One of the main factors that Bronte uses to create sympathy for Jane is the severe bullying she suffers from John Reed. This is stressed at the beginning of the novel. Before the event Bronte makes Jane seem as innocent as possible as she sets the seen with Jane been sent away leaving her all alone. Next, Bronte creates a contrast between John and Jane as John enters the scene, John is described as “large and stout” with “heavy limbs,” whereas Jane is a young girl four years younger than John. This instantly creates the feeling of a one sided fight.
The first person narrative is strongly used in this section especially where Jane gives her opinion of John. She explains, “every nerve in my body feared him”. This gives the idea that John’s treatment towards Jane really was ruthless and frequent. We go even more towards Jane’s side as Jane comments on her lack of support. She claims how “Mrs Reed was blind and deaf on the subject,” and how “the servants did not like to offend their master by taking my part against him,” this explicitly shows Jane’s exclusion and separation in the house. Also by showing that Jane is the underdog in the fight we naturally take her side and see John as the villain.
Bronte then builds up the tension. She creates the feeling that Jane can only wait to be attacked and do nothing about it. She says “I knew he would soon strike”, the wait is long and the tension therefore builds up and up until John “struck suddenly and strongly”, the effect of the ‘sudden’ hit creates much more of a shock towards the reader.
A contrast is then made around John’s feeling of power over Jane. Bronte uses the technique of dialogue to show John’s opinion of Jane telling her that she is a “dependant” and she “ought to beg” whereas he is one of the “Gentleman’s children” and believes she should refer to him as “Master Reed”. This use of dialogue backs up Jane’s earlier comments. John also seems to see himself as the man of the house and tells Jane “all the house belongs to me, or it will in a few years”; John evidently seems to assume that he is more important and superior to Jane and his arrogance also makes him more of a villain.
Then there’s the main attack as a book is “flung” by John intending to hit Jane. The power of the throw knocks Jane off her feet and it causes her to bump her head as she falls back onto the door. Bronte describes the physical pain Jane is put through in conspicuous detail with statements such as “The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax”. The more detail we are given about Jane’s pain, the more we can relate to what she is going through and in this case it is obvious that Jane has been unfairly harmed. Jane naturally reacts and attempts to release some frustration through shouting “Wicked and cruel boy!” at John and she follows that comment by comparing him with the Roman emperors. However, this just makes it worse for Jane as John is outraged by her comments. He instantly cries “What! What! Did she say that to me?” We as the reader can see that this is ridiculous, not only has John’s treatment towards Jane been far more severe, he is four years older and much bigger than Jane and yet still shocked and offended by her truthful opinion. This even frustrates John enough for him to attack Jane again as “He ran headlong” towards Jane and grasped her hair and shoulder. The fist person narrative is used to emphasise Jane’s fear as she explains, “I really saw in him a tyrant: a murderer”. Seeing Jane this scared immediately makes us feel sympathy for her.
Jane then loses control and is taken over by her natural reactions. We are told “I don’t very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me ‘Rat! Rat!’ and bellowed out aloud”. We can only assume Jane uncontrollably struck John without intention.
Then Mrs Reed enters the scene followed by Bessie and Abbot. Jane then hears the words “Dear! Dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!”. This shocks the reader as it is so blatant that Jane is the victim and as we took her side earlier we feel we are on the losing side. Mrs Reed then commands her servants to take Jane away to the dreaded ‘red room’ and to “lock her in there”. Jane is ultimately being punished for being punished which is why we feel sympathetic for her.
This chapter as a whole is a ‘crescendo of tension’. It starts off with Jane being rejected leaving her isolated. She then suffers physical and mental abuse from John, which ends up in a fight, and finally she is blamed for the fight and taken to the red room making a cliffhanger ending. The effect of the cliffhanger ending makes the reader want to read on.
Chapter two opens with Jane although trying to resist it was being dragged through the house towards the ‘red room’ by the family’s two servants Bessie and Abbot. The fact that Jane resisted shows her fear of the ‘red room’ but it also made hard work for the two servants who certainly showed no understanding for her. They tried to use their physical strength over her as summed up when Bessie says “Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she’s like a mad cat”. The fact they call her a ‘mad cat’ suggests they are getting frustrated with Jane. They also make it clear that they don’t only believe that John is more important that her but they believe that even they as servants are more superior. When Mrs Abbot refers to John as Jane’s master, she instantly replies, “How is he my master? Am I a servant?” only to be answered with “No; you are less than a servant”. This stresses how little Jane is seen as in the family. Then as things start to rough up Bessie cries “Miss Abbot, lend me your garters” and they threaten to tie Jane to the chair. At this point Jane gives up, meaning she has lost out again. Bessie subsequently tries to remind Jane that she ought to behave in order to avoid being sent to the poorhouse and even gives her some tips such as “you should try to be useful and pleasant”. This assumingly means Mrs Reed must be close to sending Jane to the poorhouse and degrading her life even more. However, Miss Abbot doesn’t allow this to last and begins to taunt Jane with comments like “God will punish her: he might strike her dead” and “Something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away”. This would terrify any ten-year-old girl especially one with an imagination like Jane’s. Then while the picture of something bad coming down the chimney is still in Jane’s head, the door is locked.
Bronte next gives a detailed description of the red room. The majority of the room is made up with shades of red such as the “deep red damask”, the “surrounding shade rose high” and also “the carpet was red”. The colour red is the colour of danger and death and these descriptions are used to foreshadow the upcoming event. Bronte also describes the furniture as being large and tall, such as the “Massive pillars of mahogany” and the “two large windows with their blinds always down”. As Jane is small compared to everything in the room, this creates a contrast. Overall the ‘red room’ was dark, cold, silent and ‘gothic’. Everything Jane sees adds on to her increasing fear, which effectively creates a sympathetic background from the reader.
The main reason that the red room is so dreaded is that it is the place where Jane’s uncle Mr Reed died. Since then it has rarely been walked in this makes the room exceedingly lonely and knowing that someone had died in that very room scares Jane. In hope, Jane goes to check that the door was really locked only to discover “no jail was ever more secure”. This confirms that she really is trapped and has no choice other than to face up to her fears.
As Jane is alone, Bronte uses the first person narrative to describe her feelings and how she feels sorry for herself. She asks questions to why she was “always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused” and “forever condemned?” She then questions why “Eliza who was headstrong and selfish, was respected”, “Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, was universally indulged”, and John “killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep called his mother ‘old girl’ and disregarded her wishes, was still ‘her own darling’.” This confirms to the reader that Jane was treated unfairly and differently and it also shows that it does affect Jane. Bronte make it clear Jane wants to escape the house at any cost, she considers “running away” or even “never eating or drinking more”, and “letting” herself gradually die”. This emphasises how much she hates living in the house.
As “Daylight began to forsake the red-room” and Jane “grew by degrees cold”, she thought about what life could have been like had Mr Reed been alive. She explains the fact that before Mr Reed’s death he had “required a promise of Mrs Reed” that she would maintain Jane as “one of her own children”. This indicates that had Mr Reed still been alive, Jane would be treated the same as the Reed children and would suffer no bullying. This suggests that Jane’s bad luck has ruined her whole childhood, at least.
Jane’s own imagination begins to become her generator of fear. This is triggered by the “dimly gleaming mirror” which brings the image of “dead men, troubled in their graves” and this ends up with the thought of “Mr Reed’s spirit”. Then as a “stirred” “light gleamed on the wall” Jane becomes more and more confused and scared, as a result her “heart beat thick” her “head grew hot” and “sound filled” her ears. Her fear becomes too much for her so she “rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort”. This truly shows Jane’s terror. She manages to attract the attention of Bessie and Abbot but Miss Abbot shows no signs of sympathy with comments like “What a dreadful noise” and “she screamed out on purpose” whereas Bessie seems to be more understanding as she comments “Miss Eyre, are you ill?” and she even holds Jane’s hand. We gather from this; that as Bessie is not related to the family, she has less dislike for Jane yet she is ordered to discipline her just as harshly. As Mrs Reed enters the scene you could argue that it is two against one, with Miss Abbot and Mrs Reed outnumbering Bessie and although Jane argues against it and pleads “Forgive me!” Mrs Reed commands that Jane must stay in the red room for “an hour longer” following this; she “abruptly” thrusts Jane back into the red-room and locks her in. We can understand the discipline of children in those days was harsher than it is today but the reader can explicitly tell that Mrs Reed’s method of discipline is cold, cruel and harsh even in those days, especially when considering what the punishment was for. The chapter ends as “unconsciousness closed the scene”. We can gather from these words that Jane’s fear was too great for her to handle and her body has therefore ‘turned off’ as a defence mechanism. This again creates a ‘cliff-hanger’ ending and makes the reader want to read on to find out what has happened to Jane.
Just as she did in chapter one; Bronte creates a ‘crescendo of tension’ and does in fact follow a similar build up pattern. It begins with Jane isolated in the red room where she suffers from mental stress and mental torture. This leads to her fighting against her hallucinations, which results in her becoming so scared, she passes out and creates a cliffhanger ending.
In conclusion to the opening of the novel; Bronte opens by creating a shock towards the reader who is immediately stunned by how Jane is treated as we are constantly informed of events where she suffers from verbal insults and physical and mental abuse. The first person narrative means we see everything from Jane’s point of view and the detailed description within this helps us to identify with her difficulties plus the fact the ‘crescendo of tension’ is used, makes the book gripping for the reader. But above all Bronte’s use of language and the way she uses the techniques of foreshadowing and dialogue really do work well in completing her target of creating sympathy for Jane.
The End
