The novel 'Jane Eyre' is an emotional journey through the often turbulent and isolated life of Jane Eyre. The eponymous character Jane Eyre starts her life parentless, left in the care of her careless aunt and the company of her cruel cousins. She escapes to school (Lowood) where she flourishes and eventually goes to work as a governess.
She subsequently falls in love with the owner of the estate where she is governess, Mr Rochester, before discovering that his mad wife lives in the attic. After turning down St. John Rivers' proposal of marriage she returns to Mr Rochester and, after finding out his wife has died in a fire, marries him.We first meet Jane Eyre in a window-seat of her aunt's house, attempting to escape her worries by reading. Her aunt has separated her from the rest of the family for reasons including not being, "attractive and sprightly" in manner Her situation at Gateshead Hall appears to consist of isolation and loneliness.
Her aunt despises her, consequently so do her cousins. John Reed, her only male cousin, regularly beats her for no particular reason and Jane says of him; "I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack" and John had "an antipathy to me".Mrs Reed and the servants ignore his behaviour and act as if they are ignorant of it. Mrs Reed, John, Eliza and Georgiana Reed are Jane's only family. Her parents and her mother's brother, Mr Reed, are all deceased.
She is a dependant. Her mother married her father despite him being of a lower class than her. Jane's mother was disowned, as marrying below your status was frowned upon at that time. Jane is not like the Reeds in any way, which is the main reason why she is treated so harshly. She is left alone in the intimidating red-room as punishment for defending herself against John when he hits her.
Mrs Reed is cold and unsympathetic when Jane screams with fright, resulting in Jane fainting. Overall, Jane is subjected to abuse and sometimes violence and at other times left alone and frightened. This leads to the reader, by the end of chapter two, feeling sorry for Jane. They are extremely sympathetic, and want to see Jane do well for herself. Jane is firmly established as a good character, and one that the reader likes and empathises with.
Jane Eyre has much in common with Charlotte Bronte, and the striking similarities may be a result of Charlotte using many of her own experiences to write the novel.Charlotte was born in April 1816, the third of six children. Her father, a clergyman, moved the family to Haworth in the Yorkshire moors in 1920. Her mother died after the birth of her sixth child, and two of her siblings also died.
Charlotte, her sisters Anne and Emily and brother Branwell were consequently left in the care of their father and strict, religious Aunt Elizabeth, meaning they missed out on a mother's love. Jane also had no mother, and found fiction as fascinating as Charlotte and her siblings.The Bronte children enjoyed hearing and imagining fantasy stories-Charlotte and Branwell together created an imaginary world called Angria. Charlotte attended Cowan Bridge Clergy Daughters School in Lancashire but poor conditions forced her to return home.
Charlotte in particular remembered vividly the miseries endured there, and the fact that her elder sisters died of tuberculosis due to the conditions. Jane suffered similar memories at Lowood School. Charlotte then went to Roe Head School, returned home to teach her sisters and finally became a teacher at Roe Head School aged nineteen, as Jane did at her Lowood School.Charlotte also had some experience as a governess, but was unfortunately shy and inexperienced with children. These similarities are evident in the novel Jane Eyre.
Bronte addresses issues important to her in Jane Eyre; social status, the position of women in society and religious faith-particularly religious hypocrisy. For example, Charlotte once said, "self-righteousness is not religion". Throughout the novel the characters are separated into two categories-the rich, landed gentry, and the working class who are dependant. Jane Eyre belongs to the latter, as she is dependant on Mrs Reed.
Jane does not like the thought of being poor, and prefers Gateshead Hall to poverty because in her mind poverty is degrading. This is because social status was far more rigid in the nineteenth century and class systems more defined. These boundaries were rarely crossed, and if they were disownment was often the result, as happened to Jane's mother. This is partly the reason why Mrs Reed is so wealthy and therefore nasty to Jane-her husband was a wealthy landowner who was paid rent by tenant farmers or cottage dwellers. Jane is seen as of a lower class because her father was not upper or middle class.However, Jane, when she becomes a governess, is in an awkward position; she is not a servant but equally does not belong to Mr Rochester's social class.
Governesses had to teach and discipline children yet the children were in such a position that they could treat their governesses as inferior. The position of women is an issue also addressed. This is because women were of a subservient position in Victorian society. Middle class women could not earn their own living, their lives were expected to revolve around marriage and children-so marriage was their only real option.Charitable work was one of the few things women could do with their spare time. Jane does not get married so becomes an anomaly of the class ranks at that time.
A woman who did get married brought with her a dowry. Jane has no such dowry so had little chance of making a 'good' marriage. Bronte also uses Georgiana and Eliza to show the limited options available to women. Georgiana marries, This hypothesis from coursework. inf "a wealthy worn-out man of fashion", whereas Eliza is confined to a convent to which she endows "her fortune", takes the veil and becomes superior of the convent.Jane rejects the type of religion typified by Mr Brocklehurst at Lowood School.
He is shown to be hypocritical by dressing his own daughters beautifully while the girls at his school are dressed poorly. She also rejects St John's view of religion, the harsh and "ruthlessly moral" approach which allows no room for human compassion. She is also aware that Mr Rochester would have manipulated moral standards to get his own desires. The best examples of morality Jane comes across in her life are the selfless examples of Helen Burns and Miss Temple.Bronte's concerns are easily conveyed to the reader in the first two chapters of the novel, and Bronte quickly and easily creates sympathy for Jane by setting a miserable scene, using emotive language and structuring events effectively.
Jane connects with the reader, telling them about her day and life. Her defiant and courageous nature endears her to the reader, because despite her inferior treatment she is strong. Jane becomes a favourable character that the reader respects and sympathises with.Sympathy is evoked firstly by Jane telling her own story by talking directly to the reader, making it more personal, for example; I never liked long walks", "stay till he comes reader" and "you shall share the confidence". This means the reader sees how events affect Jane because she describes them in detail, in the first person, resulting in the reader being interested in Jane's story and picturing it easily; "why was I always suffering? ". But Bronte does not rely on the young Jane's whining.
Jane's perspective is told from Jane as an adult, so sympathy is increased as Jane acknowledges that her personality was not compatible with the Reeds', so it was inevitable that relations would be strained.Her willingness to realise that she was irritating encourages the reader to see Jane positively. However, despite Jane acknowledging that she was irritating, the Reeds' treatment of her remains unacceptable. Jane lives at Gateshead Hall because her parents are dead. Jane's uncle, Mr Reed, angry at his sister's disownment for marrying below her status, binds Mrs Reed on his deathbed to look after the baby Jane as her own.
Mrs Reed appears to resent this, and thinks Jane is inferior to her. Gateshead Hall is lonely and isolating for Jane, she hates living there.Mrs Reed belongs to the rich, middle class because her husband was a landlord. Jane is the opposite of Mrs Reed, she is parentless and dependant because she ahs no money of her own and consequently has painfully few prospects.
This is partly why Mrs Reed despises her-she is in no way like her. Bronte's intention in describing so vividly Jane's treatment at the hands of the Reeds is to increase sympathy for Jane. Sympathy is the main aim of chapters one and two. This is also created by revealing the coldness and distance between Jane and Mrs Reed, emphasising Jane's loneliness.Mrs Reed cold-heartedly sends Jane to the intimidating red-room, and when Jane screams in horror and begs to be allowed out; "Oh aunt, have pity! " Mrs Reed promptly tells Jane "Silence! This violence is most repulsive". Similarly, John Reed treats Jane with contempt.
"Bad animal" and "you ought to beg" are some of the comments he makes, as do the servants. "She's like a mad cat" says Bessie, and Miss Abbot tells Jane she "ought not to think of yourself on equality with the Misses and Master Reed". At this point Jane is shown to be completely alone, as not even the servants show her compassion.However, despite Jane's ill treatment, she still appears to have high self-esteem and realises that her treatment is unjustified and not directly linked to her behaviour. Bronte reveals Jane as lonely and isolated by portraying her as a girl who can only find solace, and escape reality by reading.
For example, "with Bewick on my knee, I was then happy". Bewick is an author, and this shows than Jane was happy and content when reading. Bronte's writing was influenced by literary traditions of the first half of the nineteenth century, which included the romantic idea.The Romantics were mainly writers and artists who strived for "social justice and truth in a world often constrained by religious hypocrisy and social convention".
They used art and nature as escapism and were anxious to explore their inner emotions in order to find inner fulfilment. Jane fits the description perfectly, as she has a strong independent spirit, recognises religious hypocrisy and wants justice. She sees religious hypocrisy and St John Rivers and Mr Rochester in particular. Jane's isolation is further emphasised by the weather at the beginning of chapter one; cold winter had brought with it clouds so sombre".Jane's mood echoes the weather, and the nature book she is reading again shows that she is a Romantic, finding solace in books and nature.
The conditions described in the book also reflect her mood; "forlorn regions", "desolate coast", "gallows" and "solitary" cause the reader to visualise spooky areas, and are metaphors of Jane's life which is lonely and constricting. Chapter two contrasts with chapter one as Bronte uses the Gothic Tradition to create sympathy for Jane in chapter two.The Gothic Tradition can be described as fiction, recognisable by premonitions of future disaster. A character aware of his future supernatural experience or a lonely character isolated and trapped often appear in these stories, and imagery is conjured in the mind, linked with death, ghosts, madness and claustrophobia. It was a term that was used in the nineteenth century to describe art which was fantastic or eerie. The description of the red room is firmly rooted in gothic tradition.
For example, the furniture is described; darkly polished old mahogany", "pale throne", "high, dark wardrobe" and "bed rose before me". These descriptions are eerie and ghostly, and set the scene of the red-room as a scary, enclosed and intimidating room. It is enough to fuel Jane's imagination and the daylight that "began to forsake the red-room" increases Jane's anxiety and fear. She begins to ponder supernatural events, and thinks about her dead uncle, wondering if he might be roused from his grave, angry at his last wish being disobeyed. She thought he might "quit his abode" and "rise before me in this chamber".The reference to ghosts and mysterious events firmly establishes that this section of the book, which ends with Jane's "wild, involuntary cry", is derived from the Gothic idea.
In conclusion, by the end of the first two chapters, a portrait of a suppressed, lonely and hated young girl is effectively drawn. This consequently leaves the reader felling sympathy for Jane, and yet knowing, due to her strength of character and realisation that she is not a bad person, that she will survive to become an independent young women who can stand up for herself and not be trodden on.To sum up, the various ways Bronte creates sympathy for Jane is to establish clearly an in detail the different scenes, and use them to reflect the mood of that scene. For example, the red-room is eerie and shows Jane's fear.
Jane is described in a manner that makes her individual. She is described negatively by Mrs Reed, and not well by herself, evoking sympathy even more, because she is not portrayed as a beautiful, perfect character. The chapters are structured so that Jane and her family are introduced clearly, and the roles and the type of person they are is understood well.The second chapter moves on and goes into more detail about Jane's character ad her feelings. The social context helps the reader to respond to what is written, because it explains, to a certain extent, why the characters are like they are. For example, John Reed is called Jane's "young master" because at that time me were superior to women.
Jane is shown to be the only favourable character in the first two chapters, with the others shown to be cruel or cold or oppressive, meaning sympathy is easily evoked for Jane.
