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Jane
Eyre
Summation by B. Robert
Jane Eyre is forced to struggle against the
restrictions of a cruel guardian, a
severe
employer and a unyielding social order which
circumscribes her life and position.
At an early age Jane Eyre is orphaned
with no money of her own and sent to
live with her Aunt Reed.
Jane leads a very lonely while at her
Aunt's and finds some comfort in
reading books when she is able. She is verbally
abused and humiliated by an older son
until one day she strikes back after he
throws a book at her and knocks her
down.
She is traumatized by the elder son
and finds herself in trouble with her
Aunt.
Continued confliction and rebellion
by Jane leads Mrs. Reed to lock Jane up
in the "red-room", an unused chamber in
which Mr. Reed died.
Quote:
"It was in this
chamber he breathed his last; here he
lay in state; hence his coffin was borne
by the undertaker’s men; and, since that
day, a sense of dreary consecration had
guarded it from frequent intrusion."
While locked in the room, Jane sees a
gleam of light and becomes frightened
losing her self-control. She screams and
tries to get out of the room awakening
the servants and Mrs. Reed; yet, Jane is
left locked up for a longer period of
time.
Quote:
"..I abhor
artifice, particularly in children; it
is my duty to show you that tricks will
not answer: you will now stay here an
hour longer, and it is only on condition
of perfect submission and stillness that
I shall liberate you then.”
“O aunt! have
pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure
it—let me be punished some other way! I
shall be killed if—”
“Silence! This
violence is all most repulsive:” and so,
no doubt, she felt it. I was a
precocious actress in her eyes; she
sincerely looked on me as a compound of
virulent passions, mean spirit, and
dangerous duplicity.
Jane becomes ill from her experience
and an apothecary is called to see her.
He learns of her ordeal and discusses
her circumstances living at Mrs. Reed's
and having no other relatives.
After his visit with Jane he talks
with Mrs. Reed and suggests sending her
away to school.
Quote:
"Mrs. Reed
surveyed me at times with a severe eye,
but seldom addressed me: since my
illness, she had drawn a more marked
line of separation than ever between me
and her own children; appointing me a
small closet to sleep in by myself,
condemning me to take my meals alone,
and pass all my time in the nursery,
while my cousins were constantly in the
drawing-room. Not a hint, however, did
she drop about sending me to school:
still I felt an instinctive certainty
that she would not long endure me under
the same roof with her; for her glance,
now more than ever, when turned on me,
expressed an insuperable and rooted
aversion."
Mrs. Reed decides that Jane be sent
away to live and be educated at Mr.
Brocklehurst's Lowood School.
Mr. Brocklehurst is a hypocritical
clergyman who runs Lowood Institution, a
charity school.
He comes to meet Jane and Mrs. Reed.
Jane sees him as her interrogator.
Jane is distraught and overwhelmed
when Mrs. Reed asks him to warn the
teachers of her tendency to deceit.
Quote:
“Mr.
Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in
the letter which I wrote to you three
weeks ago, that this little girl has not
quite the character and disposition I
could wish: should you admit her into
Lowood school, I should be glad if the
superintendent and teachers were
requested to keep a strict eye on her,
and, above all, to guard against her
worst fault, a tendency to deceit. I
mention this in your hearing, Jane, that
you may not attempt to impose on Mr.
Brocklehurst.”
Well might I
dread, well might I dislike Mrs. Reed;
for it was her nature to wound me
cruelly; never was I happy in her
presence; however carefully I obeyed,
however strenuously I strove to please
her, my efforts were still repulsed and
repaid by such sentences as the above.
Now, uttered before a stranger, the
accusation cut me to the heart; I dimly
perceived that she was already
obliterating hope from the new phase of
existence which she destined me to
enter; I felt, though I could not have
expressed the feeling, that she was
sowing aversion and unkindness along my
future path; I saw myself transformed
under Mr. Brocklehurst’s eye into an
artful, noxious child, and what could I
do to remedy the injury?
“Nothing,
indeed,” thought I, as I struggled to
repress a sob, and hastily wiped away
some tears, the impotent evidences of my
anguish.
“Deceit is,
indeed, a sad fault in a child,” said
Mr. Brocklehurst; “it is akin to
falsehood, and all liars will have their
portion in the lake burning with fire
and brimstone; she shall, however, be
watched, Mrs. Reed. I will speak to
Miss Temple and the teachers.”
“I should wish
her to be brought up in a manner suiting
her prospects,” continued my
benefactress; “to be made useful, to be
kept humble: as for the vacations, she
will, with your permission, spend them
always at Lowood.”
After initial discussions and
questioning Jane, Mr. Brocklehurst
agrees to accept her into the school.
Mrs. Reed announces that she will
send her as soon as arrangements can be
made.
Quote:
“I will send
her, then, as soon as possible, Mr.
Brocklehurst; for, I assure you, I feel
anxious to be relieved of a
responsibility that was becoming too
irksome.”
Mr. Brocklehurst gives Jane a book
about deceit and departs. Jane and Mrs.
Reed are left in the room alone.
Quote:
"..and stinging
in my mind; I had felt every word as
acutely as I had heard it plainly, and a
passion of resentment fomented now
within me."
Mrs. Reed tells Jane to return to the
Nursery. She begins to leave and then
turns back and walks closer to Mrs. Reed
and expresses her emotions of hate for
her and her family. She also gives the
book on deceit to Mrs. Reed to give to
her daughter.
Quote:
"That eye of
hers, that voice stirred every antipathy
I had. Shaking from head to foot,
thrilled with ungovernable excitement, I
continued—
“I am glad you
are no relation of mine: I will never
call you aunt again as long as I live.
I will never come to see you when I am
grown up; and if any one asks me how I
liked you, and how you treated me, I
will say the very thought of you makes
me sick, and that you treated me with
miserable cruelty.”
“How dare you
affirm that, Jane Eyre?”
“How dare I,
Mrs. Reed? How dare I? Because it is
the truth. You think I have no
feelings, and that I can do without one
bit of love or kindness; but I cannot
live so: and you have no pity. I shall
remember how you thrust me back—roughly
and violently thrust me back—into the
red-room, and locked me up there, to my
dying day; though I was in agony; though
I cried out, while suffocating with
distress, ‘Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt
Reed!’ And that punishment you made me
suffer because your wicked boy struck
me—knocked me down for nothing. I will
tell anybody who asks me questions, this
exact tale. People think you a good
woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted.
You are deceitful!”
Quote:
"Ere I had
finished this reply, my soul began to
expand, to exult, with the strangest
sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever
felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond
had burst, and that I had struggled out
into unhoped-for liberty. Not without
cause was this sentiment: Mrs. Reed
looked frightened; her work had slipped
from her knee; she was lifting up her
hands, rocking herself to and fro, and
even twisting her face as if she would
cry.
“Jane, you are
under a mistake: what is the matter with
you? Why do you tremble so violently?
Would you like to drink some water?”
“No, Mrs. Reed.”
“Is there
anything else you wish for, Jane? I
assure you, I desire to be your friend.”
“Not you. You
told Mr. Brocklehurst I had a bad
character, a deceitful disposition; and
I’ll let everybody at Lowood know what
you are, and what you have done.”
“Jane, you don’t
understand these things: children must
be corrected for their faults.”
“Deceit is not
my fault!” I cried out in a savage, high
voice.
“But you are
passionate, Jane, that you must allow:
and now return to the nursery—there’s a
dear—and lie down a little.”
“I am not your
dear; I cannot lie down: send me to
school soon, Mrs. Reed, for I hate to
live here.”
Jane's Life at Lowood School:
Jane is sent off to travel by herself
to Lowood. At first she finds life at Lowood
dismal; then she becomes friends with a special
classmate, Helen Burns who inspires her continued stay
at Lowood.
Helen is an angelic fellow-student
and becomes Jane's best friend. Helen is
several years older than Jane who is
ten-years-old.
Helen endures and accepts all the
heartless attitudes of teachers and the
insufficiency of the school's living
capabilities. She refuses to hate or to
complain and believes in the New
Testament teaching--that one should love
one's enemies and turn the other cheek.
Jane holds Helen in the highest
regard. Helen helps to shape Jane's
mind-set and way of thinking towards
hate and evil. Jane experiences
heartbreak through Helen's life as she
dies of consumption in Jane's arms.
When Jane first comes to Lowood, Mr. Brocklehurst, humiliates
her on
his inspection visit to
the school. He places Jane
on a tall stool in view of the entire
assembly; then tells them,
"...this girl, this child, the native of
a Christian land, worse than many a
little heathen who says its prayers to
Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut—this
girl is—a liar!"
Jane is incensed; however, later in
the day, Miss Temple allows
Jane to speak in her own defense. Miss Temple writes to Mr.
Lloyd, the apothecary, to confirm what Jane has told her. His reply
confirms Jane's account, and
she is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusation.
Jane experiences courage, heartbreak
and matures into a professional young
lady while attending Lowood, however
leaves when Miss Temple marries and
moves away.
Jane's Life at Thornfield
Manor:
She is employed as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she
encounters the
mysterious Mr. Rochester.
At Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre learns passionate
love, tribulation and final triumph.
She encounters a ghostly woman who
wanders the halls by night and the mystery
of Thornfield Hall deepens.
The story characterizes Jane as
plain-not beautiful, yet possesses a
resolute
spirit, a sharp wit and noble courage.
Mr. Rochester's unfathomable secrets
are brought to the surface and Jane
experiences unbearable and agonizing
circumstances that set her on a
horrendous forward journey.
Her immediate escape leads into an
even deeper situation; and conditions
where she finds herself faced with
melancholy and searching sadness. She
experiences joy and passion that takes
her to a final strength of will and
determination for her future.
|
Fire at
Thornfield
Manor |
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|
Jane with
the Mysterious Gypsy |
Comments -
Charlotte Bronte originally published
Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847.
Immediately
Jane Eyre erupted onto the English
literary scene winning the
devotion of many of the world's most
renowned writers, including William
Makepeace Thackeray, who declared it a
work "of great genius."
For the first time English readers
had read about a
heroine like Jane Eyre who was bold and
a woman of strength, yet plain in
appearance.
Readers were exposed to a different
style in the portrayal
of passion.
Jane Eyre completes her story via the character
and the
narrator where readers can feel and see
the inside of everyone and everything
through her own eyes and her emotions.
This was a defining style of writing.
It is written in first person narrative
--
auto-biographical technique, with great personal
involvement by the heroine, Jane Eyre.
Indeed,
Charlotte Brontë was the first
subjective novelist, the literary
ancestress of Proust and James Joyce.
In reading or listening, you find so
many words that flow like refreshing
rivers; and streams of paragraphs with
intrigued mystery including unfathomable
and intense emotion.
There is no doubt why this classic
lives on and will for future
generations. Surely, you cannot find
another who can write like Charlotte
Bronte.
The above brief summation
do no justice to this great classic.
Don't miss this wonderful story in
audio.
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