'But you are passionate Jane, that you must allow'. How does Charlotte Bronte present and develop Jane Eyre's character in the first ten chapters of the novel?

Authors Avatar

Jane Eyre Final Draft

‘But you are passionate Jane, that you must allow’. How does Charlotte Bronte present and develop Jane Eyre’s character in the first ten chapters of the novel?

The quotation in the title is spoken by Mrs Reed, Jane Eyre’s aunt. Charlotte Bronte uses it to inform the reader that Jane is imaginative, headstrong, wild and impulsive. My essay will include a discussion of our first meeting with Jane Eyre until the end of her school life.

          The first time we meet Jane she is living at her Aunt Reeds’ house with her cousins John, Georgiana and Elizabeth. Shortly into the first chapter she is involved in a fight with her cousin, John, and we find out that he physically abuses her.

  Jane is sitting alone reading a book, which makes us think that she wants to escape from the family, when John finds her and shouts at her, trying to make her call him master. When she refuses to do so he hits her and calls her a ‘rat’, he then throws a book at her and she responds by calling him a ‘wicked and cruel boy’. She compares him to a murderer, a slave driver and says he is like the Roman emperors. This behaviour shows us that she is not a typical Victorian child because she doesn’t follow the guidelines of being seen and not heard or only speaking when spoken to. Another typical guideline that Jane does not follow is respecting her elders.

  This incident informs the reader that Jane is very childish in the sense that she should have left the situation instead of making it worse by calling names and screaming. It also show the reader that, at the same time as being childish, Jane is quite defensive of herself and she is determined to change her life at home. This is shown more when her aunt shouts at her and gives her a punishment. Jane shouts back to her aunt. I think, in this chapter, Jane is a lot smarter than her family can appreciate because I think she has noticed that no – one is fond of her. We know they aren’t fond of her because they tell her to ‘sit down and be silent’.

Join now!

         The punishment, for the incident mentioned, is to put Jane into the Red Room. In the Red Room Jane starts to imagine things and starts hallucinating. In this chapter Bronte uses some methods such as Jane’s inner thoughts and her interactions with other characters to show the reader how Jane’s character is presented.

   While in the Red Room Jane is left with her inner thoughts, which allows the reader to experience how her mind works. We are given access to her thoughts, fears and imaginations. We are shown this when she tells Bessie that she saw and light and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay