Brontë illustrates the surroundings by talking about the weather and the house in which the family live in. The weather condition symbolises emotions and feelings for example, in chapter one, the bad weather represents her miserable feelings.
Charlotte Brontë in this story creates an image of Jane looking petite, scrawny and unattractive, which is the total opposite of Jane’s Aunt. Jane knows she’s not the ideal child as she says, “I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child, though equally dependant and friendless – Mrs Reed would have endured my presence more complacently” she states this not because she’s poor but because she isn’t like the Reed family and they can’t accept her for who she is.
In chapter two, Jane herself talks about how she “was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there” meaning she’s looked upon as a nobody and she also states, “if they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them.” She has already realised that they don’t show affection for her so in return, she is doing the same. There’s no love between them, consequently they aren’t happy, resulting in hatred and arguments. Jane’s background was somewhat different from her cousins’. Jane’s parents helped poor people for a living so Jane only saw her parents when they weren’t working. All Jane wants is to be loved, like Charlotte Brontë did.
Jane received physical abuse mostly from John Reed, who was four years older than Jane. Brontë describes John as “large and stout” with “heavy limbs … and flabby cheeks.” This makes us imagine he has a lot of power over poor, little Jane. Jane recalls, “He bullied and punished me … continually.” She feared him and felt small compared to him, as she was only small and scrawny. Mrs Reed never saw her son strike or hear him throw abuse at Jane, which for that reason makes us sympathise with Jane as she was the one who did see John’s true colours. I think Mrs Reed would not believe her son, John, would be capable of abusing Jane and that John would not want to show his Mother what he was doing to Jane.
Not only did he not like Jane but also had not much fondness for his Mother or his sisters either, “John hadn’t much affection for his Mother and sisters”. This shows the reader that they should sympathise for Jane as he doesn’t care for anyone but himself and will do what he likes when he likes, and for Jane, that’s totally different as she can’t do what she wants as she would get told off by Mrs Reed.
Before Jane’s father and mother died of typhus, Mr Eyre asked Mr Reed (Jane’s maternal uncle) to look after Jane if anything should happen to him. So when he did die, Jane became an orphan and went to live with him and her Aunt and three cousins. Jane’s life before Gateshead Hall was quite hectic and not luxurious but they loved and practised Christianity. The Reed family had a grand house with a bit of money so why is Mrs Reed so against Jane coming to live with them?
This is because Mrs Reed isn’t blood related to Jane, as it was Mrs Reed’s husband, who was the brother of Mrs Eyre. Therefore Mrs Reed makes Jane emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically isolated from the family, an outcast because Mrs Reed’s sister-in-law which is Jane’s mother, made a bad marriage by marrying a one of the less successful sons of the family. Mrs Reed already resents her even before she sets foot inside their house consequently making us feel sympathy for her.
This is why Jane isn’t treated fairly like her cousins, John, Eliza and Georgina by Mrs Reed. Mrs Reed’s attitude to Jane is inconsiderate and hurtful because Jane is young and vulnerable. This has created sympathy for Jane from the events in chapters one and two, culminating in Jane being sent to the ‘Red-Room’, so she is portrayed as a helpless, innocent child that is neglected and blamed for mishaps by her so-called relatives.
John’s spiteful side shows when the cause of Jane being locked in the Red-Room was when she was reading a book that didn’t belong to her, this was wrong but for John to become furious and blurt out that she shouldn’t be living with them eating the same meals as them, was a bit over the top. She didn’t mean any harm and when John said that, it made us feel extremely sorry for Jane, as John was disgusted that she had rummaged through the shelves that were his. His revenge on Jane started by him grasping her hair and shoulder, this was a bit cruel as Jane is much smaller than John, so to show she wasn’t going to be a push-over anymore, she did something to him to make him call her “Rat! Rat!” We do feel empathy for her, as she was frantic and only tried to defend herself. The sisters called Mrs Reed who came upon the scene and insisted Jane be sent to the Red Room.
This particular room is described as “a chill”, “silent” and “seldom entered”. These specific words establish a setting to create an image of cold and darkness. It’s not a room that is often used except for people who have done wrong. Mrs Reed, I think is a bit biased as she only probably saw Jane there and as she isn’t her child, blamed her for the havoc she generated. This room reflects Mrs Reed’s heart; she’s cold, dark and extremely insensitive. She doesn’t care for anyone’s feelings and only wants to see Jane suffer.
The setting of Jane being unhappy is not something we see often in modern day society, or at least we try and hope for the best for the orphans. Children, who are orphans, are put in homes that have a loving and caring family that is willing to look after and provide for the child. Unlike in Jane’s case where Mr Reed was asked to look after Jane, so a promise couldn’t be broken even if the family weren’t in favour of having Jane.
The conclusion of these two chapters is that Charlotte has created a child similar to herself and put her in situations that readers can maybe relate to and see that Jane is being treated unfairly. She also formed careless family members who regard the less fortunate as dirt and look down at them. She had definitely created a lot of sympathy and pity through the changes and bullying Jane has to put up with during the first two chapters. This prepares us for the rest of the novel because we hope that Jane will become stronger within as she grows up, she’ll want to become independent and achieve what she dreams of.