Jane Eyre - compare the first two chapters

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JANE EYRE COURSEWORK

The novel ‘Jane Eyre’ is an emotional journey through the often turbulent and isolated life of Jane Eyre. The eponymous character Jane Eyre starts her life parentless, left in the care of her careless aunt and the company of her cruel cousins. She escapes to school (Lowood) where she flourishes and eventually goes to work as a governess. She subsequently falls in love with the owner of the estate where she is governess, Mr Rochester, before discovering that his mad wife lives in the attic. After turning down St.John Rivers’ proposal of marriage she returns to Mr Rochester and, after finding out his wife has died in a fire, marries him.

 We first meet Jane Eyre in a window-seat of her aunt’s house, attempting to escape her worries by reading. Her aunt has separated her from the rest of the family for reasons including not being,

“attractive and sprightly” in manner

Her situation at Gateshead Hall appears to consist of isolation and loneliness. Her aunt despises her, consequently so do her cousins. John Reed, her only male cousin, regularly beats her for no particular reason and Jane says of him;

“I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack” and John had “an antipathy to me”. Mrs Reed and the servants ignore his behaviour and act as if they are ignorant of it. Mrs Reed, John, Eliza and Georgiana Reed are Jane’s only family. Her parents and her mother’s brother, Mr Reed, are all deceased. She is a dependant.

 

Her mother married her father despite him being of a lower class than her. Jane’s mother was disowned, as marrying below your status was frowned upon at that time.

 

Jane is not like the Reeds in any way, which is the main reason why she is treated so harshly. She is left alone in the intimidating red-room as punishment for defending herself against John when he hits her. Mrs Reed is cold and unsympathetic when Jane screams with fright, resulting in Jane fainting. Overall, Jane is subjected to abuse and sometimes violence and at other times left alone and frightened.

 

This leads to the reader, by the end of chapter two, feeling sorry for Jane. They are extremely sympathetic, and want to see Jane do well for herself. Jane is firmly established as a good character, and one that the reader likes and empathises with.

 

Jane Eyre has much in common with Charlotte Bronte, and the striking similarities may be a result of Charlotte using many of her own experiences to write the novel. Charlotte was born in April 1816, the third of six children. Her father, a clergyman, moved the family to Haworth in the Yorkshire moors in 1920. Her mother died after the birth of her sixth child, and two of her siblings also died. Charlotte, her sisters Anne and Emily and brother Branwell were consequently left in the care of their father and strict, religious Aunt Elizabeth, meaning they missed out on a mother’s love. Jane also had no mother, and found fiction as fascinating as Charlotte and her siblings.

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The Bronte children enjoyed hearing and imagining fantasy stories-Charlotte and Branwell together created an imaginary world called Angria. Charlotte attended Cowan Bridge Clergy Daughters School in Lancashire but poor conditions forced her to return home. Charlotte in particular remembered vividly the miseries endured there, and the fact that her elder sisters died of tuberculosis due to the conditions. Jane suffered similar memories at Lowood School.

 

Charlotte then went to Roe Head School, returned home to teach her sisters and finally became a teacher at Roe Head School aged nineteen, as Jane did at her Lowood School. Charlotte also ...

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