Not only is Jane Eyre treated badly by the adults within the Reed family, she is also physically abused by her cousins who are treated as equals to the adults in the household despite them being children, just like Jane Eyre is. An example of this physical abuse is when her cousin John finds her reading in the library: “I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it...the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp.” When Jane is abused by her cousins it makes the reader feel even more sympathy for Jane as she has to deal with their attitude and treatment. Jane Eyre’s cousins are described very unpleasantly which is effective in creating more sympathy for Jane because it makes Jane look like the victim in every situation. Jane’s situation is also a helpless one as there is nothing she can do to stop her cousins from tormenting her. Her aunt, Mrs Reed turns a blind eye to her son bullying Jane and maybe even approves of it. Also, because Bronte has written the novel in the first person, we see everything for the point of view of Jane Eyre and therefore more sympathy is felt towards Jane as the reader can be more in touch with the way she is feeling and the way she is treated first hand.
During Jane Eyre’s childhood, Bronte writes in a way which conveys Jane to be a bullied, insecure small girl, who is living in constant fear of abuse. Bronte makes us feel more sympathetic towards Jane because of the way she writes about how Jane finds comfort: “This book I had again and again perused with delight.” Bronte makes sure the reader knows that the only thing that Jane can get comfort from in the Reed household is reading and even this gets taken from her, which could be seen as a metaphor as everything that Jane finds comfort in throughout the novel is taken from her. An insignificant thing like a book can take Jane Eyre’s mind away from all the trouble she is having at the Reed household. This is another good way in which Bronte writes to make the reader feel sympathy for Jane.
Even at the very beginning of the novel, the reader is feeling deeply sympathetic towards Jane and is feeling sorry for the way she is treated at home by her aunt and her cousins but during the next episode in the novel Jane is even looked down upon by the servants in the house: “you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness.” This shows just how low Jane’s status is within the household and therefore we know that she has no place in society as well as having no place in the household and Bronte uses this to depict Jane’s loneliness. No matter how nice Bronte makes us think that Jane is, society does not care as the only thing that society appears to care about is status and wealth.
Another way in which Bronte makes us feel for Jane is how she makes the reader see the unjust actions and the way that Jane is treated. This relates to previous points however when she is treated badly by a stranger, it only makes the reader more sympathetic. He looks down upon Jane and we know this from the way that Bronte uses a small descriptive piece in the novel. Mr Brocklehurst is described as “a black pillar” which helps the way the reader perceives. Bronte describes him to be tall and scary as well as appearing to be a very serious and stern character. We also know this because everything about him shows little emotion “two inquisitive looking grey eyes which twinkled under a pair of bushy brows, said solemnly in a bass voice.”
When it is recommended that Jane goes to school, she is forced to take the opportunity but this makes the reader think that this will be an escape from the live she was leading before. She will no longer have to put up with her aunt, her cousins and the servants and also it would be a chance to get a better education and have more life prospects as well as giving her the chance to find friends which so far in the novel would have been impossibility. But Bronte makes sure the reader finds out that this is not the case because when Jane arrives at the school it is described unpleasantly and as a grey and lonely place which suggests that Jane’s distress will only continue further. When Jane arrives at the school Mr Brocklehurst makes sure she arrives with the reputation she has at home of a dishonest little child and therefore Jane is immediately humiliated. Because of Jane’s status remaining low, she has to stay at home during the holidays and even her family does not visit her which makes Jane even lonelier and this is another way that Bronte makes the reader feel sorry for Jane because the extent of her loneliness has only become more apparent.
However, Bronte changes this when Jane finds her first friend Helen who she can talk to about anything and who she can truly trust and find comfort in each other. Unfortunately this turns around and Bronte makes us feel even more sympathetic as Helen dies at school next to Jane. This just exaggerates the point that has been previously made in the way that everything she can find comfort in during her life is taken away from her, and this is through no fault of her own. After Helen’s death, Jane is again very unhappy and school becomes a burden with no opportunities or prospects in sight as well as her being treated badly by not only her elders but by her peers which is reinstating the feelings she had back at the Reed household.
When Jane finishes at school, finally there is hope in her life as she is offered a chance to be a governess at Thornfield, where she will live with a new family. This seems to be good as finally Jane is treated as an equal by everyone. She is finally treated as a real person with feelings and Mr Rochester seems to be showing an interest in her despite the major social inequality between the pair. However, although Mr Rochester at first showed some interest and Jane is starting to find a feeling of contentment, Bronte soon turns this around so that Jane is receiving mixed messages and she starts to find out about the not so positive aspects of the family. For example, the fact that Mr Rochester is never at home for longer than a few weeks causes distress. During her stay at Thornfield, Jane had a lot of fun and almost thought of Mr Rochester’s family as her own as when she was staying with the Reed family who she was actually related to, she never felt at home like she did whilst staying with the Rochester’s.
When the mixed messages from Mr Rochester became clear that the bond they had was love. It not only mixed two completely different lifestyles as well as two socially different classes but they finally decided to marry but as usual Bronte made sure that the reader felt sympathetic towards Jane so yet again changed a happy scene into an unpleasant and eventful marriage which resulted in Jane finding out that Mr Rochester was already married. Bronte did this to make sure the reader went back to the original idea that Jane is unwanted and unloved, just as she was by everybody during her whole life. Bronte has made the reader feel sympathetic towards Jane in many ways throughout the novel and all have been effective and by the end of the novel the reader has really got in touch with Jane and the reader believes that they know Jane more than they did at the start at the novel but on the other hand Jane’s character and situation will have been the situation that many people would have been in which could be why this type of story would have been common in Victorian literature.
