We find out also in this early stage of the book about how Aunt Reed sore an oath to Mr Reed when he was lying on his death bed that she would take care of Jane as though she was “one of her own”. However we can already establish that Mrs. Reed is intolerant, strict and imposing toward Jane. She despises Jane because she is not one of her own children that she loves and cares for. Mrs. Reed’s actions towards Jane are often violent, both mentally and physically. This has a huge effect on Jane and often makes her feel hurt inside as well as her physical pain from what she has received: “you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg”. Due to this Mrs. Reed has failed to maintain her oath, and instead has treated her children with more regard, love and respect; the complete opposite to Jane. It is as though Jane has been cast out of the Reed family.
We see at the beginning of the novel how Jane isn’t treated fairly like her cousins, John Eliza and Georgina by Mrs Reed. Mrs Reed’s attitude towards Jane is insensitive and hurtful as Jane is so young and vulnerable. This does however create sympathy for Jane in the opening chapter and also greatly in the scene with the Red Room. She then is portrayed as a helpless innocent child that is neglected and blamed for mishaps by her so called relatives. The cause of Jane being locked inside the Red Room was Jane reading a book that didn’t belong to her. Normally this wouldn’t mean anything but it was John’s spiteful comments and sideshows that made Jane go inside there. It was wrong of John to become furious and exclaim that she shouldn’t live or eat under the same roof as his them: “and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us”. Although she didn’t take any offence as she has heard it all before; the reader became extremely sorry for Jane. The next part in this section were John physically abuses Jane was revenge and he was looking for a reaction. Naturally Jane retaliates and does something to make him call her “Rat! Rat!” We as the reader do feel a certain degree of empathy for her as she was frantic and only acting in self defence. The sisters then called Mrs Reed who insisted that Jane was to be locked in the Red Room immediately.
In the Red Room scene we see how Brontë makes Jane’s fears realistic to the reader through the use of her descriptions. Jane describes the room “The room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in” and “The room was chill, because it seldom had a fire”. In this section we see the scene through the eyes of Jane and we find out her exact feelings and thoughts from within the room. These soon develop and become a complex yet realistic nightmare: “Stared at the strange little figure there gazing at me”. As Jane gets more and more imaginative in this room she starts to see her uncle’s ghost. Due to Jane’s young and vivid imagination, she thinks that the ghost is haunting her due to her bad behaviour. When Jane starts to explore the room her nightmare of dying starts to become a hallucination and starts to see Mr. Reed reappear as a ghost: “While I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling, and quivered above my head.” This quotation shows us how effectively Brontë wrote this section so that we as the reader realise how terrifying it must have been for Jane due to her young age.
The Red Room is described as “a chill”, “silent” and “seldom entered”. These words create a specific setting to create an image of cold and darkness. It is not a room that is used often apart from people have been behaving badly. I think that Mrs Reed is extremely biased as she only saw Jane there and as she isn’t her child, blames her for the havoc she generated. This room reflects Mrs Reed’s heart. Cold, dark and insensitive. She doesn’t care for anybodies feeling and all she wants to see is Jane suffer.
The adults reactions to the scene I just mentioned were somewhat varied but this mainly depended upon the personality of the adult. Throughout the novel we see many different characters introduced and each one of these hold their own attitude towards Jane. There are many adults who hold very negative views of Jane and children generally. They are very hurtful and Lowood School is a prime example of the hardship of Victorian childhood during Victorian times. Miss Scatcherd is an example of this as she is not only nasty to only Jane but also to many other young children like Helen Burns. We see here how the teachers cope and also their extremely strict ways of handling with children: “You dirty disagreeable girl! You have never cleaned your nails this morning.” However in the novel there are a couple of adults that do not hold the view that most did about the hardship of Victorian childhood. We see that Miss Temple certainly doesn’t take as strong views as Miss Scatcherd and she demands a different type of authority. We also see that she isn’t always against the girls and can see both sides of the argument. Despite Miss Temple being the Head Mistress of the school we see that her authority is easily over run to the extent that she barely has a choice in what happens. This was typical in this era and we see that Mr. Brocklehurst has very high authority in the school indeed. He decides exactly what happens and if a child needs to be told off for a minor issue then they will get told off. However, he never speaks directly to the children and instead speaks about them to others. I feel that this is no way to demand respect.
There are other adults that are mean to Jane but we do not see as strongly their views of the hardship of Victorian children as they are really only around Jane. For example Bessie the nurse who conveys her response to Jane in rather a nasty way: “The heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie the nurse”. I feel that this line suggests that Bessie even as soon as soon as Jane wakes up. However, because of the way in which Mrs Reed acts upon Jane, Bessie follows and does the same trying to impress her employer to gain benefits. Abbot is also another unfriendly character that portrays the hardship set upon Jane, who acts in the same way as Bessie who is her master, in the same way that Mrs Reed is Bessie’s.
Brontë depicts school and teaching methods to show hardship for not only Jane but all the other pupils in the school. We see the obedience and the unjust manner in which children were educated. Remember, these children were supposed to be the fortunate ones getting an education. We see the school and teaching methods and intolerant and harsh regime was: “for some error of pronunciation or some inattention to stops, she was suddenly sent to the very bottom.” Although the punishments for more undisciplined actions were corporal punishment the children were still physically abused: “The teacher instantly and sharply inflicted on her neck a dozen strokes with a bunch of twigs.” Although when the book was written this wouldn’t have the same dramatic effect as it would now because these then were perfectly just punishments. Brontë also contrasts the different teachers to illustrate the different types of treatments of pupils; this emphasises the punishments a great deal. For example Miss Smith and Miss Scatcherd. Miss Smith is quiet and docile with Jane: “I was glad, when about three o’clock in the afternoon, Miss Smith put into my hands a border of two muslin two yards long.” I feel that this shows that Jane is calmer under the solo influence and teaching of Miss Smith. Where as in the presence of Miss Scatcherd, there is a lot more tension in the class and the treatment of pupils id often a lot more intolerant and demanding: “ nothing can correct you of your slatternly habits: carry the rod away.”
From reading this novel what is learned is the aspect of childhood in Victorian life. Also we have learned the hardship that many children lived and died through and in which any mistake led to a severe punishment. Furthermore the reasons Charlotte Brontë may have had for portraying childhood of this time in this time is that she once lived trough them and experienced the hardship herself. Brontë has created a child that is similar to herself and put her in situations that the reader can maybe relate to and see that Jane is being treated unfairly. She also formed careless family members who regarded the less fortunate as dirt. However it is important how Charlotte has created a lot of sympathy and pity through the changes and the bullying Jane has to put up with in the beginning. This prepares us for the rest of the novel because we hope that Jane will become stronger when she grows up and she’ll want to become independent and achieve what she dreams of.
