Another character that we admire in chapter eleven of To Kill a Mockingbird is that of Mrs Dubose. We come to admire her at the end of this chapter, because we see her stoical temperament. The fact that she” died beholden to nothing and nobody” indicates how she is a stoic, and determined to die fee from her morphine addiction. This conveys Mrs Dubose’s strength she suffers so that she is able to die with dignity. Mrs Dubose endures severe pain to become free of her morphine addiction. Her stoical attitude is similar to that of Helen Burns, who also is admired due to her stoicism. We see her as a brave figure, because other characters in the book admire her also;
“She was the bravest person I ever knew.”
We admire her aspiration to die in what is a respectable and dignified state.
Finally, we too, admire Scout, but for somewhat different reasons. One reason why we admire her is because she is innocent and has a distinct ignorance of racism. This is evident when she asks-“What exactly is a nigger lover?” She is naïve and this causes admiration towards her. Her perspective and naivety is comic. Her naïve outlook is that expected of a child, which is present when she narrates:
“For the life of me I did not understand how he could sit there in cold blood… When his only son had a great chance of being murdered with a confederate army pistol.”
This seems to be exaggerated and brings a positive light upon Scout, because we admire her gullible perception.
Another quality in Scout that we admire is how she is loyal towards Jem. We realise this when she goes to Mrs Dubose’s house, even though she had no reason or command to. Her decision to accompany Scout is clearly a heroic act. This therefore, shows her concern for Jem, just like we see Helen’s concern for Jane, and Miss Temple’s concern for the children.
More over, there are characters we condemn in both chapters. Characters that are condemned in Jane Eyre are Mr Brocklehurst, his family and the older girls of Lowood. Mr Brocklehurst is strongly despised due to his hypocritical nature. He preaches scriptures and oddly thinks that if “ye suffer hunger happy are thee.” Yet he is an unchristian man (he talks about hell and death- “Where do the wicked go after death? They go to hell.”) He also speaks of curly hair being vain but however his own family dress elaborately and are “splendidly attired…” This conveys his selfishness and his greedy attitude. More evidence to indicate his sadistic ways is when he preaches:
“You may feed their vile bodies but you starve your immortal souls.”
Furthermore he is also despised because his punishments are unjust. For example he punishes Jane for the dropping of the slate. He is a dogmatic man and is also condemned by characters in the book. These characters are Miss Temple, who goes against his will and is kind to the children (she gives them bread and cheese instead of burnt porridge) He is, too, hated due to his prejudice and class prejudice. The idea of class prejudice is brought into the book when Mr Brocklehurst shows his dislike for the orphans (especially Jane.) He mistreats them by giving them unreasonable punishments, an idea I shall come to later in this essay when I deal with the theme of child rearing.
His family are condemned because they represent Mr Brocklehurst’s hypocrisy by wearing fine clothing and being “splendidly attired with silks and furs.” They are somewhat parallel to Mr Brocklehurst. Therefore they represent the hypocrisy in the novel. We also loathe them because they are condescending towards the poor orphan girls and their teachers.
Another group we dislike are the older girls. This is because they bully the younger girls, perhaps because they are more vulnerable. We see that “whenever the famished great girls had an opportunity they would coax or menace the little ones out of their portions.” We therefore do not condone their actions. This again brings forth the theme of class prejudice of older people having more rights than younger people.
Similarly there are condemned characters in To Kill A Mockingbird. We condemn Mrs Dubose at the beginning of the chapter, where we discover her prejudice attitude towards girls:
“You should be in a dress and camisole young lady!”
This demonstrates her sexist views towards girls, like Mr Brocklehurts. We also condemn her bad tempered manner shown towards Scout when she cries:
“Don’t you lie to me…don’t you contradict me!…”
This depicts how she is quick to anger and is easily irritated, which resembles Mr Brocklehurst’s loathsome and victimising nature.
Yet another reason why readers are likely to condemn Mrs Dubose is because she has a racist attitude:
“Not only a finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers!”
We do not tolerate such harsh words and therefore come to condemn her support for the Maycomb caste system. In the same way we condemn Mr Brocklehurst’s view of the orphans, he believes they should be treated with less respect and should have fewer rights.
Furthermore, we detest her because she has a hypocritical nature. Again we see it as another similarity to Mr Brocklehurst. Just as Scout does (“I could not figure out how she could bring herself to talk to him when she hated him so.”) we feel condemption towards Mrs Dubose, where she demonstrates false acts of kindness towards Atticus, yet shows slander when he is not in her presence. This reveals that she is insincere and deceitful.
Both novels deal with the theme of child rearing. Throughout chapter seven of Jane Eyre, Mr Brocklehurst treats children with no respect and takes pleasure in publicly humiliating the orphans. A perfect example of this is that of Jane’s punishment, when she is forcefully made to stand on the stool. Also we see Mr Brocklehurst is a cruel and a sadistic character. He is very selfish because the children struggle without clothing that are viewed as necessity. This is all because Mr Brocklehurst is obsessed with money and shows no sign of sympathy or acknowledgement when realising that the extreme circumstance of the orphans:
“We had no boots, the snow got into our shoes…. our ungloved hands….”
This conveys the pathos of Jane Eyre. Mr Brocklehurst is unlike Miss Temple who is compassionate, respectful and seeks for justice by the following words to Jane:
“Don’t worry I saw it was an accident…you shall not be punished.”
This informs the reader that Miss Temple is a concerned character.
Children throughout Chapter seven in Jane Eyre are punished alot by the adults. Miss Scatcherd whips Helen, Jane is humiliated and even Julia’s hair is cut off because it is curly! These all show the vast variety of punishments in Jane Eyre that seem rather excessive; humiliation, physical punishments and neglect. The older girls bully younger girls also, food is stolen from them and the older girls take privilege over the young.
Moreover, Mr Brocklehurst is quick to anger. He jumps to conclusions and doesn’t take truth or fairness into consideration. Charlotte Bronte makes us see the punishments as unjust although Helen thinks they are just (because she is a stoic) by allowing admired characters to see them as unjust. On the other hand Helen’s punishments are unjust because she could not possibly wash her hand because the water was frozen.
The punishments in Jane Eyre are seen as unjust because we see them from Jane’s point of view. She is the heroin of the novel so we tend to side with her. Also Miss Temple sees the punishments as irrational and the reader’s side with her because she is admired for reasons I have previously mentioned.
The novel Jane Eyre therefore gives us an important message on how to bring up children. It suggests that to bring up children you must do it with compassion, kindness and respect. This will gain obedience, trust and respect in return. I have come to this conclusion as Mr Brocklehurst treats the children harshly and brutally,
consequently the children resent him.
To Kill a Mockingbird also deals with the theme of child rearing. In Mockingbird we see a contrast in the approaches between Atticus and Uncle Jack. We see Atticus as a good listener, and fair minded. However we see Uncle Jack as unfair and quick to jump to conclusions, when Scout says:
“Uncle Jack said if I talked he’d lick me again.”
Therefore we get two different perspectives on punishing and child rearing methods. We also see another similarity between chapter seven of Jane Eyre and chapter eleven of To kill a Mockingbird. We realise that Mr Brocklehurst’s quick temper is like that of Uncle Jack’s.
In To Kill a MockingbirdMockingbird, Scout and Jem are punished by having to make amends for cutting the tops of Mrs Dubose’s camellias. They are punished so that they learn from their mistake. Scout and Jem are treated with dignity (Atticus never hits them, although he allows Calpurnia to) we see how Atticus desires for his children to acquire awareness of their faults:
“There’s no point in saying you were sorry if you aren’t…… then you’ll do it for a month.”
This shows how Atticus is firm. Introducing his children to Mrs Dubose suggests his desire for them to learn social tolerance, and for them to realise the errors of their ways.
The punishments are somewhat different to those in Jane Eyre because they are just and given in understandable circumstances. However in Jane Eyre we see the punishments as unjust because they are given in unreasonable circumstances (hence Jane’s accidental dropping of the slate)
In To kill a Mockingbird the reader tends to side with Atticus. We see that he also has a caring side (he rewards Jem and Scout) and that Jem and Scout respect him, so therefore his punishments must be unbiased and justified. Therefore we see a significant difference in child rearing techniques used in Mockingbird to those used by Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre.
Consequently, To Kill a Mockingbird conveys a strong message about the ideal and best method to bring up children. We see Atticus’ way is better than Uncle jacks way. The message that comes from Mockingbird when rearing children, is to be firm yet fair, caring and concerned. This is similar to the idea advocated from Jane Eyre.
I shall now come to the issue of prejudice, which is dealt with in both chapters, even though both novels were published over one hundred years apart. This means to pre-judge somebody, based on insignificant details, either physical, past life, rumours or status (for example race or colour) In Jane Eyre there are four main types of prejudice; class prejudice, prejudice against girls and children, and a brief encounter on religious bigotry and racial prejudice. Class prejudice is seen when Mr Brocklehurst treats the orphans with disrespect, as he gives them hardly any clothes:
“We had no boots, the snow got into our shoes.”
In addition, Mr Brocklehurst’s family mock the orphans (hence class prejudice) They take pleasure in mocking those with less clothing, fewer possessions and perhaps poor quality items as we read about the “rummaging scrutiny of the rooms upstairs.” They clearly have a condescending attitude to the orphans. This suggests that the children have fewer rights and should be judged just because they are labelled with poor status. Consequently this indicates the wealthier versus the poor.
Moreover, there is prejudice against children and girlsis obvious because he expects instant obedience from them where he orders all the young girls to turn and face the wall - “All the form rise and direct their faces to the wall.” due to one girls disobedience.
Mr Brocklehurst is particularly prejudice against girls, as, for example, he associates girls with vanity and he also believes that girls with curly hair are vain (this relates back to when he orders Julia’s hair to be cut off due to its curliness) Charlotte Bronte engages our interest further by causing the readers to wonder whether or not it is by chance that we see Mr Brocklehurst condescending attitude towards girls, or whether it is just because we only see within the walls of Lowood.
Similarly, Mr Brocklehurst touches on racial prejudice and religious bigotry (even though this is not viewed as a main theme in Jane Eyre.) He comes across as a casual racist as he depicts someone as “worse than many a little…. who says its prayers to Brahma.” He appears to be a religious bigot and hypocrite.
Also, Mr Brocklehurst tries to make the other orphans pre-judge Jane, and despise her. This is seen when he says:
“Do you see this girl before you…this girl is a liar!”
This once again leads to further contempt towards Mr Broklehurst and again brings out the theme of prejudice.
In fact prejudice- which comes in a variety of forms- woulde be said to b the main theme of o Kill a Mockingbird. We witness prejudice against girls, and racial prejudice.
We see prejudice against girls coming from Mrs Dubose at the beginning of chapter eleven:
“You should be in a dress and camisole young lady!”
Therefore we see Mrs Dubose’s narrow-minded stereotype of girls. This is similar to Mr Brocklehurst’s contempt for girls.
Racial prejudice is evident throughout chapter eleven. It portrays the common cast system that was present in the 1960s where Negroes were treated as second-class citizens. We see Mrs Dubose being prejudiced against Tom Robinson (who is black) and Atticus (because he defends Tom Robinson);
“Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”
Her casual racism shows the deep-rooted racism in Maycomb society. The racism and prejudice in Maycomb is endemic.
We ourselves are prejudice against Mrs Dubose at the beginning of chapter eleven. We see her through Scouts eyes, as a monstrosity:
“She was horrible…old aged liver spots dotted her cheeks…. her hands were knobbly.”
This description is like that of a witch, so we pre-judge her and associate her with cruelty and wickedness. Her physical appearance is as revolting as her manners are. We pre-judge her before we understand the full picture of her morphine addiction. Harper Lee cleverly brings us to realise how we pre-judge Mrs Dubose by changing our perspective of her at the end of chapter eleven. We see her as a strong character who fights her addiction with courage and fortitude.
Both chapters use first person narrative. In Jane Eyre, Jane herself is the narrator. In chapter seven she is ten years old. First person narrative uses I, we, us etc. in order to tell a story, instead of an omniscient narrator’s point of view who sees all and knows all.
Jane learns stoicism in chapter seven from Helen Burns and begins to endure punishment. This is a valuable lesson for Jane because later in the novel she rejects love without marriage and marriage without love.
An advantage of first person narrative is that it creates a sense of empathy. We feel the humour, pathos and suspense at first hand. Also because Jane is only ten years old, this creates pathos and a sympathetic mood because she is more vulnerable. This evidence suggests that despsite first person narrative, we as the sudeince get a different viewpoint. This is applicable in To Kill a Mockingbird where we read of Scout’s naïve fear. First person narrative is somewhat more autobiographical and consists of stronger emotion, therefore it is more sincere. First person narrative allows the readers to watch the characters change and grow, which places Jane Eyre under the genre known as Bildungsroman. For instance there is humour in the play that is not at first obvious - this humour is that of irony. Irony that is brought through in Jane Eyre is when Mr Brocklehurst preaches about curly hair representing vanity and that having life that contained the benefits of luxury was out of the question:
“My plan in bringing up these girls is not to accustom them to habits of luxury …but to render them hardy, self-denying.”
Although his own family were “splendidly attired!”
Also, another example of irony is where Jane says, “I was no Helen Burns.” This illustrates that Jane was not a stoic and was not eager to accept her punishment. This is ironical though because at the end of chapter seven she learns stoicism. She strongly faces reality and readily accepts her punishment and hardship.
Pathos is a main element that is often felt in Jane Eyre. For example Jane seeks companionship when she pathetically informs the audicne how she “sat with a doll on her knee” This conveys Jane’s loneliness. It is also pathetic when the children undergo cruelty. They suffer due to Mr Brocklehurts’s selfishness when we hear of them “wrapping their starved arms in pinafores.” This shows their severe neglect.
Suspense is also dealt with in the novel. The children dread and nervously wait for the arrival of Brocklehurst. The action is slowed down by significant detail;
“But come he did at last.”
However despite first person narrative the reader is still able to see things differently form the narrator. In Jane Eyre the readers see thing differently because she is only a ten year old. Therefore we kind of get a double of her perspective. The irony makes us see thing differently- she says one thing but yet does another. An example of this is when she says, “I was no Helen Burns”, hinting she is not a stoic yet we see her acting in a stoical manner at the end of chapter seven.
This narrative technique is also used in To Kill a Mockingbird which is also a Bildungsroman. The narrator is scout herself, who at this point in the novel is eight years old. In chapter eleven, Scout learns not to prejudge and that “courage is more than a man with a gun.” Scout learns that Mrs Dubose was being courageous by being stoical, similar to the type of lesson Jane learns from Helen Burns.
To Kill a Mockingbird is at an advantage due to its first person narrative, due to the same reasons as Jane Eyre (autobiographical, more believable, sense of growth) We as readers watch the characters mature and grow older. We see this because the children later realise that“tormenting Boo Radley became passe.” This is another similarity between the two novels.
As a result of first person narrative, we feel the strong emotions directly (there is a sense of immediacy) we experience the humour, pathos and suspense at first hand, just like we do when reading Jane Eyre. Humour is created in the novel by Scout’s naïve nature and her comic perspective (referring back to the reference about the confederate army relic) Like wise, humour is encountered when we read Scout’s naïve ignorance of racism (“what exactly is a nigger lover?”) We feel Scout’s innocence as heart-warming.
Furthermore, we sense humour when we hear Scouts witty remarks going through her mind at Mrs Dubose’s mentioning:
“Good evening Mrs Dubose…you look like a picture this evening…. I never heard Atticus say like a picture of what.”
As a result we feel Scout’s view is comic and humorous.
Pathos is created when we sympathise with Jem and Scout because their father is constantly being mocked and being called a “nigger lover.” We feel towards Jem’s desperate attempt to put an end to the hurtful comments.
Suspense is felt when brought out by significant detail (in the same manner as Jane Eyre) Time seems to slow down and this creates an ominous atmosphere;
“It tasted like cotton.”
This quotation indicates Jem and Scout’s fears of things to come as it seemed like
“two geological ages later” when they “heard the soles of Atticus’ shoes scrape the front steps.” This is similar to the dread felt by the orphans when waiting for the arrival of Mr Brocklehurst. The detail slows down time rapidly and informs the reader that something terrible is going to happen. Therefore tension is created.
In a similar manner to Jane Eyre, the readers sometimes see things differently to Scout because we take it into account that she is only an eight year old, like Jane herself in Chapter seven. The opportunity for irony gives us a double perspective (going back once again to the reference about the confederate army relic…) This line therefore creates a different view point between the reader and the narrator.
Finally, I have now come to the conclusion that these two novels do indeed share many things in common. They have characters we admire and condemn. These characters are all similar to one another. For instance Atticus is caring and loving, just like Miss Temple of Jane Eyre. Mrs Dubose is prejudiced and hypocritical, like Mr Brocklehurst. Although Jane Eyre was set in 19th century England, and Mockingbird in the 1930s, they both contain humour; pathos and suspense. First person narrative is used and they both deal with the theme of prejudice. Also they convey similar messages of how to raise children (with respect, firmness, dignity and care) Both novels say something revolutionary about the times they were set in. Jane Eyre speaks out for women’s rights and To Kill a Mockingbird challenges the policy of racial segregation and caste systems in the south of America, at the time. Therefore Both novels are significant to their contemporaries as well as readers today.
Personally the most important theme for me in Jane Eyre is that of stoicism. It made me realise that hardship is not necessarily a bad thing, but should be endured or embraced so that it can be a form of preparation for life in the future. (just how Jane was prepared to reject love without marriage and marriage without love) I think that racial prejudice is an important theme in To Kill a Mockingbird because it highlights the sad views on races and cast systems and how far society has come today. For example, black people have overall the same rights as whites do today. Mockingbird acts a a reminder of how prejudice can be painful to every walk of life (even Scout and Jem are affected by racial prejudice, even though they are white!) It conveys the message that prejudice in any shape or form is a bad path to take.
By Anjuli Modaley
