Jane Eyre [CHAPTERS 1+2 FACILITATION DISCUSSION]
General website resource:
http://www.victorianweb.org/
1. Utilize text
2. Historical context (Victorian era/attitudes, industrial revolution, etc.)
3. Themes (i.e. love/marriage, passion, self-discovery/independence, religion,
forgiveness, women’s rights).
5. 1 passage, 1-2 pages in length, to analyze that will reflect your understanding of
Bronte’s literary style.
6. Insightful Questioning
7. Detailed outline of presentation including style analysis and passage. Make a
copy and give to teacher before you begin presentation.
Themes to Consider (not exhausted list):
Marriage
Education
Appearances
Society and Class
The Supernatural
Morality and Ethics
Foreignness and ‘The Other’
The Home
Literary Terms to analyze style:
1. Gothic lit/Romance
2. Pathetic Fallacy
3. Gynocriticism
4. Anti-hero
5. Byronic Hero
6. Crisis
7. Motif
8. Flat/Round/Static/Dynamic Character
9. Indirect/Direct Characterization
10. Hubris
I. Analyzing author's style involves
11. Apotheosis
understanding the particular way a piece is
written. Focus on not what is said but how
12. Hypocorism
it is said.
13. Catharsis
II. How does the writer uniquely
Outline should include the following information:
1. Any specific historical info that we should know
2. Thematic things to consider
3. Bronte’s style/lit terms
4. Chapter Questions/responses
5. Passage?
SKELETON EXAMPLE BELOW: Your outline should be far more detailed
CHAPTER 1
I.
communicate his/her ideas?
III. Deliberate to create mood.
IV. Key aspects in styles of writing include:
a. sentence length, structure,
variation, and position
b. the use of sensory details,
figurative language, and other
literary devices
c. the use of sound devices-alliteration, onomatopoeia,
rhythm, repetition
d. the use of dialogue
e. word choice
f. tone
g. the use of local color
h. the use of irony
General plot: Summary
a. Meet the residents of Gatehead hall: Mrs. Reed, Eliza, John, and Georgiana, Bessie, Miss Abbot
b. Jane is 10 years old and obvious outsider
c. Description of john reed page 7 (14 yo)
d. Banishment to the “red room”
Jane Eyre [CHAPTERS 1+2 FACILITATION DISCUSSION]
II.
History: “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day” (5).
a. Victorians love for walking as exercise, leisure, and aesthetic relationship to the garden.
b. Explain in detail about the gardens and walks
Theme focus: “The Home”
a. Sense of discomfort comes from the lack of “home” and safety the narrator creates
b. Lack of love
c. Metaphorically homeless
d. Jane does not see Home as a place of shelter “Solitude” (pages 4, 5, 7)
Style: Use of dialogue between the children and Jane
a. Characterization
b. To create mood
c. Evoke sympathy
Chapter questions
i. What narrative point of view does Bronte use for this novel? First-person Jane
ii. What can the reader expect in a story told from this point of view? Biased/Subjective
iii. How does Bronte create sympathy for Jane in the first chapter? Point-of-view and dialogue
iv. Describe the exposition of the novel: isolation, creates the mood (dark, raining) reflects the
character
v. What is the purpose of including the descriptive passages of Berwick’s History of British Birds at this
point in the novel? Jane is like a trapped bird
vi. In the following, John Reed is speaking to Jane. Explain Bronte’s social point.
“You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mamma says; you have no
money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not live here with gentlemen’s
children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma’s
expense. Now I’ll teach you to rummage my book-shelves: for they are mine; all the house
belongs to me, or will do in a few years.”
vii. Do you believe Jane’s description of her abuse by John Reed is realistic or exaggerated? Explain.
III.
IV.
V.
“I really saw in [John Reed] a tyrant: a murderer. I felt a drop or two of blood from my
head trickle down my neck, and was sensible of somewhat pungent suffering: these
sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort.”
Passage: Page 6 (connects to the theme of solitude) read out-loud explain diction
VI.
I.
Chapter 2
a. General Plot:
i. Jane is isolated in the room Mr. Reed died in (dead for 9 years
ii. Discover that she is an orphan
iii. Mr. Reed was her uncle
b. History: explanation of Victorian obsession with ghosts….
c. Theme: The Supernatural significance of the ghost…
d. Style: characterization
e. Passage:
f. questions
i. Describe how the weather sets the tone for this chapter in the novel.
ii. Describe how Jane holds an ambiguous place in the Reed home and in society.
iii. How does Miss Abbot try to frighten Jane before locking her in the red-room?
Jane Eyre [CHAPTERS 1+2 FACILITATION DISCUSSION]
iv. What does the reader learn about Jane’s character in this chapter?
v. Jane briefly considers escaping Gateshead. What options does she ponder?
vi. Why is Jane allowed to live at Gateshead with the Reeds?
vii. Describe how Bronte’s use of diction and sentence structure in the following sentence
contributes to the overall meaning of the sentence.
“My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I
deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed,
suffocated; endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in
desperate effort.”
viii. How does this chapter begin and end?
ix. Consider the other characters’ actions when Jane is locked in the red-room. How do the other
characters’ dialogue and behavior help shape readers opinions of them?
x.