To what extent is Jane presented as a victim during her time at Gateshead in the first four chapters of Charlotte Bronte's Jan

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To what extent is Jane presented as a victim during her time at Gateshead in the first four chapters of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre?

The first four chapters of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre draw the reader into the life and emotions of the heroine of the novel Jane Eyre and the cruelty she suffers in the hands of the Reeds. These chapters portray an image of Jane and present her character which appears to be vulnerable yet determined to stick up for her self.

                                                         

We learn that Jane is a young girl who is a victim of emotional and physical abuse from the Reeds, and also suffers from discrimination. We’re shown that the Reeds only provide her with a home but she receives no love and is treated very different from her cousins. Jane is shown to be a girl of great strength, this is revealed when she stands up for herself in chapter 2. She is a sufferer of great abuse but yet keeps herself going. The way she is treated shows the reader what is was like in the 19th century and how people who were different were treated. In Jane Eyre we see the 19th century through a child’s eyes, Jane is not treated kindly or with love and because of this we see how awfully some children were treated in the nineteenth century, so very different to our world today where that would be unacceptable to treat a child badly. Jane Eyre is set in the early to mid nineteenth century and we see how different life today is, compared with the time which Jane lived. In the nineteenth century, school was not compulsory and that is why many people had little or even no education at all. If you were rich, you would have a good education, but you would not have to work. If you were poor however, your education, if any would not be of a very good standard and you would have to work to earn enough money to survive.

Bronte uses many techniques of writing to show Jane’s emotions and position, the story is told through Jane’s perspective showing her feelings and thoughts towards everything happening around her. This helps us understand her life and her character causing us to feel sympathy towards her isolated position. The novel is written in a way that draws the reader into Jane’s life and suffering.

In the opening chapter, we begin to see Jane as a victim of cruelty she suffers by the Reeds. An orphan since early childhood, Jane feels exiled and ostracized at the beginning of the novel, and the cruel treatment she receives from her Aunt Reed and her cousins only exacerbates her feelings of alienation. Afraid that she will never find a true sense of home or community, Jane feels the need to belong somewhere, to find “kin,” or at least “kindred spirits.” This desire tempers her equally intense need for autonomy and freedom.

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In the opening chapter we see a description of the weather, the purpose of this is to set the ground and scene for the many elements in the story to make their introduction, the first image that is presented is “ we had been wandering…in the leafless shrubbery for an hour”. This it not a very positive image and reflects Jane’s mood. “The old winter wind…out of the question”. This description reflects Jane’s life and emotions in the bad weather and builds up the atmosphere of sadness as the reader reads on. She observes the weather outside which is ...

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