The scenes about the Red-Room are quite a powerful part of this story as quite a lot about Jane is learned from here. It allows us to discover her true inner feelings and emotions and it is in this room that we learn about Jane’s position of exile and imprisonment. She spends quite a lot of time reflecting upon herself and harshly describes what her status was amongst the other children ‘I was a discord… I was like nobody there: I had nothing in harmony with Mrs Reed or her children…’ On top of this she actually gets to the point where she even has suicidal thoughts, ‘…and letting myself die.’ For this to be occurring in a child still at quite a very young age is quite deplorable.
It is in the Red-Room when Jane reflects upon her status amongst the other children that we can depict that Jane is a bit of a juvenile pariah. When she makes a comparison of all the children with their bad characteristics against their good ones we learn it is this that separates her from the rest. For example if we take Georgiana’s description: ‘Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage was universally indulged. Her beauty… seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault.’ As we can see her good characteristics outweigh her bad, making her an acceptable member of this elite club in which certain features and qualities for a young Victorian girl is the test. Whereas when we look at Jane who has none of the above assets or the ones the other children have (respect which Eliza has, and she can’t compete with John as he is a boy and that is enough for him) she is regarded as worthless. Though she is very intellectual, and further on in the novel we pick up she is a good artist, her attributes are not recognised, therefore not appreciated. This is another example of how Brontë has made us to sympathise with Jane.
The weather still remains to be as bad as before ‘I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall’ and as it is linked to her moods it means that Jane is also pretty angry but now other emotions have started to creep in ‘I dwelt on it with gathering dread’. She is feeling scared as she is reflecting upon death in her family and then her imagination leads to her scaring herself about death. These are backed up by the stories she had heard when she was younger and the fact that supernaturalism was a way of disciplining children. ‘I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp…’
Jane tries to escape her prison-like environment through her imagination. She begins by reading a book called ‘Bewick’s history of British Birds’. The name already implies that it was not made for children. When the book goes on talking about ‘The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea…’ she forms her own version in her mind about the ships and instantly transforms it into ‘marine phantoms’ and the ‘vast sweep of the Arctic Zone’ becomes a ‘death-white realm’. She continues to frighten herself and converts adjectives into thoughts based on paranormal activities and bereavement. These thoughts are probably occurring because of the bad treatment she constantly receives and all that has led to is darkness and depression. These are the kinds of things that only a really troubled person can feel i.e. Jane.
In the Red-Room it feels as if the whole experience is religious and sombre. This theme is summarised quite clearly by the simile: ‘The bed supported on massive pillars…stood out like a tabernacle in the middle’. This simile also suggests that Jane is in a state of awe as the bed looked gigantic to her. It means that her bed must be lesser in size to the one she is gazing at and so is the size of her room. Adjectives in the Red-Room are very good in this section as they create whole, vivid images into the readers mind. Such examples of these are ‘the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour, with a blush of pink in it…’
Furthermore red plays a major part in the scenes about the red-Room, hence the name. In this room as well as the weather, the colour surrounding her plays a major role in affecting Jane’s feelings. In symbolic terms red means anger which is exactly what Jane is feeling. Also she is becoming a bit delirious as when she sees herself in the mirror she cannot distinguish who is staring back at her. On top of this she thinks that she can visualise ghosts when actually it is just a piece of furniture ‘I thought this swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world.’
Children converse in this novel more formally then most adults do in this 21st century. When Jane and John are fighting we would expect swearing or very harsh words being transferred by the two. In actual fact we only see resemblances being made to animals ‘Rat! Rat!’ Even when in dispute the children talk with manners and good English. When John was trying to teach Jane a lesson ‘That is for your impudence in answering mama a while since’ it doesn’t look as if a lot of anger is coming through but as Jane is young any type of telling of Is taken seriously by her and makes her bear a grudge. This is when she becomes melodramatic and uses her gathering of information from books she’s read and applies it into taking her revenge out on John ‘You are like a murderer-you are like a slave-driver-you are like the Roman emperors!’ She is overreacting here and doesn’t know any better. But neither does John and takes it as if she has said something really offensive.
Jane is constantly reminded that she is an orphan and a dependant ‘…you are a dependant…you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg… She dislikes it when this is brought back up and finds it ‘…very painful’.
We see how isolated Jane is when she looks in the reflection of herself. She herself recognises how alone she is and the fact she cannot do anything about this. She thinks a ghost is looking back at her and struggles to be acquainted with her own self.
Miss Abbott and the Reeds judge Jane as a dependant and if she never had them she’d have been sent to the ‘poor house.’ This is a very intellectual way of making Jane feel as if she should be grateful towards them though they’ve done nothing but bully and cause pain to her.
The story opens on the first page by dropping us in the middle of a scene that has already begun. This a very clever way of making us read on to find out the parts that have been missed out beforehand. Things such as, why Jane is rejected by the family get-together, a detailed character description and what the characters positions and situations are in the novel.
Long sentence structure means lots of detailed and descriptive images are going to be obtained, which is exactly what Brontë does here. Before she can move on to the plot and main features of the story she needs to give us the history and fill in the pieces we didn’t receive at the beginning. Tension and drama is created by leaving it at a cliff-hanger at the end of the two chapters. Chapter 1: ‘Take her to the Red-Room and lock her in there.’ We are again spared from the details and have no knowledge of what the Red-Room is. All that we know is that Jane is being punished therefore the Red-Room isn’t going to be a very nice place. Chapter 2: ‘I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness unclosed the scene’ For the third chapter we are desperate to know if the fit has led onto anything more serious and if she is going to wake up from that state of unconsciousness.
Sympathy really is what we feel for Jane in these two chapters. The fact that an innocent and powerless girl has to go through so much hurt and pain makes the reader really feel for her. Though she has a very mature mentality it does not mean that she isn’t still a ten year old. The most effective ways that I think Brontë has caused us to empathize with Jane is by being let into her imagination and having a first-hand view of what she goes through and her thoughts about everything. Moreover the fact that she cannot do anything about all of it as she remains a dependant means she is a defenceless victim prone to any kind of torment and this creates a strong supporting bond with the reader.
