Jane Eyre Passages

The scene in Jane Eyre in which an adult Jane revisits her place of childhood residence showcases her emotional connection to the gloomy setting. Jane’s fatigued tone, specific placement of detail, and use of imagery upon entering the bedroom contribute to a building sense of both unsettlement and familiarity, taking readers through her thought process as she journeys through the room. The first two sentences of the selected passage use an exhausted tone to highlight Jane’s apprehension as she approaches the once frequently-visited space. In the opening sentence, Jane describes the bedroom as so “well-known” that she does not need guidance to locate it, and she states that she had “so often been summoned” to receive punishment in this room, immediately indicating that the area is very intimate to the narrator. As Jane prepares to enter the room,

After entering the room, Jane illustrates the scene by listing the specific pieces of furniture that she sees: “there was the” bed, the toilet table, the armchair, and the footstool. Her list of short, simple observations implies that all objects are exactly where she had remembered them to be placed. She also describes the bed as having “amber hangings as of old,” using a minor yet specific detail to showcase the space’s lack of change. Jane therefore feels familiar with the environment she has entered, and readers experience an inflow of memories as she recognizes even the smallest elements of her surroundings. For instance, the image of the footstool triggers a specific memory; in describing the “hundred times” she had been asked to kneel at the footstool, Jane again takes on a wearied tone. Using such words as “sentenced” and “ask pardon for offenses” suggests that Jane felt, at multiple points in her childhood, incriminated and trapped when in this room, contributing to the dark feeling that she faces