Summary of Jane Eyre - Chapters 1-4

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.

In chapter 16 we can see Jane beginning to develop feelings for Mr Rochester: “glad at least to go downstairs; for that brought me...closer to Mr Rochester’s presence” This marks a stride in her emotional development as in this instance, rather than developing an attachment to a mother figure in the search for a family, Jane is becoming attached romantically which demonstrates that she is thinking in a more adult way and instead of wanting to join a family it seems that she is striving to create one of her own. Jane’s ongoing suspicions regarding Bertha Mason, whose existence she is at this stage unaware of, show her increasing maturity as she is prepared to look deeper into a situation and is clearly no longer as naïve as she was when she previously believed Mrs Fairfax’s explanation that the laughter was Grace Poole. However, Jane is willing to believe what she is told because of her feelings for Rochester which conveys a certain amount of naivety still present as, in a fairly childlike manner; she is inclined to believe what she is told by superiors as opposed to forming her own opinions or inquiring further. Jane’s reformed perspective shows that she has developed from previous chapters. Her opinion was that at Thornfield, everything was as it seemed, she has revised her opinions in an adult way and

Furthermore, this demeaning and negative attitude Jane is exposed to is further instigated when her cousin, John Reed, expresses her situation by saying: "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us". The truth of Jane's unfortunate situation is expressed against her which results in her feeling no true support from this family and confides only in her childhood nursemaid- Bessie, who although behaves inconsistently and has “a capricious and hasty temper”, is the closest mother figure to her. Furthermore, the friction between Jane and John is further emphasised when the first physical aspect of violence is introduced to the reader through a graphic portrayal, further showing the ultimate rejection Jane experienced

Basically Jane was taken by her aunt reed who doesn 't really like Jane very much she allows her son to abuse Jane she punishes Jane in the worst way, and when it came down to the end Jane decided to to go to school. But it wasn 't a high quality prep school it was lowwood an all girls school for people of less fortune or wealth. That is where she meets a lot of people one of her best friends there was a girl named Helen. Jane attitude towards life is similar but at the same time

In the first few opening paragraphs of chapter one it is possible to see that Jane Eyre doesn’t get on with either member of the Reed

I wonder what happened that led Mrs. Reed to say that. My guess is that something happened between Jane and the Reed children and that is why she said that and why the three kids are standing by their mother.

Just as significant as Mrs. Reed, in the influence of Jane, was Helen Burns, Jane’s best friend at Lowood. Helen left only a positive impact on Jane in the short time that they were together and taught her how to forgive her enemies. An example of this is when Helen tells Jane, “‘Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited?’” (71). In saying this, Helen shows Jane how childish it is to hold a grudge against Mrs. Reed when she was free of her. She was also trying to help Jane be rid of any resentment she might have towards her childhood so that in the future she could be free to achieve greatness without any regret. Additionally, Helen affected Jane positively by telling her “Hush Jane, you think too much about the love of human beings [...] why, then should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over,’” (66). In saying this Helen had taught Jane not to worry about what other people think of her. Likewise, Helen is also

Despite John Reed’s cruel, brutish behaviour towards Jane; ‘you are a dependant… you ought to beg’, Jane’s innately fierce nature is not crushed, it merely lies in wait, cloaked by her ‘habitual obedience’, until it is gradually revealed as she fights back against Mrs Reed’s tyranny. When being forced into the Red Room, as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Jane tells the reader that ‘I resisted all the way: a new thing for me’, it is arguably the first break in the traditional mould for a female heroine, as he does not, and increasingly will not, fit the female roles conventionally assigned to a woman in her position in society. When Mrs Reed cruelly asserts to John Reed that Jane is “not worthy of notice… neither you or your sister should associate with her”, Jane’s reaction is not orthodoxly submissive, but instinctively and immediately reactive. To defend herself she vehemently states “I cried out suddenly and without at all deliberating on my words ‘they are not fit to associate with me!’”. Jane’s confidence and quick wit, moves her further away from conventionality and submission, and fuels her independent, morally virtuous personality. Later, when Mrs Reed denounces Jane’s character to her future headmaster ‘the cold marble pillar’, Mr Brocklehurst, Jane again, passionately discards the expectations placed upon her, and informs the reader, “speak I must: I had been

The only time that a member of the Reed family speaks to Jane is when they are belittling her, hoping to further assert their elite dominance over the lower class. In one particular quarrel, John Reed, the oppressive “Roman emperor” and “slave driver,” throws a book at Jane’s head to physically proclaim his dominance over her, to which Jane responds by verbally firing back at his elitist oppression. (Brontë 13) The battle between the social classes concludes with Jane being banished to the horrifying red-room as punishment for attempting to overthrow the elite power, John Reed, even though John was the clear instigator of the scuffle. Jane is later condemned by the house servants for her attempt to overthrow her “young master.” Jane and John are both children, but due to the wealth and status of his parents, John is allowed to rule over Jane, making Jane, as the Gateshead servants would describe, “‘less than a servant’” because she does nothing for her keep. (Brontë 15) Jane continuously faces this maltreatment at Gateshead until an outburst directed towards Mrs. Reed causes her to be sent away to Lowood school, a place where Mrs. Reed hopes Jane will perhaps be taught to conform to the societal norm of how a young girl like Jane should act in

She feels Jane was forced upon her family after the death of her parents.  Against her husband’s request, Mrs. Reed does not treat Jane like a human being and is constantly criticizing and punishing her.  In one example, Jane was keeping to herself and reading a book when her cousin John Reed decided to annoy her. John grabbed the book and threw it at her,  knocking her down and cutting her on the head. This caused her to bleed and was very painful.  Mrs. Reed then punished Jane by sending her into the red room, the room that her uncle died in, for the entire night.  While in the red room, Jane became terrified and thought she saw or heard the flapping of wings.  The treatment Jane received caused her to become bitter and to truly dislike Mrs. Reed.

In this passage, Jane breaks free from the bonds that hold her down and repress her, and for the first time the reader realizes Jane’s true personality and individuality (Anderson).

At the novel's opening, Jane is living with the cruel Mrs. Reed and her horrid three children, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. Mrs. Reed makes her distaste for Jane very evident in all of her actions. She forbids her to play with her (Mrs. Reed's) children (Jane's own cousins) and falsely accuses her of being a "liar" and of possessing a "mean spirit." Mrs. Reed's attitude is

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,

Jane Eyre was born an orphan and raised under the hands of a heartless Aunt. Aunt Reed stressed to Jane that she was privileged to live so well without any

Jane in her younger years was practically shunned by everyone and was shown very little love and compassion, from this throughout her life she searches for these qualities through those around her. Due to Jane’s mother’s disinheritance she was disowned by Mrs. Reed and her children, and was treated like a servant consistently reminded that she lacked position and wealth.