Summer Reading Guide Essay

As a feminist, Jane is able to protect herself when she is in a situation where she needs to be defended. For instance, when her brutish older cousin John hurls a hardcover book at her head, she pounces back by attacking him in defense. She also faces no difficulty in successfully defeating her cold-hearted aunt in a verbal fight, just at the tender age of ten. Jane is surely unafraid of the consequences that she has to face on actions that she believes as rightfully done. This amazing trait remains even as she proceeds into adulthood and meets the love of her life. She is able to deal with, and even stand up to Mr. Rochester’s unreasonable verbal attacks directed at her. She clearly shows her dauntless side of her personality, by speaking her own mind when Mr. Rochester demands for the money that he had given her. Jane refuses clear cut, and Mr. Rochester asks to then at least let him see the cash. Jane refuses again by retorting that he is “not to be trusted.” Jane has an honest and truthful soul who knows how to speak for herself, unlike many women during this period of time. Jane is never concerned about what other people would think of her if she tells them the exact truth about everything. She is able to inform her departure by cancelling off the wedding between herself and Mr. Rochester after what she had witnessed and experienced. Jane cries out “you are a married man-or as good as a married man, and wed to one inferior to you- to one with whom you have no sympathy- whom I do not believe you truly love; for I have seen and heard you sneer at her. I would scorn such a union: therefore I am better than you- let me go!” Jane is able to truthfully utter her thoughts, her true opinion without being afraid; even if it was to someone she dearly loved. When Mr. Rochester angrily cries out, “Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its

When Jane enters Thornfield she thinks she is going to work for a woman named Mrs. Fairfax, but she does not. She works for a mysterious man name Mr. Rochester. This man is going to be an import aspect of Jane’s life. Jane works as a governess to a young girl named Adele. Jane encounters Mr. Rochester when she goes for a walk and runs into Rochester, whose horse is injured. After the encounter Jane and Rochester start to gain interest into each other. Mr. Rochester is a man with a large amount of money and Jane is a woman with very little money, the fact that she works for Mr. Rochester defies their unprofessional relationship. “Like governesses, these marriages between older men and younger women were viewed with great ambivalence during the Victorian period”(Godfrey). Both characters develop strong feelings for one another and become close to getting married but a discovery of a secret puts the marriage to a halt. After

With this new information, Jane has a new-found confidence, leading her to stand up against her wicked aunt and displays that she is not afraid of them anymore. With this incident occurring between her and her Aunt Reed, she is sent to school to receive an education. This school, titled the Lowood Institution, was an all-girls charity school that was ran by Mr. Bokorhurst, the one who paid for all the food, clothes, and servants and teachers. After early scrutiny by her peers, Jane was soon accepted and made friends with Helen Burns, one of the outcasts at Lowood. Along with her new companion, Jane discovers that Mr. Bokorhurt was turning the schoolgirls into zombies, which lead Jane to take action. While trying to thwart Mr. Bokorhurt’s plan, one of Jane’s teachers, the kind Miss Temple discovers Mr. Bokorhurst’s wrongdoings and aides Jane in her quest. While Jane and Miss Temple are trying to cease Mr. Bokorhurst’s plan, Helen becomes ill, leading her to become one of the zombies, causing Jane to behead her, and end her misery. Along with Miss Temple, her only friend, Jane slays all the

Jane's aunt was a very mean and cold person, she disliked Jane and would often show it by keeping her isolated from her kids and not letting Jane enter certain parts of the house. At one point in the story Jane was punished and sent to a room where she was locked up,she let out a loud scream after seeing what she thought was a ghost. Mrs. Reed eventually came down to see her and that's where Jane began to beg ‘’O aunt! Have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it-Let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if-’’. Although Jane begged to be let out in the story it said ‘’Mrs.Reed impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs abruptly thrust me back and locked me in’’. Mrs. Reed had absolutely no remorse for any actions she committed toward Jane,she often neglected

Her Aunt as well as her only cousins resent Jane. She is an outcast, but nevertheless at only the age of

Mr. Brocklehurst, however, attempts to strip Jane of her identity at Lowood, her following destination. When Brocklehurst visits Lowood, he punishes Jane for dropping a slate. He publicly humiliates Jane by forcing her to stand on a stool for everyone to look at her. Jane, who becomes more marginalized, experiences the pain Brocklehurst causes her: she says, “I felt their eyes directed like burning-glasses against my scorched skin” (66). The mental pain from the punishment helps to soften any of Jane’s confidence. As a result, she becomes unsure of her self-worth. Jane begins to fall prey to the ideals of Lowood because she thinks of herself as inferior to individuals at the institution. The sense of even having an unsatisfactory disposition introduces breeding ground for Jane to lose herself in terms identity in order to improve herself. Jane’s change allows her to be in the uniformed, majority group, which helps her escape the setting of Brocklehurst’s wrath.

      At Lowood Jane also learns she can be judged by her own merits. Mr. Brocklehurst, the administrator, announced to the entire school that by her Aunt Reed's assessment, Jane is a liar. The superintendent, Miss Temple, as well as Helen Burns, rally to Jane's support. They declare Jane, by the conduct they have observed, to be of good character. This opinion is collaborated and Jane is publicly cleared of any wrong doing.

As a governess, Jane is shown the life of the luxurious. Mr. Rochester's mansion is overwhelming, and his parties are extravagant. Mr. Rochester speaks to her frequently, because he needs someone to listen to him. When Edward reveals to Jane his former cheating wife, she feels a connection to him on personal level. Jane has never felt this since her relationship with Helen Burns at Lowood. Jane becomes

She wakes up in the care of Bessie and the doctor Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school (Lowood). At Lowood things start out rough but progressively get better. After finishing school there she becomes a teacher at Lowood for 2 years. After teaching, she accepts a governess position as a manor where she teaches a French girl. She secretly falls in love with her employer (Rochester) and has to save him from a fire one night.

Jane receives a letter from Mr. Bingley and her mother quickly thinks that she has to visit him and go there riding so she is caught by a storm and has to stay in Mr Bingley’s house all the night. She is caught by the storm and gets a cold, so she has to stay there some time more.

Perhaps as a result of her upbringing, which was full of cruelty and abuse, Jane developed a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong. As a child, these traits translated to insolence as she disobeyed and spoke out against the wrongdoing of adults that were so used to children being seen and not heard, resulting in Mr Brocklehurst warning her that “wicked” children go to hell . However, her moral compass develops and as an adult Jane begins to relish her own freedom and independence. She has been under other people’s care for so long – for example Mrs Reed, Miss Abbot and Mr Brocklehurst – that when she is able to start anew at Thornfield she values her ability to control her own life and does not wish to become a possession of Mr Rochester. This can be seen when Mr Rochester takes her to Millcote to buy new dresses following their engagement and her cheek “burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation” as she “never [could] bear being dressed like a doll by Mr Rochester” , and would value the money from her uncle in Madeira as it would give her a sense of independence from Mr Rochester. Her desire for independence and freedom is further stressed when she leaves Thornfield following the

Jane lived for ten years at Gateshead Hall with her uncle’s family, the Reeds. After her cruel aunt and cousins made her life miserable, they sent her to Lowood Institution, a

Eight years later, when Jane travels from Lowood to Thornfield, she is much more contented. She has come to be respected by the teachers and pupils at Lowood, largely due to the influence of her teacher, Miss Temple, to whose instruction she "owed the best part of her acquirements" and who had stood her "in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion". Jane has found in Miss Temple what Mrs Reed always

Brocklehurst for a little while, Jane finally has an ugly encounter with him where he publicly humiliates her and tells the student body that she is a liar and forbids anyone to speak to her for the remainder of the day. Jane is defeated and believes her relationship with other students and teachers will be tarnished permanently after this kind of embarrassment. In a pleasant turn of events, after Miss Temple gets confirmation that Jane’s childhood and home-life was miserable and that her aunt had created the scuttlebutt about Jane, Miss Temple announces to the school in retaliation that Jane is not a liar and was falsely accused. Fast forward a little to the spring where people are becoming ill all throughout the school because of the changing temperatures. Helen becomes ill with malnutrition rather than typhus and is dying. He expresses that she is happy to go and Jane lays in bed with her where Helen dies in her sleep that same night. Because of the typhus epidemic, Mr. Brocklehurst is blamed and a new group of administrators is brought in. Jane becomes a very dedicated student after this and eventually becomes a teacher. Later, she accepts a position in a manor called Thornfield. Life at Thornfield is comfortable and much better than Jane’s early life. She meets Adele and Rochester and learns of their troubling and mysterious past which resonates with

Jane’s reaction to punishment and abuse is much opposed to Helen’s reaction. While still at Gateshead Hall, when Mrs. Reed calls Jane a deceitful girl, Jane responds with fiery passion, “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you” (36), letting out a tirade of accusation against her. Jane is very likely to respond to punishment and injustices against her by “resist[ing] those who punish [her] unjustly” (58). Contrary to Jane, Helen’s philosophy is one of enduring. She views Miss Scatchard’s actions against her as severe and strict rather then