How effective is Chapter One as an introduction to the methods and concerns of Jane Eyre?

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How effective is Chapter One as an introduction to the methods and concerns of Jane Eyre?

 

Jane Eyre’s character, named after the main character herself, goes through a very dramatic ordeal in the book by Charlotte Brontë. Her emotions and feelings are very well depicted in the book, and to understand them completely one has to read between the lines and concentrate on the finer details of the novel. The first chapter shows the reader Jane’s childhood, and the strains and struggles she has to put up with throughout it.

 

Orphaned as a child, Jane is forced to live with her aunt and cousins, who live a very different lifestyle to the one she is used to. She is constantly picked on by her cousins and disowned by her aunt. Jane’s emotions and thoughts are revealed in full depth in the first chapter, the book beginning with a thought of hers, which readers see as a pathetic fallacy:

“…the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.” The detail of this sentence makes the reader imagine the setting in their head, the many descriptive words bringing the scenario to life. The pathetic fallacy definitely sets the mood, and the first few sentences bring the reader into the start of dark, gothic-styled storyline.

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The book is written in the first person, the older Jane retelling her childhood. She explains it clearly and vividly as if it were yesterday, showing how much this part of her life affected her. She is honest about it and hides nothing that happened to her, even if thee events were embarrassing or if they relive moments in Jane’s life that she found saddening.

 

Jane grows up in a very male-oriented world, and if she had been a boy growing up her lifestyle and treatment by her family would probably be completely different. She rebels when the ...

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