How does Charlotte Bronte make the reader sympathise with the eponymous hero in Jane Eyre?

Another reason we sympathise with Jane is because she is bullied. She suffers the constant threat and action of being physically and verbally abused every day "he bullied and punished me; not two or three times a week, nor once or twice a day, but continually". She even comments that the bullying was like "a vague sing-song in my ear; painful and crushing, but only half intelligible." This indicates that she is so used to Master Reed, Bessie, and Abbott's verbal abuse "You rat. You Rat!", as well as physical abuse that she is starting to get used to it. In one incident she is found sitting on the window seat reading, when Master Reed draws back the curtain and says she has "no business to take our books". He commands her to step forward towards the window and then throws the book at her, "I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it". I feel sorry for Jane because she cannot escape this abuse. If she does hit him back she will be sent to the workhouse, which was a very filthy and unsanitary place to live and eat, and is also filled with disease, and if she doesn't hit him, he will keep doing it again and again.

Injustice is another reason why we sympathise with Jane. She suffers an act of injustice when she is wrongly accused of starting the fight with Master Reed. Eliza and Georgiana go to fetch Mrs Reed when the fight breaks out. When they were parted the first thing said was "Dear! Dear! What a fury to fly at Master John". Mrs Reed gave orders and Jane was summoned to the red-room. She describes the red-room with great depth. Nearly everything in the room is either red or white. We associate red with danger, anger and blood, which are related to things that have happened to her previously. Also, we associate white with death which is strange because that's where her uncle passed away. I sympathise with Jane because she has no one to stick-up for her and no one to say that it wasn't her fault, so the only person she can depend on is herself.

Also another reason why we sympathise is because she is very imaginative and it is her only means of escape although she takes herself to places just as desolate as where she actually is. She uses this to escape the situation that she is currently in. She imagines seeing "two ships becalmed on a torpid sea" and she believes these ships to be "marine phantoms". Also she imagines John to be a Roman emperor, "wicked and cruel", a "slave-driver". I feel sorry for Jane because she has to use this as a way of escape she can't just leave because she has no where to go. She has an overactive imagination which is the cause of her fear in the red room and the ghost of her uncle.

Bronte describes other characters negatively. She does this to make us feel more sympathetic towards Jane. She depicts John as being "large and stout" and spotty. Also she remarks that he has very violent tyrannies, "he bullied and punished me". She portrays Georgiana as having a "spoilt temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage" and of being "universally indulged". She illustrates Eliza as being "headstrong and selfish". This makes us feel sorry for her because she is surrounded by spoilt, unpleasant people and no one to provide a source of comfort to Jane.

Bronte has also written the story in the first person. This means it is written in the 'I' perspective which is, we see what Jane sees and feels, no-one else just Jane. This makes me feel even sorrier for her because everything that you are reading is about Jane and all the awful things appear to happen to her.

Bronte also uses pathetic fallacy, which is when nature is used to reflect people's feelings. She uses this when she says "clouds so sombre". Sombre indicates that Jane is feeling depressed, sad and serious. Also she says that's the day was a "drear November day" which is a reflection Jane's mood. So from the start we know that Jane is unhappy and in cold, sterile and "unloving surroundings"

At the time this book was written, Jane was considered to be a Victorian heroine. People admired her because she was unrepentant, perceptive, and independent and she had freedom of spirit which a lot of women lacked during the Victorian era. She was a fighter in adversity, "if you don't sit down, you must be tied down", and "Unjust! Unjust!"

I feel that Jane is like other children today. A lot of children are in her situation of having no parents, but they do not suffer as badly as Jane does. They don't have to go through as much physical bullying, although they do suffer mental and verbal abuse. She is different because she can't express herself as much as she can the children of today however I would say that their lives would be quite similar.