'The Oakum Room' and 'Jane Eyre' both show women in oppressive Victorian institutions - Show how the two writers bring out the nature of those institutions and the way the women react to their situation.

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Pukar Bhattarai                

The Oakum Room and Jane Eyre

‘The Oakum Room’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ both show women in oppressive Victorian institutions. Show how the two writers bring out the nature of those institutions and the way the women react to their situation.

One of the texts was an extract from the novel Jane Eyre, which was written in the nineteenth century by Charlotte Bronte. On the other hand, The Oakum Room is a short story written in the 1970’s by Theresa Tomlinson.

The first text I read was The Oakum Room, which is a short story about the lives of homeless, used women. These women are monitored every day by very hard people with little sympathy towards the inmates. The women spend their lives in a workhouse mainly in The Oakum Room, picking oakum which is the mixture of tar and old rope, used to seal wooden boats. The women were ordered to spend all day picking all ropes to bits with their bare hands and were treated like dirt. This left them with scarred hands and it was as tough as the skin of a beast. The inmates could not leave because under the Vagrancy Laws, it was illegal to be homeless, as they wouldn’t have any where to go.

The story of The Oakum Room describes the working and living conditions of these women. An important part of The Oakum Room is the condition of work. We already know that the women were treated like slaves and worked, lived, ate in silence – just to show the nature of institution. We also know the result of working in The Oakum Room: The dust in the atmosphere spread disease around, food was unhealthy and because of these two, the result was the girl getting tuberculosis, “The distress showing in her eyes, with the violet shadows beneath”. Readers at first might think this is caused by them getting abused but it’s not the case.

Throughout the whole story, the view is from one person, Susan as everything is described as ‘I’ or ‘We’, “We hurried back down . . .” or “I clung to Polly” etc.

A lot of communication is done through body language and facial expression, “Again I look a question to Polly”.

The way the women are treated can also be seen how they are treated by Mrs. Hanson. To Mr. Jarraton she speaks in a good, ordinary manner, but to them, she shouts and always gives commands, “Go now” or “Rise” etc. This is followed by the description of how she does it, ‘She ordered’, or ‘Commanded’.

We see the women’s fight back with great solidarity. Even though the women don’t escape the dreadful life of working day in day out in The Oakum Room, they get their victory by mocking Mr. Jarrotson. We see here, despite the miserable conditions of their existence, the women of the workhouse mange to unite in protest. They all know even if they leave this workhouse, they still will be treated as slaves but to a new owner.

We see a rebellion in The Oakum Room which shows how women showed great strengths and that they can only take so much cruelty, which we don’t see in Jane Eyre. The women know that there is no way of escaping or living a wonderful life outside the workhouse and they get their moment of glory by making a mock out of Mr. Jarrotson (a farmer who works near by). By doing this they make Mrs Hanson look a fool and embarrass her. The women hardly have any fun or even don’t have a life at all. The way the text describes to us that they have won is by the quote, “Eliza’s big mouth cracked open in a wild laughter”. By using the word ‘Cracked’ it makes the readers seem that they have never laughed before and finally it has come out in a ‘wild way’. This laughter makes the women feel as if they are in control and shows they have won a battle. This laughter spreads from girl to girl and everybody joins in.

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We begin to see the girl’s moment of happiness, a moment of victory (which they don’t often get) when they mock Mr. Jarrotson who is respected on the outside but who is cheeky in the inside. We get the sense of what they are thinking of him when we are told his description, “Fat man of about fifty, with greying sandy hair”. This tells us that they don’t like him and find him to be a pervert. They all have been treated like animals so they act like one, as they are no longer ashamed which shows they have won. ...

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