While in the red room Jane describes all of the Reed children in a spiteful way, all seem to be regarded higher than their worth. “Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected.” “Georgiana who had a spiteful temper, and very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged.”
Later, Jane sees a light gleam on the wall and is sure it is and apparition if her Uncle, Mr. Reed. She screams out but is disregarded, after Bessie, Abbot and Mrs. Reed enter. Mrs. Reed reminds Bessie that Jane is to be left alone, and that she screamed out only to leave the red room. Mrs. Reed makes Jane seem pathetic and manipulative. After Mrs. Reed thrusts Jane back she has a fit and becomes unconscious. “I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene.”
The next morning Jane awakes to hear voices. One of which include Mr. Lloyd. Mr. Lloyd is the apothecary of the servant who proves that Jane does not get the best and her social status is lower than that of the servants. Even though Mr. Lloyd is an outsider Jane feels she is safe and that she can confide in him, exhibiting irony. “I felt an inexpressible relief; a soothing conviction of protection and security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, and individual not belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed.” When Mr. Lloyd and Bessie talk to Jane they don’t understand her, she is miserable, defeated, trapped and alone. Jane cannot eat and is not interested.
The following day after Jane is dressed Bessie sings her a song, again showing how she is a mother- figure for Jane. Mr. Lloyd then enters, after talking for a while Jane becomes angry, he directs this resentment to the fact that the house is beautiful and that she is lucky to be taken in by the Reeds, this only makes Jane angrier, “Don’t you think Gateshead is a very beautiful house?” asks Mr. Lloyd. “Are you not very thankful to have such a fine place to live at?” The adult that should save her fails at this point to help. She feels once again alone.
Mr. Lloyd finds Jane selfish and ungrateful after she explains how she despises living with the Reeds. He asks Jane is she would like to go to school; Jane finds this interesting and explains her known description of school. “Again I reflected: I scarcely knew what school was: Bessie sometimes spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks.” Jane finds the prospects of going to school attractive; it could be an accomplishment where she could improve her skills and life. This presents her desire to achieve and to be involved in creating beautiful things. “Her details of certain accomplishments attained by these same young ladies were, I thought, equally attractive. She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed.” Jane sees school as a new life where she can escape from Gateshead Hall and the Reeds.
In Chapter four Jane exiled from the family to her nursery. She has become a prisoner since her incident with John. Jane has become even more inferior and is constantly ignored. “Mrs. Reed surveyed me at times with a severe eye, but seldom addressed me: since my illness, she had drawn a more marked line of separation between me and her own children: appointing me a small closet to sleep in by myself, condemning me to take my meals alone, and pass all my time in the nursery, while my cousins were constantly in the drawing room.”
When the Reed family are in the drawing room, Jane hears them talking about her. Jane screams out by accident and an argument begins between her and Mrs. Reed in the nursery.
When Jane questions what Mr. Reed would think of the way his wife is treating her, Mrs. Reed doesn’t answer through guilt or pity. This causes Jane to feel additionally inferior, it’s like she isn’t even worth talking to. I think that after the argument Mrs. Reed decides she has had enough, so calls Mr. Brocklehurst, a man in charge of a charity school. Mr Brocklehurst is a selfish and arrogant man, a similar character to Mrs. Reed. He finds Jane foolish and rude, from her responses to his questions. This realisation of Mr. Brocklehurst does not put Jane off the prospect of going to school and leaving Gateshead and the Reeds behind.
Mrs. Reed asks Mr. Brocklehurst to make sure that Jane is strictly brought up, as she is at Gateshead. This insures that she still makes Jane feel insignificant even though she is not involved herself. “I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects, to be made useful, to be kept humble: as for vacations, she will, with your permission, spend them always at Lowood.”
Chapter five signifies a new beginning for Jane. Jane is very excited because she is about to leave Gateshead and go to Lowood School. “I had risen half an hour before her entrance.”
“Will you go and bid your Missis good- bye?” “No Bessie: she came to my crib last night when you were gone down to supper, and said I need not disturb her in the morning, or my cousins either; and she told me to remember that she had always been my best friend, and to speak of her and be grateful to her accordingly.” This quote signifies what Jane went through, all the years she lived at Gateshead. Mrs. Reed makes it seem as though Jane is to inferior to have a goodbye or to even be acknowledged. Mrs. Reed also told Jane to speak well of her. This verifies that Mrs. Reed knows that she has bullied and harshly treated Jane, and that she worried that Jane may tell somebody the truth about her mistreated life at Gateshead.
Bessie is upset about Jane leaving. This proves that Bessie is a mother figure and only friend to Jane, who is also reluctant to leave Bessie because she’s leaving the only love she’s ever received and the nearest to a mother she’s ever known. Inside Jane knows that school and leaving Gateshead is what she needs for the future.
When Jane arrives at Lowood, two women meet her. They are friendly to her and ask her if she would like anything to eat. Jane has never known hospitality, and this is definitely the most she has ever experienced. “And hungry too. No doubt: let her have some supper before she goes to bed, Miss Miller.”
The routine at Lowood School is the same everyday, which is apparent right from the beginning. Conformity is a high priority at Lowood; each child dresses alike with no individuality. “The eighty girls sat motionless and erect; a quaint assemblage they appeared, all with plain locks combed from their faces, not a curl visible; in brown dresses, made high and surrounded by a narrow tucker about the throat, with little pockets of holland tied in front of their frocks, and destined to serve the purpose of a work bag.”
Jane is still excluded, even at school. It seems her future is closed and she is trapped. Her isolation has become familiar and a pathetic fallacy. This changes when she has a short conversation with a girl called Helen Burns, her soon to be good friend.
The problems at Lowood are obvious in chapter six. It is so cold that Jane is unable to wash because the water was frozen in the pitchers. Even though the porridge improved from before there still wasn’t enough. It seems things didn’t turn out as well as Jane was hoping. “This morning the porridge was not burnt; the quality was eatable, the quantity small. How small my portion seemed! I wished it had been doubled.”
Jane is taught a lesson by Helen Burns, when Helen is told off by Miss Scatcherds but reacts differently to that of which Jane would. Helen is punished for insufficient offences. “Every little difficulty was solved instantly when it reached Burns; and she was ready with answers on every point. I kept expecting that Miss Scatcherd would praise her attention; but instead of that, she suddenly cried out- You dirty disagreeable girl!” This shows to the extremes that Jane has not yet formed a self sustained philosophy of growth, self discovery and development.
Jane feels she cannot bear the shame when a girl passes her, Jane senses a ‘light’ which inspires her. She recognises by first hand experience, the feeling of liberty and freedom, the suffering of martyr, the role of a hero amidst the pain of humiliation.
Miss Temple suffers when she gives the girls bread and cheese because their breakfast was burnt. Mr Brocklehurst reprimands her and says she is spoiling the girls, giving them bread and cheese. “Madam allows me and instant. You are aware that my plan in bringing up these girls is, not to accustom them to habits for luxury and indulgence, but to render them hardy, patient, self denying.” He believes they will suffer martyrdom by being prepared to endure hardships and a thirst and hunger. His opinion is very different to that of Helen and Jane. Mr Brocklehurst also orders Miss Temple to have the curls of girl cut off. “Miss Temple that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely, I will send a barber tomorrow.” Jane notes Mr Brocklehursts hypocrisy when his daughters arrive dressed in silks and furs which is certainly not in line with his philosophy. This is ironic and he could learn from his lecture on self denial.
Jane is later confronted by Mr Brocklehurst, she is scared so drops her slate. She is then ordered to stand before him. Jane is accused of being a liar, possessed by the ‘evil one’, that she is deceitful and shunted by everybody.
Jane remains on the stool until 5 0’clock. She is overcome with grief, afraid that all her attempts to be good have failed. This is when her need for acceptance is reinforced. “Earn respect and win affection.” At this point she wishes to die. The girls pity her rather than dislike her as she has been unjustly dealt with. Helen offers Jane advice. “Mr Brocklehurst is not a god; nor is he even a great or admired man; he is little liked here; he never took steps to make himself like. Had he treated you as an especial favourite, you would have found enemies, declared or covert, all around you; as it is, the greater number would offer you sympathy if they dared.”
“If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.” Jane reveals she does not want to be alone or solitary, she again feels friendship, acceptance, love and a sense of belonging are essential. Helen however tells Jane that she thinks “too much of the love of human beings.”
