jane saying Resurgam which is …show more content…
Rochester meets Adele and Jane the next day as Jane doesn’t like Mr. Rochester’s personality very much. Rochester tells Jane that he would like to see her drawings and Jane talks to Mrs. Fairfax about Mr. Rochester’s stern mood. Mr. Rochester inherited Thornfield after his brother had died years ago. Chapter 14- Rochester talks with Jane and Adele one day after dinner and he gives Adele a gift. Jane and Rochester talk and Rochester asks Jane if he is handsome or not. Jane spontaneously says no and thinks that Rochester is somewhat drunk. Jane thinks that Rochester is talking more than he usually does as they continue to talk about sins. Jane feels awkward during the entire conversation as Mr. Rochester tells her that their relationship is not important and Jane is interested in Adele’s mom as Rochester tells her that he will talk about her some other time. Chapter 15- Jane finds out that Rochester was in an affair with Adele’s mom and that he doesn’t think that Adele is his daughter as he ended the affair after learning that she was with another man. Jane awakes to a noise and finds that Mr. Rochester’s room is on fire. She runs inside and puts out the flames and is confused when Mr. Rochester goes up to the third floor of the house after she had just saved his life. Rochester asks Jane if she had ever heard a weird laugh and Jane says that Grace had made that laugh before. Rochester goes to sleep on a sofa as he warns Jane not to tell anyone about what happened
Jane seems to learn quickly that she is the only one who can help her break free from her entrapment. The first place Jane must learn how to leave is Gateshead. She is not happy at Gateshead because is constantly put down by her cousins and even the servants. Helen tries to teach Jane to forgive her enemies in order for Jane to be able move on and gain confidence in herself:
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Jane spends her first 10 years of her life at Gateshead Hall, a lavish mansion. She lived with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and three cousins, Eliza, Georgina and John. During her time in the mansion she wouldn't dare argue with the mistress, and fulfilled every duty. Jane is deprived of love, joy and acceptance. She is very much unwanted and isolated.
Chapter 23 of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre Jane Eyre begins by telling us about Jane's strict and unhappy upbringing with her upper class Aunt, Mrs. Reed. She is then sent to Lowood School where her only friend Helen falls ill and dies. When Jane is older she becomes a Governess working for Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Jane and Rochester fall in love but neither of them express their feelings to each other.
Jane thought that she would be spend the rest of her life in Thornfield with Mr. Rochester until his darkest secret came to life on the day of their wedding. Discovering that Mr. Rochester was already married had torn and weakened Jane soul. Jane conscious soon push her into making the decision to leave Thornfield and start fresh rather than live with this heavy weight on her shoulders. Jane knows that Mr. Rochester has deeply falling in love with her but did not take that chance and divorce Bertha. Jane has developed much respect for herself not to be a mistress.
While being an undesirable resident at her Aunt Reed's house, Jane goes through instances that lead her to be very outspoken and intolerant for injustice. Jane gets treated like a repulsive cling on to the family and gets beat around by her cousin John. Jane first begins to show her resistance to injustice when John threw a book at Jane's head. Jane had enough of passive acceptance for the way she was being treated. Jane rushed at John, and after that she realized she is not a helpless little girl. However, she also realized that her deliberate nonconformity to the Reed's concept that Jane “ought to beg, and not live here with gentleman's children like us” will lead her to harsh consequences (12). After Jane's outburst towards John, her Aunt Reed locked her in the red room. The red room was the place that her uncle died in and was rarely occupied after. During her confinement, Jane had a nervous breakdown after seeing a “glowing orb” which was supposedly the spirit of her uncle (19). This incident, while she was still confined to the red room, led her to think intently on the injustices that are placed upon by her relatives. She goes on to remember, “all John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proud indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servants' partiality” (17). These events in he...
At the start of Jane Eyre, Jane is living with her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her family after being orphaned. Jane is bitterly unhappy there because she is constantly tormented by her cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana. After reading the entire book you realize that Jane was perfectly capable of dealing with that issue on her own, but what made it unbearable was that Mrs. Reed always sided with her children, and never admitted to herself that her offspring could ever do such things as they did to Jane. Therefore, Jane was always punished for what the other three children did, and was branded a liar by Mrs. Reed. This point in the book marks the beginning of Jane's primary conflict in the novel. She feels unloved and unaccepted by the world, as her own family betrays her.
The first place Jane stays is Gateshead Hall. While at Gateshead, Jane is treated unfairly and is punished for things she did not do. After the death of Jane’s parents, her uncle, Mr. Reed brought Jane into his house. On her uncle’s deathbed Mrs. Reed promises to treat Jane like one of her own children. Jane’s aunt, Mrs. Reed, does not like Jane and has a very hard time doing this. She feels Jane was forced upon her family after the death of her parents. Against her husband’s request, Mrs. Reed does not treat Jane like a human being and is constantly criticizing and punishing her. In one example Jane was keeping to herself, reading a book when her cousin John Reed decided to annoy her. John then grabbed the book and threw it at her knocking her down and cutting her on the head, which bled and was very painful. Mrs. Reed then punished Jane by sending her into the red room, the room her uncle died in, for the entire night. While in the red room Jane became terrified and thought she saw or heard the flapping of wings. The treatment Jane received caused her to become bitter and to truly dislike Mrs. Reed.
While at Lowood, a state - run orphanage and educational facility, Jane’s first friend, Helen Burns, teaches her the importance of friendship along with other skills that will help Jane grow and emotionally mature in the future. She serves as a role model for Jane. Helen’s intelligence, commitment to her studies, and social graces all lead Jane to discover desirable attributes in Helen. Helen is treated quite poorly, however, “her ability to remain graceful and calm even in the face of (what Jane believes to be) unwarranted punishment makes the greatest impression on the younger girl” (Dunnington). Brontë uses this character as a way to exemplify the type of love that Jane deserves. This relationship allows Jane to understand the importance of having a true friend. Given Jane’s history at Gateshead, finding someone like Helen is monumental in her development as a person. Helen gives through honest friendship, a love that is
As Jane grows up, she becomes more independent and is treated on the same level as Rochester once they being to develop a relationship. Rochester can talk to Jane openly, as she can with him, and they can treat each other as equals. This can also be seen at the end of Jane Eyre where Rochester and Jane go off to live in Ferndean where they live their life the way they wish to, as equals, and not judged by society for Jane being on the same level as Rochester. Rochester truly loves and depends on her, especially after the fire incident at Thornfield, when Jane comes to visit and finds that Rochester was blinded and injured. This time apart from Jane (when she was with St. John and her other cousins) humbled Rochester and made him appreciate and love her even more.
John, her cousin, knocks Jane into a door by throwing a heavy book at her, simply because she was reading a book that legally belongs to the Reed’s. This behavior, instead of being punished, is ignored by Aunt Reed, and Jane is punished for her retaliation. This injustice is due to the fact that society assumed that someone of a lower social status was untrustworthy. The logic does not add up; however, this does not stop Aunt Reed from declaring her a liar and sending her off to a charity school faraway. This was not uncommon as it was what propriety dictated Aunt Reed to do. Jane was of a lower class, and therefore deserved lesser things. Nevertheless, there is another reason for this act of cruelty; Jane is quiet. The family hastily assumes that this silence is a result of an arrogant, calculating mind. Actually, Jane believes that if she had “been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child—though equally dependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have endured [her] presence more complacently,” thus proving that society refuses to accommodate differences, assuming that anything
Rochester. Mr. Rochester is Jane’s employer but he does not formally introduce himself until their second encounter. In this scene the proper Victorian gender roles for men and women are not really being followed. For men, gender roles consist of being strong, reasonable, good leaders, consistently working hard, very straight forward and stern. But women on the other hand are supposed to be fragile, more emotional, and good with children and domestic chores. Jane believes that men and women are equal, she explains that “Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women must feel just as men feel… and it is narrow-minded…to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings.” (12. 129-130) Jane is very candid when she talks about how women should feel the same and as men and how women shouldn’t restrict themselves to house
Jane’s childhood misconceptions concerning her identity and the path she envisions to realizing her desires are transformed as external forces threaten her fledgling sense of selfhood, which enable her to strengthen her resolve and confidently assert her identity. The childhood Jane suffers while trapped at Gateshead establishes her concept that servitude and emotional restraint are the only avenues available to her attainment of love. The opposition Jane promptly exhibits at this course of action unfolds when Jane attacks John Reed, a malicious cousin who stirs up trouble for Jane with his puerile behavior, in retaliation for the injustice she has tolerated at his hands. As the prejudiced maids transport Jane to the red-room to serve out her punishment, Jane resists their
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...
The realistic novel places greater emphasis on its characters, rather than its plot, and explores the relationships between these characters. The selected passage shows both the servant-master aspect of Jane and Mr. Rochester’s relationship, as well as its romantic nature. At the beginning of the selected passage, Jane affectionately describes Mr. Rochester as a “kind master,” which is indicative that even after his proposal, she is unable to separate herself from her position as a servant. This is further emphasized when Jane states that “he would send for [her] in the morning,” whic...