The Grim Life at Gateshead
Childhood is a pivotal stage in people’s lives because they are subjected to a significant amount of new knowledge and their experiences can determine behaviors they will have for the rest of their lives. For Charlotte Bronte’s character, Jane, childhood is full of hardships and loss, which brings about a constant theme of independence as Jane is forced to learn on her own in Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre.
Jane’s experiences with the Reeds while growing up caused her substantial distress. One of her most distressful moments was spent in the red-room where her uncle had passed away. Jane’s encounter with what she perceived as her uncle’s ghost took a toll on her as she imagined that it had “glided up to the ceiling and quivered over [her] head” (Bronte 14). This paves the way for countless other supernatural occurrences throughout her life. Jane’s constant state of independence forces her to process these occurrences internally, such
…show more content…
Jane would have divulged more of her feelings with Rochester if she could have trusted him. Jane also chooses not to marry St John because she distrusts his intentions towards her. Jane’s lack of confidence in people is affiliated with being bullied by John Reed and cast off by Mrs. Reed, which gave her no one to confide in during her youth. This contributes to her independence as she forces herself to process her emotions internally. Bronte instills this distrust of others in Jane from the beginning because it shows the effect of the Reeds on her social skills and how she forms relationships.
Jane Eyre is critically shaped by the circumstances of her childhood. Her traumatic life with the Reeds contributes to numerous actions and aspects of her adult life. These events cause Jane to believe in the supernatural, confront loss at a young age, and close herself off from others. Jane’s childhood was miserable- miserable in a way that no child deserves to
Although the isolation that defines much of Jane Eyre’s life seems only alienating, it also proves to be enriching, for Jane uses that isolation as a basis to truly appreciate the love she discovers when her family is revealed to her after she gains a large inheritance from a distant relative. She would not have been able to truly find and value the love in her family if not for the despair experienced early in life, as that despair led her to her family. She uses her loneliness to gather strength when it is most needed, allowing her to totally heal from the trauma of the red-room and enjoy the eternal warmth her new loving life
Reed--the woman whom conducted Jane prior to her schooling--slowly passed into the afterlife, Jane gingerly urges her aunt to love her in her death. She pleaded the dying woman to understand that she would not have hated her, would have loved her, if her aunt had so given her the possibility--she did not. Though--even by her deathbed--Jane Eyre disliked the woman wholeheartedly, she allowed her the peace of forgiveness and understanding that maturity had brought about to her through both her age and experience in love. She no longer found any anger, only sympathy towards the pathetic
Jane Eyre's literary success of the time has been cheaply commercialized. In other words, Bronte's novel never got the appreciation it deserved, in the areas it deserved. Many 19th century critics merely assigned literary themes to their reviews to "get it over with". Critics commended Jane Eyre for everything from its themes to its form. However, their surface examinations amount to nothing without careful consideration of the deeper underlying background in Jane's life where their hasty principles originate. The widely discussed free will of Jane's, her strong individuality, and independence are segments of a greater scheme, her life. For example: Jane's childhood serves as the
In the first few opening chapters Jane Eyre is seen as a mentally and physically abused child, during her years at Gateshead Hall. John Reed displays violence towards Jane in the first chapter. He punishes and bullies Jane; it is not known why the Reed family resent her so much. Her situation is seen as desperate within the first few paragraphs. Her cousins and Aunt make her life impossible and unbearable, she is not seen as a member of the family. Jane is simply seen as ‘’less than a servant’’ as she does ‘’nothing for her keep’’.
The vulnerability of Jane Eyre's childhood, loss of innocence and exposure to death, rejection, abuse and disease at such an early age due to her initial complicated family background, being an orphan and thus avoiding poverty through her aunt’s charity, shows the initial 'violent' gothic convention used in this novel.
One evening, few months after Jane’s arrival at Thornfield, Jane is alone at Hay Lane gazing at the moonrise when she notices a horse approaching. Jane appears to think is a mystical creature, a ‘Gytrash.’ Jane’s hope soon fades when she discovers the Gytrash is a façade, the creature in question is just an ordinary human traveler; ‘the man, the human being broke the spell at once’ this shows us disappointment in Jane’s voice, the reference to ‘Gytrash’ and ‘Spell’ casts a eerie and supernatural setting., this theme was first introduced and inspired by the Red Room. The injured man- who we later discover is Edward Rochester- accuses a startled Jane of bewitching his horse and then abruptly calls her an elf; here Rochester is said to ‘think uncommonly of fairytales’.’ This meeting between the two is of vital importance and signifies the pair’s likeliness, and the similarities to each of their odd and kooky personas. Jane then unconventionally insists on helping an injured Rochester Jane helps Rochester rise to his feet and introduces herself to him. She describes his features as having a ’dark face, stern features, and a heavy brow.’
Although it is not strong at first, it begins to grow exponentially, and the young Jane soon finds herself blindly infatuated with a man who is twice her senior. As the story progresses, so do the amount of times Rochester betrays Jane’s trust, taking advantage of her love by manipulating and lying to her. This romantic betrayal is what causes Jane to realize that she can be alone if it means not betraying her own religious morals. In the beginning of the story Jane adamantly believes she would not survive living in a world where she is not loved, she even goes so far as to say “I would rather die than live—I cannot bear to be solitary and hated”(Ch 8 pg 2) This belief follows her until she speaks on the matter of solitude once again, while discussing her binds to Rochester.
Throughout the book Jane Eyre, the protagonist Jane goes through a variety of stages in her life where the setting/environment of where she lives in forms a part of her character and who she becomes as a person. The first setting in the novel is the Reed family’s home in Gateshead, England. As an orphan with no parents, she is taken in by Mrs. Reed who promised the late Mr.Reed to take care of Jane. Playing the role of the “mean stepmother”, Mrs. Reed as well as all of her cousins John, Eliza and Georgiana treat her as if she was a lowly, undeserving girl. At the fragile age of ten, Jane develops an almost rebellious character and has a lot of anger built inside of her because of feeling wronged by the unfortunate deeds of the Reed family that drives her to become lonely and miserable as a child. Being locked up in the red room also gave her a superstitious side that also proves as a part of the prejudices that form around her when people don’t
Jane Eyre has been an orphan since her early childhood. She feels thrown out and excluded by the beginning of the novel. The cruel treatment she derives from her Aunt Reed and her cousins worsens her feeling of tragic detachment. Jane feels the need to belong somewhere - to find “kin”
Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” has captivated readers for generations. As with all coming of age novels, young adults can relate to the struggles and triumphs of Jane. Jane’s setting influences and parallel her emotions. A reader can see the novel through her eyes and perspective. In Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” the location often parallels Jane’s emotional growth through the tone presented by the environment, resulting in the different places she lives revealing her journey through depression. Jane’s behavioral patterns and thoughts suggest clinical depression that affected her choices throughout the novel and her life at Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Marsh End, and Ferdean.
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is presented in the Victorian Period of England. It is a novel which tells the story of a child's maturation into adulthood. Jane's developing personality has been shaped by her rough childhood. She has been influenced by many people and experiences. As a woman of her time, Jane has had to deal with the strain of physical appearance. This has a great effect on her mental thinking and decision making. Jane Eyre's cognitive and physical attributes have been affected by her environment throughout her life.
In Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the title character goes through many changes of environment in her life, and she changes along with them. She is raised in the abusive house of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and is later sent to boarding school for the remainder of her childhood. After her time at school as both a pupil and a teacher, Jane takes a job as a governess at the mysterious Thornfield. Many shaping events happen here and after a shocking heartbreak and betrayal, she leaves to find her own way in the world. She eventually is led back to Thornfield to be with her beloved. Jane is placed into many different situations, but the changes she experiences in herself are not purely circumstantial, rather they are true changes triggered by the
Compare the presentation of childhood in Great Expectations and Jane Eyre Both "Jane Eyre" and "Great Expectation" adopt a typically Victorian outlook on childhood, which can seem quite alien set against modern values. However in both books, and particularly in "Jane Eyre", there is an effort to create a convincing expression of childhood through strong emphasis of the child's point of view above all others. In both books there is a interesting use of hindsight within the first person narration; not only does the narrator describe their childhood with perfect clarity of detail "before the long hour and a half of prayers and Bible-reading was over, I felt ready to perish with cold.
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, is set in 20th century England, and tells the story of a young woman named Jane Eyre who undergoes many hardships as she matures and ultimately grows into a more complex person. The title character’s unsavory childhood, peppered with verbal and physical abuse and punctuated only by an occasional act of kindness, might embitter a weaker narrator, but Jane’s strength of character and passionate, willful nature, which motivate her to seek respect and equality throughout the novel, drive her towards happiness despite the difficult circumstances from whence she came. Jane is good role model for girls, despite her faults─of which the vast majority can be attributed simply to the fact that she
People’s lives are always worth to take a look at regardless of their appearances. In fact, those who don’t have families at all—which is an ordinary thing for most of us to live among our family members—have much more hardships throughout their lives as Jane Eyre had. There were lots of valuable sentences that Jane uttered. First of all, if one is an orphan, he or she is expected to depend on the others to survive. Also, they are supposed to suit in none of the statuses in the society. However, Jane was demanding justice and trying to be treated as equal with her ‘’so-called’’ sisters and brother. She was tagged as ‘’rebellious’’ even when she was 9 or 10 years old,