In the third paragraph, we can see Jane is left out like an outsider and only Mrs Reeds own children are allowed to dine with her. “ Eliza, John and Georgina were now clustered around their mama in the drawing room…. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group”. We feel sympathy for Jane here, as she is being treated as an outsider.
In chapter two, “Red Room” the novel shows Jane’s anguish at an extreme height where she is taken away to be locked in a Red Room. We feel compassion for Jane in the second chapter of the novel, as she is a young orphan girl who is clearly desperate and very afraid of being dragged off to a daunting and terrifying bedroom. Jane is a young girl who is clearly terrified by the prospect of being locked up in the Red Room because of the death of her uncle, who died nine years before in the Red Room. She does not wants to go there and do anything to stop her going. “ I resisted all the way”. This makes us sympathise for Jane, as it seems she is being tortured for just a mild offence. The Red Room is an old disused bedroom. It was here that Mrs Reeds husband died nine years before. Jane is clearly terrified of about the prospect of being locked in this room with all this gloomy furniture. Bronte uses a descriptive language about this setting, especially “a bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany hung with curtains of deep red damask…two large windows…carpet was red”. Charlotte Bronte emphasis red is danger of anger. Everything is also described as being large. In the red room Jane is extremely distressed and unloved. We can see this by the rhetorical questions she asks herself. “Why could I never please?……. Why was I always suffering?….”. As it begins to grow dark, she becomes more aware and more afraid of her surroundings. Jane is even scared of her own image in the mirror, “a creature with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still”. To Jane, it seems unearthly, “like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp”. She becomes convinced that the room is haunted and screams for help. Charlotte Bronte interpretation of the ‘Red Room’ relates to the colour associations with anger. The Readers are drawn into sympathy for Jane character who at the age of ten is meted out such a harsh punishment and being locked in the Red Room and the servants are sympathetic towards Jane. Then once again upon Mrs Reed’s orders Jane is bodily thrust into the room and door locked behind her.
Charlotte Bronte creates sympathy for Jane through the language she uses to describe Jane herself. Jane is continually abused by her aunt, cousins John, Georgina and Eliza and servants. Her relationship with them is abusive one. Her aunt is very rude to her as ask her to go away “Be seated somewhere” as she does not want her to go near them. This also shows us that her aunt does not want her to be in the family circle because she does not like her behaviour or personality. Jane is also abused by her cousins John, both physically and verbally. We can see how he bullies her and calls her names such as “you rat!” . John than throws a book at her and she falls cutting her head open, “ the volume was flung…hit me… I felt striking my head on the door and cutting it”.
We feel compassion for Jane as she is being bullied by her cousins and nobody seems to care about what happens to her, “ dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!”. We also feel sympathy for Jane as John is “four years older than “ Jane and is “large and stout for his age”. She then uses sarcasm to describe him as having “heavy limbs and large extremities”. She describes John Reed as being and ugly, horrible and malicious person, perhaps to emphasise that his ugliness and cruelty is parallel to his inside. This makes us feel sorrow for Jane, as she is “accustomed to John Reeds abuse”. She is also mistreated by the servants who treat her “less than a servant”. She is also told that “someone may come down the chimney and snatch her away”. This is very daunting and frightening for Jane, even after she screams of terror she is still not taken out of the Red Room. But thrust back into the room. This itself creates sympathy for Jane as she is being neglected.
Charlotte Bronte is writing to evoke sympathy for the reader of the mistreatment for Jane. The narration of the novel is as follows, she starts by telling us an event, “there was no possibility of taking a walk that day….”. Jane is then secluded from joining the group, “Be seated somewhere”. Jane then goes and starts reading a book, she is feeling miserable and tries to entertain herself “…volume, taking care that it should be one with pictures”. Subsequently John comes disturbing the peace, “You Rat!”. This substantiates why she’s feeling miserable. Chapter 2 is how she feels in the Red Room, after reading this arouses sympathy in the reader. Charlotte Bronte tells the first part in a narrative passage, perhaps to make the reader feel close to Jane Eyre and share her sympathy.
Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘Jane Eyre’ was written in 1848, the time of the Victorian Era. The book is very typical of Victorian Era as Charlotte Bronte wrote the novel under the pseudym Currer Bell. When the novel was written in the 19th Century, the role of women in the Victorian Society was very secluded, they had little power and their legal and economic position was not good. In spite of Queen Victoria being on the throne of England, the women had no write to vote and were treated like second-class citizens. Many women like Jane became governesses and books that were written by female authors were rarely published. The book is a fictional autobiography, based on the authors’ life. As many of the details of the story for instance, many of the characters and situations are drawn from the author’s personal experience.
The Victorians were a very conservative society. They believed in old fashion values, i.e. they wore no make-up or revealing clothes. In the Victorian Period, family and religion were the two most significant factors in the secluded Victorian society. The women were treated as second-class citizens, and men were head of the upper class family household. This is called a Patriarchal structure where the father was the head of the household. Below was the mother of the family, whose role was to play the good hostess and entertain. Then came the children who were looked after by their nannies followed by the servants, who were the lowest in the Victorian household. However, in this household the father of the Reed family (Mr Reed – Jane’s Uncle) is deceased, therefore Mrs Reed (Jane’s Aunt) becomes the head of the household. The ‘typical’ family structure is disturbed as the father is removed, and Mrs Reed becomes the head of the household. As Jane is an orphan, she is not part of the family and is treated ‘less than a servant’ (chapter 2). We feel sympathy for Jane, as she is being treated ‘less than a servant’, who were the lowest in the Victorian household. Moreover Mrs Reed abuses Jane as she is outspoken and plain as opposed to her own children who she regards as her “precious little darlings”, whom she believes are well behaved and pretty. We feel empathy for Jane here, as we know that she is bullied by her cousins, particularly John Reed who describes her as “You rat!” (chapter 2). Mrs Reed also shows no sympathy for Jane when she screams of terror in the red room, and orders that Jane “should be left in the red room till further notice” (chapter 2).
The whole two chapters are very sympathetic towards Jane Eyre and the reader cannot help, show commiseration for Jane, who is badly mistreated by the Reed household. Overall, Charlotte Bronte creates sympathy for Jane Eyre through the settings she creates, the language used to describe Jane ad a young orphan girl, how the chapters are structured and through social context of the time.
