After reading the introduction we read about the theme of the outsider. In this theme Bronte describes the differences of Jane compared to the Reeds and compared to the Victorian society. The nurse named Bessie in the house treats her badly and hates her ’chidings’. She is also bullied by John Reed who takes advantage of her physical inferiority and calls her names like ’rat’ or ’bad animal’. Jane is also excluded from the close family group by Mrs Reed and ’Me, she had dispensed from joining the group’ and when she asks why the answer is ’I don’t like cavillers or questioners’ so this proves that she does not have a good reason to exclude her from the group. After I read this part of the story I felt sorry for Jane and could feel the unfairness of her treatment by the Reeds in the house.
During the theme of the outsider we learn about Jane’s character as an individual. This is the theme of the strong little heroine standing up against all odds inside the Reed family. We learn that she asks questions from elders ’What does Bessie say I have done?’ which is not tolerated by Mrs Reed and by the Victorian society. We learn that she likes reading books such as the ’Bewicks’s History of British Birds’. While she is reading her imagination takes her away from the house and takes her to the ’bleak shores of Lapland’. This proves her intelligence by the wild range of imagination. After I read this part I felt like that she could belong to our 21st century’s society rather than to the Victorian one. I think that she can be the part of our society because she has logical thoughts and answers in every situation.
After this theme, the abuse theme comes where John appears and turns the world upside down for Jane. John Reed is the only remaining male member of the Reed family inside the house and he always provokes and abuses Jane to show that he is the man of the house. When John appears Jane hides from him in the hopes that he won’t find and will not punish her for an untrue situation. When John finds her behind a curtain in the library he calls her names like ’rat’ and he is immediately described as a fat ’large and stout for his age’ and unhandsome boy ’with a dingy and unwholesome skin’. He also tries to show Jane’s social inferiority towards him by saying ’you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentleman’s children’. John also provokes Jane by throwing a book at her ’it hit me and I fell’. After his provocation Janes attitude changes and she attacks John with words like ’Wicked and cruel boy’ and when John attacks she strikes back to stand up for herself. The climax in the chapter is that the other Reeds find them and they take Jane to the red-room as a punishment for attacking John ’take her away to the red-room’. I feel that the decision is unfair and at least one person should be on Jane’s side in the discussion.
The tension elevates even more, after the attack at John Reed Mrs. Reed commands the nurse and the maiden to send or put Jane into the red-room by force. The red room throws up many questions like ‘What is the red- room?’ or else but the red-room is the place where Mr. Reed died. Unlike the starter setting of the first chapter this starter setting has gothic elements in it because there is a great need for them because the opening creates a worrisome and depressing mood including gothic elements. The servants’ attitude towards Jane is very different than what we would normally expect. Miss Abbot, the maid, was totally against her and was on the side of the Reeds which she reveals while she is talking to Jane and replies to Bessie the nurse. Abbot also insults Jane by saying that John is her ‘young master’ and when Jane asks why is John her master and is she ‘ a servant’ masters Abbot says that ‘you are less than a servant’. Unlike the Reeds and the servants predicted Jane is smart enough to admit defeat rather than to give further reasons for punishment she asks them not to ‘take them off’ and promises that ‘I will not stir’
The red-room is a spare chamber, and a ‘very seldom’ because it was not used for anything and that was the place where Mr. Reed died nine years ago. The red room shows a number of gothic elements in order to make a horrific image in our heads about the place she is locked into. The place was ‘solemn because it was known to be so seldom entered’. The room ‘was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchens’. In the room her imaginary makes her see herself as an element of superstition which is a ‘tiny phantom’ who is a ‘half fairy’ and ‘half imp’. The climax in the room is Mr. Reed’s ghost who scares everything out of Jane ‘haloed face’ and makes her run out of the room. There are many background stories about the red-room but the most important is that Mr. Reed died there nine years ago ‘it was in this chapter he breathed the last’. The tension increases word by word especially when the little phantom is there we know that something is going to happen.
In the Reed family every child is respected even though they are selfish, headstrong, have spoiled tempers and are insolent, to mention just a few things. They are respected but Jane ‘could never please’ after she tries ‘to win any one’s favour’ is disagreed and pushed away. She is with the Reed family because Mr. Reed promised to take care of her but after his death she became the ‘scapegoat of the nursery’. After the reasons have been revealed I think that she is still treated unfairly because Mr. Reed promised to take care of her and the other Reeds should keep up the promise made by their relative.
The tension reaches its climax when Jane screams in the room after seeing Mr. Reeds ghost ‘haloed face’ and everyone rushes there. The tension is raised to show that every second something bad will happen to Jane in the house and we do not know what form it will take. After the servants meet Jane Bessie is the only one who seems to be paying attention to Jane’s health when she says ‘Miss Eyre, are you ill?’ Miss Abbot is the first one before Mrs. Reed arrives to say that Jane was acting and ‘screamed out on purpose’. When Mrs. Reed arrives Jane begs to ‘let me be punished in another way!’ but the aunt refuses and orders the servants to lock her back in because she thinks that Jane is ‘a precocious actress’. We learn that Jane can be scared and behave like a normal girl of her age under pressure. We learn that she can surrender when she has to but no one believes her due to her lack of luck.
Jane is usually a silent but clever girl who likes reading books and can create realistic and detailed fantasy worlds for herself. Under pressure and due to the hitting and tyrannies of John Reed she can change from the silent girl into a bit wilder person who does not gives up even if she has to fight. In the red-room she changes back into a scared child and this is shown when she screams in the room and then faints when she is locked in there for the second time. I feel that she is not treated fairly even though she is not a Reed but Ms. Reed should keep her promise and should take care about Jane as she promised it to her husband. I would like at the end of the chapter or the next that the Reeds change their attitudes towards Jane so she can have a good childhood. Bronte created Jane and the setting around to show how women struggles in the Victorian era so she tried to show nearly all the women’s struggles with one person so others can realize the mistreatment of most women.