Response to the Opening Chapter of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront

Write your response to the opening chapter of the novel Jane Eyre by

Charlotte Bront

The opening chapter of the novel "Jane Eyre" draws the reader into the

story with a descriptive text and a sense of mystery. Charlotte Bront

does this by not telling us who is speaking or when they are speaking.

The novel is set in a cold, raining winter which parallels the

speaker's negative emotions. Also, the opening chapter does not

explain that it is actually a mature woman of thirty who is speaking,

reflecting on her childhood as an orphan living with relatives.

Jane is the central character and she narrates the story so that novel

is actually written using the first person narrative. The novel is a

fictional autobiography written in 1847 in which several scenes

represent or reflect events which happened in Charlotte Brontës own

life, such as the death of her mother, being looked after by another

person and the school proving to be very formative in both Charlotte's

and Jane's lives. Both Charlotte and her character Jane left their

homes to become governesses and ended up marrying men they had worked

for.

The novel was originally written for and aimed at a female audience

and became a most social and best-selling book at that time. Many

people owned copies of Jane Eyre, some for the enjoyment of reading it

and some bought it in several volumes to appear as if they were more

literate and intelligent.

Because the story is written using the first person narrative, the

narrator is involved and due to this, the contents of the novel and

the opinions are biased This means we cannot gather clear pictures of

the characters in the novel as all the descriptions are Jane's biased

opinions. Advantages of using this first person narrative include

empathy, the narrator being more involved ad the audience feeling

closer to the central character. A disadvantage though, would be that

we cannot get a clear picture of Jane herself. Most of what we know is

her view of how the other characters see her.

The writer engages the interest of the audience by setting the scene

with detailed description, but also leaving a sense of mystery and

curiosity. The weather parallels Jane's current emotions and reflects

the negativity of the day. We learn that Jane is an independent but

also a rebellious character. This is unusual as during the Victorian

period (and earlier), it was said that children should be seen and not

heard. People believed that children should be silent and only talk

when spoken to, not interrupt adults or misbehave.

Charlotte Bront, the author, encourages us to sympathize with the