Just before Jane was put in the red room, one of the servants tries to scare Jane by saying ‘God will punish her; he will strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go?’ this builds up even more fear in Jane. As soon as Jane enters the red room Charlotte Brontë describes the room really well using broken up sentences which adds to the tension. You get the feeling that the room is cold and isolated- ‘The red-room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in: I might say never’ this makes the room seem very lonely. She also describes the room as being ‘chill, because it seldom had a fire’ this makes it feel cold, depressing and neglected. Even the colour of the room makes it seem frightening and miserable because red is associated with blood and death. Jane tells us that her uncle Mr Reed died in the red room: ‘Mr Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker’s men; and, since that day a sense of dreary concentration had guarded it from frequent intrusion’. Because Jane is so young, knowing this would frighten her even more. Jane must of felt very small in that room- ‘the bed rose before me’ and there was a ‘high dark wardrobe’ it seems like all the furniture is towering above her and that everything is so much bigger than her.
After finding the door was locked, Jane went across to the mirror and she thinks she sees a strange figure- ‘and the strange little figure there gazing at me with a white face and arms speckling in the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving, where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit; I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp’ Jane might be thinking that she's seeing the spirit of her dead uncle at this point. It must be really frightening for a child to be locked up in a room at such a young age, so Jane started to imagine things. Although Jane is really frightened, she is really angry about the injustice of her punishment. She feels annoyed that because Mrs Reeds children are much more misbehaved than her and they do not get harsh punishments. Jane describes Eliza as ‘headstrong and selfish’, and Georgina as having ‘a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage and was universally indulged’ this shows how Jane does not like them and is very judgmental of them. She then goes on to describe John, the reason for her being in the red room. Jane says that he ‘twisted the necks of the pigeons’ and referred to his mother as ‘old girl’ this shows how rude John was and that Jane is furious that Mrs Reed called him ‘her own darling’ and was horrible to Jane. At this point, Jane is frightened but not quite terrified- ‘my blood was still warm’, she is feeling more angry and resentful.
As time passes, Jane get more and more frightened because it gets darker in the red room ‘daylight began to forsake the red room’ as Jane is so young, most children that age are afraid of the dark. The wind must also have been frightening for Jane ‘the wind howling in the grove behind the hall’, wind makes ghostly noises so this makes the atmosphere frightening. The room is getting colder as well as dark which makes it even more unpleasant for Jane. Jane starts to think about Mr Reed and how if he were still alive he would have treated her kindly, she knows this because it was one of his last wishes, that Mrs Reed would look after Jane as is she was a child of her own. Jane then began to think about Mr Reeds spirit ‘I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought of Mr Reeds spirit’ Mr Reeds last wishes had been ignored and Jane thought his spirit might appear to her in that room to help her, while she does not want to see him, ‘and rise before me in this chamber’. Because Jane keeps dwelling on ghosts and spirits her mind starts to play tricks on her. She think she hears a ‘preternatural voice’ Jane must have been really terrified to start hearing things. After looking round the dark room Jane then thinks she sees a light moving across the wall to the ceiling ‘it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head’ Jane was petrified at this stage.
Charlotte Brontë describes Jane's fear in a lot of detail ‘my heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something near me’ I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down’. Bessie the servant hears Jane shaking the lock in ‘desperate effort’ and comes to her. One of the other servants thinks Jane is putting it on that she is scared just to get out of her punishment. Mrs Reed heard the noise Jane was making and did not let her leave the red room ‘Mrs Reed, impatient of my new frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without further parley’ this shows how nasty Mrs Reed is so Jane, as she is aware of how much Jane is suffering and she makes her remain in the red room. At the end of chapter two, Jane becomes unconscious ‘soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene’ this shows the intense terror Jane must have been in.
