In the early chapters of the novel Jane Eyre, our heroine resides at Gateshead and Lowood school; her character immediately inspires pity from the readers. She is an outcast within her own family, the Reeds, and is considered less than a servant. John Reed bullies her to the extent that she fears him, introducing weakness as one of her character flaws. Jane is somewhat jealous of her cousins’ lack of punishment and condemnation, although she believes they were “not fit to associate with [her]” (Bronte, 35). She feels wrongly accused, leading to a growing bitterness towards those who have treated her so harshly. Isolation follows her to Lowood, where she is singled out as a “little castaway, evidently an interloper and an alien” and a liar
Jane Eyre’s second home at Lowood spans a period of eight years during the beginning of which she continues to face an inner battle between passion and reason. Still a young girl, Jane is unable to comprehend the lack for insubordination. This perpetuates when Mr. Brocklehurst denounces her in front of the school:
Exile. Isolation. Solitude. Whether literal or not, exile from the familiar, while both traumatic and alienating to experience, can serve to ultimately be enriching. These descriptors summarize Jane Eyre’s isolation in the novel Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. Her isolation manifests itself as emotional and physical, and Jane’s repeated inability to establish herself in a stable home becomes somewhat of an identifier for her, from her emotional isolation and abuse in her first “home” at Gateshead to her final dwelling at Ferndean.
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jane is an orphan who is often mistreated by the family and other people who surround her. Faced with constant abuse from her aunt and her cousins, Jane at a young age questions the treatment she receives: "All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sister’s proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always brow-beaten, always accused, forever condemned?" (27; ch. 2). Despite her early suffering, as the novel progresses Jane is cared for and surrounded by various women who act as a sort of "substitute mother" in the way they guide,
In a feeling akin to one they may have experienced, the authors display their main characters as being outsiders from society. Janie arrived in her hometown, Eatonville, in isolation due to her marriage to Jody. He made it so, “She but get close to most of them in spirit,” as a form of control over her life (Hurston 46). Janie’s solitude causes her to envy those around her, even with their lower economic status for their ability to interact with the community. However, Janie’s isolation is not complete as her beauty gives her a higher standing among her peers and causes men to court her after her husband’s death.
A confidant or a confidante is a supporting character who presents the main character with a sympathetic aid; as writer Henry James wrote, confidants or confidantes can be “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” In the 1847 novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Helen Burns is such the character that provides moral support to the protagonist, Jane Eyre. Through Helen, Brontë presented the protagonist a valuable friendship as well as created a literary foil, or “a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character” (“Foil”). Jane Eyre was orphaned when she was a small child and was taken in by her uncle, who also shortly died as well.
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’’.
Violence is the most recurrent gothic convention used in Jane Eyre, which is prominent in Charlotte Brontë's effective development of the novel and the character of Jane Eyre, who, throughout this novel, is searching for a home in which she would have a sense of belonging and love which would ultimately resolve this exact unfulfilled need she had as a child. The neglect she experienced in her childhood is manifested in the way she is treated by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, as in the first page of the novel Jane Eyre admits: ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance’’. This opening shows how there is a clear line of separation drawn between Jane and her relatives due to her complicated family background which consequently results in their reluctance to accept her into their environment. These complications lead to her maltreatment, which also adds on to the violence she experiences acting as a catalyst for the development of the character and her subconscious quest.
‘Jane Eyre’ highlights the ways in which the proletariat is oppressed by the bourgeoisie. As such, the novel could be regarded as a critique of the strict social class hierarchy in Victorian England, particularly in terms of the despicable mistreatment of Jane at the hands of her supposed “social superior” John Reed.
The Importance of Jane's Early Life at Lowood to Shaping Her Character in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
I should say I loved you, but I declare I do not love you: I dislike
Jane Eyre is a disobedient and strong-willed young woman who needs to be reprimanded according to Mrs. Reed and Mr. Lloyd. But in reality Jane is just the protagonist of the story. Believing that she can stand up for herself is in her bones ever since the opening pages of the novel. Jane found reading a book and stands up to her cousin John taking a huge bout of courage to stand up to her “bully”. Within this excerpt, Brontë introduces the relationship between Jane and Mr. Brocklehurst . Jane and Mr. Brocklehurst experience a relationship that clashes with the other. Jane is not as highly spiritual as that of Mr. Lloyd or her aunt. Jane also is contrasting because her character can be more associated with fire and warmth whereas
Readers learn early in the story that Jane Eyre does not fit contemporary society's idea of a proper woman. As a child, Jane stands up to her aunt, Mrs. Reed, on more than one recorded occasion when Jane feels she has been treated unjustly (Brontë 28, 37). At one point, Jane bluntly tells her aunt, "I declare, I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed [Jane's cousin]" (37). This was at best improper behavior for a child in Victorian society, and it was most definitely seen as improper by Mrs. Reed who grows to hate Jane, calling her "tiresome, ill-conditioned" and "scheming" (26). But her aunt's reprimands and hatred do not deter Jane from speaking up in the face of injustice.
The pivotal moment that affected Jane Eyre’s outlook on life was due to her harsh upbringing by her aunt and her cousins. It is first introduced to the reader that Jane was adopted by her kind Uncle Reed, and his family, while Jane was sent to the red room as punishment and she was pondering about the past in order to pass time. The red room was a chamber, with décor that was almost all red, which could be locked from outside. The reason Jane was sent to the red room was because she had lashed out at her snobby and obnoxious cousin John Reed that on a regular basis would torment Jane. After years of pent up anger and frustration Jane couldn’t take it any longer. On regular occasion, she was outcast by her own family, although only she was only blood related to her deceased Uncle Reed and partly to his children. Before he had passed, Jane’s uncle had made a promise with his wife that she would raise Jane as if she were one of her own children. But, as time went on the Reed family’s
The novel in which Jane Eyre stars in can be seen criticizing many aspects of those times such as the role and nature of women, child negligence and social hardships for those in a lesser class. Jane Eyre’s alienation from society allows for a greater reveal of the story’s culture, values, and assumptions. It’s presented through the use of gender, class and character conflicts throughout the story. On multiple occasions, Jane is judged for the presented factors reflecting the type of society Jane lives in and what the times were like at that time.
Jane Eyre is a story of a young girl, Jane, which travels from the days of her childhood at Gates head Hall, through the maturity of adulthood at Fern dean .The writer, portrays the young girl’s struggle among the prevalent social evils of the society. The journey starts as an orphan child, who is filled with the sense of despair and loneliness, living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her three cousins, who are all indifferent to her. Later Jane is sent away to Lowood Institution, where she receives education but is restricted and contained by harshness of proprietor Mr. Brocklehurst. After completing her education, she serves as a teacher in the same school for about two years.