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Homework Help: English: Books, Novels & Plays: Jane Eyre
by Emily McPherson
This is an analysis for chapters 1 through 4.
1- Scan the first four chapters and find at least eight quotations which
give us a clear sense of Jane's character.
1- When Mrs. Reed first meets Jane she says: "Jane, I don't like
cavaliers of questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding
in a child taking up her elders in that matter" (p. 36)
2-The lady's maid cries: "What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a
young gentleman, your benefactress's son!" (p. 42)
3- Miss Abbot says to Jane: "And you ought not to think yourself on an
equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed......They will have a
great deal of money and you will have none."
4- Jane Eyre tells Mrs. Reed bluntly: "I am not deceitful: if I were, I
should say I loved you, but I declare I do not love you" (p. 68)
5- Jane Eyre speaks about Mrs. Reed: "I am glad you are no relation of
mine. I will never call you my aunt again as long as I live. I will
never come to see you when I am grown up; and if anyone asks me how I
liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you
makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty" (pg 70)
6- Jane Eyre: "Psalms are not interesting" (p. 65)
7- Mr. Brocklehurst returned to Jane: "Your decisions are perfectly
judicious, madam," (p. 67)
8- Bessie speaks of Jane: "You naughty little thing! Why don't you come
when you are called?"
9- Mr. Bocklehurst says: "No sight so sad as that of a naughty girl.
Especially a naughty little girl"
2. Re-read the sections of Chapter Two describing the red room. How
does Bronte create atmosphere on these paragraphs? Take particular
notice of the sensory images. Quote!
Jane first set foot in the red-room after striking John Reed, and being
locked up as punishment. Charlotte Bronte creates the atmosphere of the
red-room using strong contrasts between light and dark, heat and cold to
emanate the mixed feelings of Jane.
The color red is significant as it is the color of fire and heat;
passion and fury. Here, Bronte uses the fire imagery in the form of
"massive pillars of mahogany" and "curtains of deep red damask", to
represent through a physical sense the futility of Jane's overly
passionate nature. The red-room in a way represents a part of Jane's
mind in which so much fury, anger, warmth, passion, and love are
trapped.
Most significant, in contrast to this is the absence of a real fire.
Jane states that "the red room was chill, because it seldom had a fire".
Jane is feeling 'burning and fiery' (39) inside, but the response of Mrs.
Reed, as would be the rest of society to this, is to lock out the warm
passion, leaving a coldness of emotion.
In the red-room, Jane can see warmth of color all around her, but she
is far from feeling it as she has a 'chill'. This is in keeping with
the strict social tenets that Jane has to live with at Gateshead Hall
everyday in which she can see so many things that she can never have.
By putting Jane is the red-room without a fire, Bronte has effectively
shown the social limitations which weigh heavily against Jane in her
search for freedom of passion.
3- What is Jane saying about her situation? Choose words or phrases that
are crucial to her understanding of her position.
"I was like nobody there" (pg 45)
"opposed to them in temperament" (pg 45)
"a noxious thing" (pg 45)
"endured my presence" (pg 45)
"scapegoat of the nursery" (pg 46)
vassalage: a group of subordinates showing who are able to gain rights
and freedom by showing total obedience to a superior.
heterogeneous: different from all the other people; opposed in
temperament
prosperity: good fortune, success or well-being
noxious: harmful, unwholesome
sanguine: habitually hopeful, confident, expecting things to go well
indignation: anger caused by meanness, injustice, wickedness, or
misconduct
complacently: obligingly, satisfyingly
cordiality: comfort, warmth, (quality of relating to the heart)
4- We first meet Mr. Brocklehurst in Chapter Four. Quote some words and
phrases which establish his character.
" the straight, narrow, stable-clad shape standing erect on the rug; the
grim face at the top was like a carved mask" (pg 64)
"he prolonged his scrutiny for some minutes" (pg 65)
"harsh and prim" (pg 65)
He tells Jane Eyre: "I buried a little child of five years old only a
day or two- a good little child, whose soul is in heaven now. It is
feared the same could not be said of you,if were you to be called
thence..........you have a wicked heart"
5- What is Jane's assessment of her situation now?
After revealing much hatred towards Mrs. Reed without any hesitation,
Jane is left on her own after becoming 'winner of the field'(pg 70).
Immediately after Jane has gained her 'first victory' (pg 70), she
appears to feel no remorse, and is proud at smelling the blood that she
has spilled whilst enjoying her 'conqueror's solitude' (pg 71). Jane is
comparing the distaste that she shown to Mrs. Reed at full strength, to a
military battle in which the opposition had been strewn to the ground,
with not a soul survivor.
However, like all victories, there always remains the duty of
cleaning up the carnage. This is Jane's 'defeat'. Jane victory was
short lived as she soon realizes that " this fierce pleasure
subsided....as did the accelerated throb of my pulses" (pg 71). Though
Jane is inexperienced with the humane, loving and compassionate concepts
of life, she understands within 'half an hour's silence and reflection'
(pg 71) that although the madness of her conduct has left her with new
conquered territory, she has no kingdom and no one rule. Jane really
wants to 'ask Miss Reed's pardon' (pg 71) but knows that if she
apologizes, she will look like a coward.
Instead, Jane tries to enjoy her newly acquired position by
endeavoring to read books that she previously wasn't allowed to touch,
and taking a walk in the plantation. However, Jane finds no pleasure,
and wishes that she hadn't exerted herself so much in the first place.
Homework Help: English: Books, Novels, and Plays
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