Jane Eyre
Gateshead
Grace, Abby, Marena, Rachel, Gib
Ch 1
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"The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered
round their mama in the drawing-room: she reclined on
a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her
(for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked
perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the
group..."
"What does Bessie say I have done?" I asked.
"Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners; besides, there
is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her
elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until
you can speak pleasantly, remain silent."
first dialogue indicates her isolation and her
inferiority in the household
[insert John Reed (cautiously) Ch 1]
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"John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four
years older than I, for I was but ten: large and stout for
his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick
lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large
extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which
made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye
and flabby cheeks."
"John had not much affection for his mother and sisters,
and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not
two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the
day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and
every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came
near."
Through physical harm and verbal abuse, he is a source
of true terror to Jane.
Jane's Tantrum
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"Wicked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like amurderer-you are like a slave-driver--you are like the Roman
emperors!"
"I resisted all the way...The fact is, I was a trifle beside
myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say:
I was conscious that a moment's mutiny had already
rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any
other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go
all lengths."
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Inferiority
(Bessie) "You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under
obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn
you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse."
(Miss Abbot) "And you ought not to think yourself on an
equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because
Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They
will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is
your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable
to them."
Orphaned child, taken in by step relatives
Set to her place, viewed as evil and ungrateful
(Miss Abbot) "Besides, God will punish her: He might strike
her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would
she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have her
heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are
by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be
permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away."
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The Red Room
"All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sister's proud
indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servant's
partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark
deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering,
always browbeaten, always accused, for ever
condemned?"
"Oh aunt, have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it - let
me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if - '
'Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:'...I was a
precocious actress in her eyes: she sincerely looked to
me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and
dangerous duplicity"
If this book's purpose is to explain why Jane suffered
then this is the first instance of Jane showing the reader
her suffering and examining it herself.
Jane's first encounter with
Mr.
Broccolihurst
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"...the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, placed above the
shaft by way of capital."
"Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I wrote to you
three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I
could wish: should you admit her into Lowood school, I should be glad if the
superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and,
above all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit."
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"Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to the heart; I
dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of
existence which she destined me to enter; I felt, though I could not have
expressed the feeling, that she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my
future path; I saw myself transformed under Mr. Brocklehurst's eye into an
artful, noxious child, and what could I do to remedy the injury?"
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"'Deceit is, indeed, a sad fault in a child,' said Mr. Brocklehurst; 'it is akin
to falsehood, and all liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire
and brimstone: she shall, however, be watched, Mrs. Reed; I will speak to Miss
Temple and the teachers."
Mr. Bratwurst Continued
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Foreshadows the crippling accusation that
troubles Jane at Lowood (deceit)
Introduction to Mr. Brocklehurst's cruelty
More false accusations directed at Jane,
based on Mrs. Reed's word
Jane's confrontation of Mrs.
Reed
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"I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I
dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed...I am glad
you are no relation of mine; I will never call you aunt again as long as I
live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks
me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of
you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable
cruelty...People think you a good woman, but you are bad; hard-hearted.
You are deceitful." (chapter 4)
In this confrontation we see the culmination of all of the pain Jane has felt
in her life at Gateshead inflicted back on to Mrs. Reed. These are the words
she leaves Mrs. Reed with until she comes back to her death bed. We see
how jilted Jane has become because of her treatment and this sentiment
does not change until she meets Helen at Lowood
Jane's deathbed conversation
with Mrs. Reed
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"Love me, then, or hate me, as you will,' I said at last; 'you have my full and
free forgiveness: ask now for God's and be at peace."
"Yes, Aunt Reed. How are you, dear aunt?" I had once vowed that I would
never call her aunt again: I thought it no sin to forget and break that vow
now."
"Dear Mrs. Reed," said I, as I offered her the draught she required, "think
no more of all this, let it pass away from your mind. Forgive me for my
passionate language: I was a child then; eight, nine years have passed since
that day."
This passage is in stark contrast to Jane’s attitude and “disposition” earlier
in the book at Gateshead. She has grown up into much a more humble and
modest young woman than the proud child she used to be. She also has
forgiven her Aunt and still wants her love which shows a great level of
maturity on her part. She is completely self-aware and acknowledges her
weaknesses from the past and present.