Presenation of childhood in Jane Eyre and Once in a House On Fire

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Presentation of childhood in Jane Eyre and “Once in a House on Fire”

Charlotte Bronte writes about the past life of Jane Eyre as a child in the household of the Reed family, she describes how Jane Eyre was alienated and oppressed by the Reed family. However, Andrea Ashworth, even though she does endure bullying and misery, has more numerous happy moments such as when she plays with her sister when they were “hopping about in the cold” and imagined “bombs whistling out of the sky”, however the reader is shown that it was a restricted fun as they “took care to keep their voices down” which shows how afraid they are of annoying their stepfather.  

The entire book of “Jane Eyre” begins by the use of pathetic fallacy to reflect the situation and mood of the protagonist, Bronte writes “The cold winter wind and “a rain so penetrating”, this detailed description of the harsh weather could mean that the protagonist is in a dire situation. This is then followed by irony as Bronte writes that Jane Eyre was “glad of it” as it gave her an unexpected holiday from the walks with the Reed family, even though her description of the weather was made so harsh through the use of visual imagery. This is in contrast to “Once in a House on Fire” which at the beginning of the book presents the reader with a number of facts which are presented by Ashworth in such a way that we do not feel sympathy for her but which allow us to at least empathise with her such as “My father drowned when I was five years old”, the humour here undercutting the serious situation.

Charlotte Bronte then switches the scene to that of the Reed family, who, in the point of view of Jane Eyre were “clustered around their mamma” in the drawing room, this shows the reader that Charlotte Bronte does not want us to empathise with the Reed family as she uses technical terms such as “clustered”, which do not allow us to relate or empathise with the Reed family to describe the relationship between mother and siblings. This is akin to Ashworth directing the reader to dislike her stepfather by presenting him in an unfamiliar way in the narration by calling him by his full name “Peter Hawkins” instead of “my dad”. However when Ashworth is with her stepfather she calls him by the more affectionate “dad” showing the reader her fear of displeasing him.

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Bronte goes on to write about the Reed family’s cruelty, especially John Reed’s cruelty to Jane Eyre. Through Bronte’s descriptions of John Reed and his actions he is presented as a selfish and greedy bully. Even his appearance is described adversely as Bronte writes that he had “dingy and unwholesome skin” as well as “heavy limbs and large extremities”, Bronte writes that Jane was “accustomed” to John Reed’s abuse, which shows that he must have bullied her frequently. In this instance he picked up the book she was reading and “flung” it at her, which made Jane Eyre strike her ...

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There is much insight and revealing analysis in this essay, illustrating effectively how these very different writers present their views of the childhood experience of their protagonists. Quotations are chosen well and skilfully incorporated into the fabric of the essay. Paragraph structure is mostly well-controlled but there is quite a lot of weak sentence structure, with loose grammar and inadequate punctuation, that should not be seen at this level. The essay just merits 4 stars.