Charlotte Bronte is a prime example of a woman who had already triumphantly demonstrated her ability.
Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre in 1847, when no women had succeeded in writing a play; essay, history or philosophical treatises of generally acknowledge merit. But when it came to novels, Charlotte Bronte is a prime example of a woman who had already triumphantly demonstrated her ability.
Jane Eyre is a fictional-autobiography, as many of Charlotte Bronte's own experiences are mirrored in those of, Jane Eyre throughout the book. When Charlotte Bronte's father was left a widower with six children, he arranged for his dead wife's sister to act as housekeeper. Although she seems to have been a respectable and dutiful person, she never ceased to regret being obliged to spend her life in windswept Yorkshire, (where Charlotte Bronte was born), instead of sunny Cornwall. She never became a warm or loving substitute for the mother the six children had lost. This mirrors Jane Eyre's childhood, because as a 10-year-old orphan, she was unwanted and neglected in the home of her uncle's widow Mrs Reed, of Gateshead Hall. Her cousins, Eliza, John and Georgiana are fondly treated, while Jane is made to feel unwanted. Jane was "consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed". Mrs Reed tells her quite unfairly, that until she can be more frank and sociable, she cannot be accepted on her cousin's terms.
The unquestionably autobiographical quality in the writing of the first part of Jane Eyre is also portrayed, when Jane is sent away to be educated at Lowood, a charity school for girls of good family. During her first few months, Jane suffers greatly, as do all the girls, from hunger, cold, and severe discipline, and following an outbreak of typhus, the school was reformed and improved. It is at this school that Jane loses her best friend Helen Burns' through tuberculosis. Similarly in 1824, Charlotte's two eldest sisters were sent off to a boarding school for the 'daughter's of clergymen', called Cowan Bridge School, in the northwest of Yorkshire. They both died of tuberculosis, probably because, like Lowood, the school was not a good one. Charlotte and Emily were also sent to Cowan Bridge for short periods while still absurdly young, about eight and six respectively. The death of the older sister's probably saved them from a similar fate, and they were mercifully removed. Charlotte however was obviously old enough to retain a vivid recollection of the sufferings and miseries that marked the daily routine of the girls boarding at Cowan Bridge. They were probably the first stimulus in her developments as a creative writer, just as Lowood in the book is seen to be a strong influence in the early development of Jane's character.
Jane Eyre is a young girl of ten. She has been left with the Reeds who are relatives of her family. Head of the family is Master John Reed who is a fourteen-year-old boy and he continually bullies Jane. He is the heir to the family's wealth. He has two sisters, one called Eliza (Lizzy for short) and one called Georgiana (Georgie for short).
Charlotte Bronte uses first person narration when telling the story through Jane. This has the effect of allowing us to see things from Jane's point of view, although perhaps just how the ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Jane Eyre is a young girl of ten. She has been left with the Reeds who are relatives of her family. Head of the family is Master John Reed who is a fourteen-year-old boy and he continually bullies Jane. He is the heir to the family's wealth. He has two sisters, one called Eliza (Lizzy for short) and one called Georgiana (Georgie for short).
Charlotte Bronte uses first person narration when telling the story through Jane. This has the effect of allowing us to see things from Jane's point of view, although perhaps just how the writer thinks Jane would feel at this time. Jane offers us a description,
"The cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre and rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question," and her feelings, " I trembled at the thought of being dragged forth by the said Jack." We get to see things as she seen them and experience things as she did. "I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: the terror was passed its climax: other feelings succeeded." Clearly the author is able to enlist our sympathy more directly by using this technique.
In the opening sentence, the writer makes us feel sympathy for Jane by saying, "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." This is because of the weather, which is dull and wet. Charlotte Bronte is using the setting to enlist the sympathy of the reader. The mood of this passage is determined from the outset from Jane's description of the winter weather. "Leafless," "Cold winter wind," and "Chilly" all convey an uncomfortable, chilling mood. Jane has a series of unpleasant experiences, which are mirrored by the weather. She finds herself in a hostile household that finds an echo in the hostile weather conditions. The inner turmoil, which she must feel by the end of the chapter, is already predicted by the weather outside. The lack of affection or loving human contact is suggested in the cold conditions outside where words like "raw," "cold," "hail," and "lamentable" are used.
When it comes to dinner, Jane is left out and only Mrs Reed's own children are allowed to dine at the same table as her. We feel sympathy for Jane here as she is left on her own, but we feel better for her as she finds herself a seat by the window and a book to read. She feels sheltered from the rest of the family as she is hidden behind a curtain. When Jane asks Mrs Reed about what Bessie says she has done, Mrs Reed says, "Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners." Mrs Reed is just picking on Jane here and giving her a hard time and then using Bessie to justify it. Here we feel sympathy for Jane as she has done nothing wrong but she still is not allowed the same privileges as the rest of the family, it is simply because she is not one of Mrs Reed's children. We feel sympathy for Jane, as it is not her fault that she is in the position she is.
After dinner, Master John Reed comes looking for Jane, but because she is hidden from view by the curtain, he cannot see her. He is not the brightest and so he tells Georgie and Lizzy she is not there, Lizzy immediately points out to her that she is in the window seat, behind the curtain. Jane says, "I trembled at the thought of being dragged forth by John." As this is in the first person narrative, it shows how Jane is feeling and therefore we feel sympathy for her because she feels threatened by him. He bullies her further by saying that he wants her to come to him. John's physique was much greater than Jane's and he was fourteen - four years older than Jane.
"John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and he had an antipathy for me. He bullied and punished me, not two or three times in the week, nor twice in a day, but continually."
Here the writer is trying to make the reader feel sorry for Jane by telling us how she is bullied and punished by someone to which she can do nothing. Again here she succeeds in making us feel sorry for Jane. She says that every nerve she had feared him. Again this makes us feel sorry for Jane.
Everyone in the house fears John Reed, even the servants, and therefore they all would definitely take his side in a dispute between him and Jane. He could pretty much do as he wanted, regardless of what anyone thought. I think this is because he is the heir to the family's wealth and he is the 'man' of the house. John Reed uses this position to his advantage when bullying Jane. He punished Jane in Mrs Reed's presence, but she was "Blind and deaf" on the subject.
When Jane stood before Master John, he stuck his tongue out at her. This must have made Jane feel small and then she knew he'd soon strike. While waiting for the strike, she amused herself at his disgusting and ugly appearance. Then suddenly, without warning, he lashed out at her.
"That is for your impudence in answering Mamma, and for sneaking behind the curtain."
Jane obviously felt intimidated by him, and did not think of answering back. She cared more about how to deal with the blow, which would almost certainly follow the insult. We feel sympathy for Jane because there is neither nothing she can do to defend herself nor is there anyone she can turn to for help. She is on her own.
John Reed then starts questioning Jane about why she was behind the curtain and made her prove she was reading a book. When she did, he just said, "You have no business taking our books. You are a dependant, Mamma says." This must be the worst verbal abuse he gives Jane, saying she is a dependant. This would make Jane feel as if she really wasn't wanted and that she was just a parasite. He then tells her to stand away from all windows and mirrors and then he hurled the book at her. She fell and hit her head. The writer tells us that the pain was sharp and the terror had passed its climax.
Jane started telling him how he was a tyrant and a slave driver. John said he will tell Mamma, but before that, he runs at her. He grabbed her hair. He forced her to the ground and Jane does not know what is happening or what she is doing, but she manages to force him off. Georgie and Lizzy had run for Mrs Reed and when she came upon the scene she took John's side and had Jane taken upstairs to be locked in the red-room.
The whole account is very sad and it grasps the reader. The way that the whole family treat Jane is terrible and this makes us feel a lot of sympathy for Jane. You can't help feeling sorry for Jane, but this is only one side of the story. Perhaps this is biased and that it is only what the writer thought would be going through Jane's mind at the time. I think though that this is a good account of the story and that Jane really was being treated unfairly by the family and especially Master John.
Jane's first day at Lowood institution confirms her worst expectations. All of the girls, who range in age from nine to twenty years old, have to wear ugly brown dresses covered by pinafores. In the morning they wash in basins of ice-cold water. All day long they're marched from place to place, moving from meals to prayers to classes to the sound of clanging bells and the voices of teachers commanding, "Silence!" The food is terrible. For supper on Jane's first night, the girls have only a thin oatcake with water to drink. At breakfast the next morning, the porridge is so badly burned that Jane, although terribly hungry, cannot bring herself to eat it. This whole experience makes us feel great sympathy for Jane; She is so young and yet is treated so badly. Charlotte Bronte uses language to make the reader sympathize with Jane in her first few days at Lowood.
When Mr Brocklehurst comes to Lowood a month after Jane had arrived he makes a lot of inaccurate assumptions to everyone about Jane. He makes a fool of her by making her stand on a stool in the middle of the classroom. We feel a lot of sympathy for Jane here because she has done nothing wrong but her past is still punishing her. Charlotte Bronte makes us feel sorry for Jane when she describes how Jane feels at that very moment. " Now exposed to general view on a pedestal of infamy". This quote makes us feel sympathy for Jane because what has happened has not been in her control and she has to pay major consequences because of Mrs Reed's words to Mr Brocklehurst.
With the coming of spring and typhus, Jane thinks seriously about dying "to go who knows where" and makes her first earnest effort to comprehend...heaven and hell. Helen, with her dying words, provides an answer to Jane's questioning. Helen's faith in God sustains her and she looks forward to being in His presence, "I rely implicitly on his power and confide wholly in his goodness; I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to him, reveal him to me". Helen assures her that they will see each other in heaven. Jane, as an adult, has an unwavering faith in God, but Jane the child lying in Helen's death bed still has doubts.
Jane raises a tombstone on her grave fifteen years later; remember that Jane is only ten years old when Helen dies. She is so young but has been through so much in her life makes us fell a great deal of sympathy for her. Charlotte Bronte keeps eliminating all of the people that Jane cares about to make us feel sympathy fore her. This has worked because when Helen dies we all feel sympathy for Jane
When Helen dies we feel al lot of sympathy for Jane, she has lost the one person that she cared about the most. Helen was Jane's first real fried and she meant a lot to Jane, she had learnt a lot of things from Helen and thought the world of her. The fact that Jane is so close to Helen makes us feel more sympathy for Jane when Helen dies. All her life she has lost the people that love her and Helen dying is as tragic as her parents dying.
Charlotte Bronte uses various ways to make us feel sympathy for Jane in the first ten chapters of the novel. She uses language to give a sense of sympathy and also makes Jane's life really difficult in her first ten years. The fact that Jane is so young and vulnerable makes us feel even more sympathy towards her. Jane Eyre has been through things in ten years, which people usually go through in a lifetime. This makes us feel a lot of sympathy for Jane Eyre