How does Charlotte Bronte make the reader feel sympathy for Jane Eyre in chapters one and two?

Authors Avatar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Eyre is the main character from Charlotte Bronte’s popular novel, “Jane Eyre.” In the novel Jane Eyre, although she is poor and of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage; and because of these characteristics she is a very likeable character.

     Like all good novels, the author tries to get the reader to like the main character and Charlotte Bronte’s way of making the reader fond of Jane Eyre is by making the reader feel sympathy for her. The main part that Bronte makes the reader feel sympathy for Jane is in chapters one and two, when Jane is under the control of Mrs Reed, Jane’s cruel auntie. So how does Bronte make the reader feel such sympathy for Jane?

       Firstly the novel explains on the opening page that Eliza, John ad Georgiana Reed were ‘now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her looked perfectly happy.’ Jane then states ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group.’ This quote immediately brings compassion to the reader for Jane, as the reader can now see that Jane is seen as an outsider in the Reed family household.

Join now!

      Jane slipped into the small breakfast-room for a reading session in solitude, hiding away from the rest of the Reed family behind a ‘red moreen curtain’ in the window seat. This is when her also cruel cousin, John Reed, burst in. ‘He bullied and punished me; or two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near,’ Jane explained. This obviously shows that she is very fearful and is intimidated by John ...

This is a preview of the whole essay