Compare and Contrast Jane and Billy's Experiences of Childhood in A Kestrel for a Knave and Jane Eyre

Compare and Contrast Jane and Billy’s Experiences of Childhood in A Kestrel for a Knave and Jane Eyre

There are many similarities and differences in Billy and Jane’s experiences of childhood. Although set in different times it’s incredible how the schools are similar and how both children have had a hard upbringing.

Billy and Jane’s family and home life were very hard. Jane was an orphan and lived at her Aunt Reed’s house. Jane’s uncle’s dying wish was for Jane to continue living in the house and to be treated like the other children. Gateshead was very large and spacious, almost too big just for a small family. The curtains were large and dark and did not let in much light, it felt like a prison to her. Her Aunt Reed despised Jane and treated her with disrespect. She had three other children; Eliza, Georgiana, and John. John was a bully, and when Jane fights back after he throws a book at her head, Mrs Reed blames her for starting the fight and lying about it. As punishment, Jane is shut up in an empty bedroom- called the red-room, where she has a terrifying experience that she sees the ghost of her dead Uncle Reed. ‘I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a light gleamed on the wall.’ (page 48) Jane was terrified because she had allowed her imagination to run away with her. She was thinking about all the stories in which ghosts of dead men come back to haunt a room if their dying wish was not fulfilled and Jane believed that the wish of her to be looked after with love was not being fulfilled. ‘ I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes.’ (page 48) Jane truly believed that her uncle’s ghost was there in the room. She screamed but her Aunt ignored her and kept her locked up in the room. Finally Jane passed out after having some sort of fit. The room had large red walls, so the reader would presume that it was a warm room as red is a ‘warm’ colour. But in this room Jane is cold and this may be to do with her Uncle Reed’s ghost. ‘This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchens; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered’. (page 44) This creates a whole eerie atmosphere to the room. And the way that she describes all of the furniture in the room by saying that they are all dark again this creates a more sinister feel to the room.

Mrs Reed makes sure she pampers her other children and she always blames Jane. Jane doesn’t understand why she has to live such a miserable life. Mrs Reed feels in control because she can send Jane to the one place she hates the most, the red room. While living at Gateshead Jane feels

very lonely and she escapes from this by reading fantasy novels. Mrs Reed sends Jane to a charity boarding school run by Mr Brocklehurst.

Billy’s Dad had left home because he found his wife in bed with another man. So Billy was left to live with his mother and half brother, Jud. In the house there was no central heating and no curtains in the bedroom. This suggests that they were very poor but as you find out later on in the novel most of the time the money was just misspent, ‘Do me a favour, love, and run up to t’shop for some fags’ (page 19). Mrs Casper didn’t mind making Billy late for school just so he could buy some cigarettes for her. Billy’s mother is mainly concerned about her appearance and men. She often comes home very drunk with men. She is always forgetting things and is in a rush and never has time for Billy.

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Billy has to share his bed with his half brother Jud, which leaves Billy with no personal space at home and he only goes there to sleep and sometimes eat. This is because he has nothing to do; there is no television or anything. Billy doesn’t like to go home because there is no one to welcome him. His mother was an alcoholic and Billy often had to find food for himself. He is a resourceful thief but this is because he has to steal to feed himself. In his home there is a lot of physical and verbal abuse especially from his half brother, Jud. Even when Billy’s mother is around she doesn’t stop Jud from bullying Billy. This shows there is no discipline or respect in the house. His mother does not care about him and she has a new man in her bed nearly every night. Even when Billy is crying over the death of Kes, she shows no affection and pushes him away, just because she feels awkward about the situation. ‘Billy rushed around the table to his mother and tried to bury his face in her. She held him off, embarrassed’ (page 149). She leaves Billy to fend for himself and is keen to hit him or accuse him but never to talk or listen to him. Jud is only the half brother of Billy and he has a different surname, which Billy gets teased about, at school. He is very strong and intimidating and he works down the coalmines. He constantly puts down Billy about his hopes and dreams. This could suggest that seeming Billy’s circumstances at his home he has a quite strong character and is not afraid to stand up for himself. Billy lives on the estate and because of that he gets judged as a ‘trouble maker’. All of his teachers are always asking him or telling him that he is in trouble. Jane Eyre also gets judged because she is an orphan. Everyone thinks that’s she is useless. Billy is a rebel and very immature for his age, this may be because of the lack of love at home. ‘Billy scrunched the pebbles round in his fist and looked up at the pane. He threw them, and was running before the first one struck the glass’ (page 24).

Both Billy and Jane had a difficult time at school. Jane was sent to a charity boarding school, which was very basic and strict. When Jane arrives at the school it is a wet and misty day. The weather is used in the book to influence the moods of the characters. The owner, Mr Brocklehurst, places harsh discipline at Lowood. He is a mean man who doesn’t like the girls to stand out. He particularly doesn’t want the girls to have long curly hair as he believes it is a luxury, ‘ I desire the girls’ hair to be arranged closely, modestly and plainly’ (page 96). Mr Brocklehurst doesn’t want the girls to stand out in anyway as he feels they are only useless, poor orphans. He is also a hypocrite because one day when he was giving a lecture on vanity his daughters and his wife come in and they were happy with long curly hair. Its shows his cruelty. Mr Brocklehurst didn’t like the girls to read novels or have any ‘luxuries’. Most mornings, the porridge was burned but Mr Brocklehurst merely said that the girls should endure the disappointments. He didn’t really care about the girls and often publicly humiliated Jane.

‘Who would think that the evil one had already found a servant and agent in her? Yet such, I grieve to say, is the case…..You must be on your guard towards her, you must shun her for example- if necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports, and shut her out of your converse……-this girls is- a liar!’ (page 98).

Mr Brocklehurst sat Jane infront of her class and said this to all of her fellow pupils. Jane was most afraid that Helen Burns, her new friend and Miss Temple would hate her for it. Again this is showing that he is a hypocrite because some of his rules and actions are completely unchristian like and yet that seems to be what is most important. He is constantly threatening the girls that they will go to hell if they are not good. Throughout the winter the girls remained hungry. Miss Temple who was the superintendent of the school was always kind towards Jane. She treats the girls with respect. When she is in Miss Temple’s room she is happy and the fire in the room resembles the warmth and happiness.

At Billy’s school the teachers do not care about the boys future at all. They are constantly telling them that they are useless. ‘ So you thought you would enlighten me and the class with your idiotic information?’ (page 44). They believe most of the boys are destined to end up working down the coal pits. Billy detests this and definitely does not want to end up there. But he is not particularly bright and again is told this several times a day. Mr Farthing, Billy’s english teacher, is the only one who cares about the boys but he has discipline aswell. He has an interest in his pupils and a sense of humour and he draws in the class contributions by encouragement and by giving praise where needed, something the other teachers never do. He is a sympathetic listener towards Billy and genuinely cares.

However, Mr Gryce, the headmaster, is very austere. He shouts and threatens the pupils even with physical abuse. He demands that they respect him although he has not earned it. ‘Mr Gryce strode past them and entered his room as though they weren’t there. But he left the door open, and a moment later issued his usual invitation, “Come in, you reprobates!” (page 54). Not only are the pupils afraid of him so are the teachers. Mr Sudgeon the games teacher, is over competitive and a very bad loser. He takes out all of his anger on the boys. Not only doesn’t he use verbal abuse and telling them that they are useless, he also physically abuses them. He locked Billy in one of the showers and turned off the heating so Billy had to stand in the shower with the freezing water for over five minutes. This is all because Mr Sudgeon lost in a game of football. Billy’s peers in class are noisy and uncontrollable but the teachers do not care. Although Billy may not be able to read and write particularly well he does have some intelligence. And Mr Farthing is surprised and fascinated that Billy has trained Kes all by himself. To do this it requires a lot of patience. It is remarkable that even though Jane Eyre was written in 1847 and A Kestrel for a knave was written in 1968 there is not a slightest sign of improvement in school life. The teachers in both books have harsh attitudes to the boys. Even when Billy shows some kind of initiative by managing to take the dog off the football pitch, Mr Sudgeon doesn’t give him any credit for it.

For the first 9 years in her life, Jane Eyre did not have many friends. She was often very lonely, although one of the maids at Gateshead, Bessie, was not as harsh to her as the others and Jane used her as a role model. Once Jane started to go to school at Lowood, she started to make close friendships. Miss Temple was almost like a motherly figure. This is similar to Billy and Mr Farthing. Their two relationships are the same. They both seem to have this understanding of one another. Jane is a very fiery, spontaneous character but once she meets Helen that seems to change. Jane makes friends with a sweet-natured, pious girl named Helen Burns, who tells her that they ought to bear their sufferings at the school with patience. Helen never shows resentment, even when she becomes the favourite target of the school's nastiest teacher, Miss Scatcherd. Jane looks up to Helen and Helen introduces her to a different way of perceiving life. She shows Jane how to control her spontaneous feelings. Helen becomes ill with tuberculosis and one day when Jane sneaks into Helen's room for a visit, she is shocked to find her friend has only a few hours to live. Helen dies in Jane's arms.

Unlike Jane, Billy didn’t have many friends. He is bullied at school, and judged just because he lives on an estate. He is an outcast as he is small and immature compared to the other boys. Billy’s only companion is really Kes. He trusts her and feels most comfortable with her. She absorbs most of his time. Although Billy is a weak character he does stick up for himself but this can sometimes get him into more trouble. Tibby and MacDowell were Billy’s friends but only when he was getting into trouble with them. As soon as Billy stopped hanging round with them they started to pick on him. ‘It’s a Kestrel, he’s mad about it. He never knocks about wi’ anybody else now, he just looks after this hawk all t’time. He’s crackers wi’ it!’ Mr Farthing is a kind of friend for Billy, but he is more like a father figure. Billy realises he has a future in Kes. Billy gets bullied for spending time with Kes but he doesn’t stop spending time with her. This shows the strength in his character.

The language and structure of Kes and Jane Eyre are very different. The whole of the book is just one day in the life of Billy, but he has some flashbacks. This is an extraordinary way of writing. This shows the real intensity of the experience. There is a lot of detail and imagery. The use of flashbacks intensifies the narrative and the reader can feel a lot of emotion. It is a complete cycle of one day of Billy’s life. It starts with him waking up and finishes with him going to sleep. The book is written in a third person narrative and there is no development of the other characters apart from Billy. The other characters are dramatised and the readers don’t really get to know them other than what impact they have Billy’s life. The actual dialect of the book is written in a Yorkshire accent, almost a slang form and this gives the book a more harsh and gritty feel to it. But when Billy is with Kes he uses more adult english which makes he seem more mature. Everything slows down when he is with Kes and this shows the readers that the bird is very important to him. When Billy’s has the flashbacks of his Father they seem rather dreamlike and this is Billy’s escape from reality. ‘The warmth…the warmth of the pictures… the pictures full…. Billy between his Dad and another man.’ (Page 158)

Jane Eyre is written in the first person narrative, which makes the book a lot more emotional, it draws the reader into the character. It almost feels like an autobiography. The language is very old fashioned and is incredibly detailed. The book starts from when she was about nine years old to a view about it from the thirty year old Jane. It is her reflecting on her life. She is aware that she was selfish and naive. There was also another perspective to the historical content because back in that time not many girls received an education and so it was a privilege to go even to a charity school.

Studying both of these books has been interesting. Especially on how similar their school life was. I found it fascinating that even though A Kestrel for a knave was written years after Jane Eyre, the school life had not improved at all. The main difference though between the 2 books is that Billy did not have an education and Jane did. At the end of the book, Jane managed to escape her from her miserable life.

‘Reader, I am married, a quiet wedding we had….When we got back from the Church, I went into the kitchen of the manor house and Mary was cooking the dinner and John was cleaning the knives.’ (Page 474)

Whereas, Billy did not.

‘ He buried the hawk in the field just behind the shed; went in, and went to bed.’ (Page 160)