Section I – Themes: Jane Eyre is shaped by the complex themes that outline Jane’s life story. Throughout the novel is the concept of forgiveness as preached by the Bible. Jane was abused by her host family, the Reeds, for majority of her childhood. When she finally gained the courage to stand up for herself, Jane vowed she would never forgive the Reeds and would never call Mrs. Reed her aunt. Jane left the Reeds to attend school where she began to learn the need for patience, forgiveness, and kindness from Helen Burns. She teaches Jane to live by the Bible’s commandments and to forgive those who had wronged her. Jane, later in the novel, proves that she has truly incorporated this forgiveness into her life and moral code. When she returns …show more content…
One of the most prominent factors of the era was the socioeconomic class system. The Victorian class system can be broken into four main parts: the Under Class, the Working Class, the Middle Class, and the Upper Class. The Under Class, the lowest and least regarded class, refers to the orphans, the homeless, and the extremely poor. The lifespan of these people was very short as many would get sick and were unable to pay for treatment or they would die of starvation. The Working Class was the lowest of the official three-class system. Men, women, and children worked for poor wages and typically could not afford the time or money for education. They had very little leisure time and worked dangerous and menial labor. Their living conditions were characterized by slum-like environments with many families residing in one house. The workers’ long hours, poor living and work settings, and miniscule wages led to many dying of terrible health or accidents inside the factories. During this time period, along with the unhealthy Under and Working Classes, the Middle Class began to rise. Traders and specialized workers began to earn more money and buy property. This meant they were accumulating both wealth and political standing, changing the precedent of the time. The Upper Class was the highest socioeconomic class of Victorian England. Members of this class did not participate in manual labor but instead had business in politics, usually Parliament. Many of the elite were land owners. Women were not to work but to get married to a member of the elite. The Upper Class were patrons of the arts as they had the wealth and time for such things. At the time, the classes were not meant to intermarry or interact with one another, thus keeping the nation divided for decades
Jane Eyre is born into a world where she is left bereft of the love of parents, family, or friends, but instead surrounded by hateful relatives. She resolves to attend school to begin her quest for independence. This theme is seen through Jane’s behavior when she renounces her relation to her aunt Mrs. Reed, ignoring the nurse’s orders and leaving her room to see Helen again, and when she acquires the courage to speak her opinion to Mr. Rochester.
In the book Jane Erye by Charolette Bronte, Jane encounters many different settings and people. Jane is put through horrible suffering and refuses to give her abusers the satisfaction of viewing her inner anguish. Jane accomplishes this through stoicism. This occurs many times in the book throughout Jane's life. Within Jane's life, she travels through her childhood home Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, and finally Edward Rochester's Thornfield. In each of these locations, Jane encounters obstacles which cause her suffering. And each time Jane maintains a stoic appearance, she gains these valuable necessities: strength, faith, knowledge, wealth, or independence. Each of these accumulate and combine to form her personality.
In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses Jane Eyre as her base to find out how a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with her responsibilities. . Mistreated abused and deprived of a normal childhood, Jane Eyre creates an enemy early in her childhood with her Aunt Mrs. Reed. Just as Mrs. Reeds life is coming to an end, she writes to Jane asking her for forgiveness, and one last visit from her.
The tone of Jane Eyre is direct, perhaps even blunt. There is no prissy little-girl sensibility, but a startlingly independent, even skeptical perspective. At the age of 10, the orphan Jane already sees through the hypocrisy of her self-righteous Christian elders. She tells her bullying Aunt Reed, "People think you a good woman, but you are bad; hard-hearted. You are deceitful!" and "I am glad you are no relative of mine; I will never call you aunt again so 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 that the very thought of you makes me sick." (In fact, when her aunt is elderly and dying, Jane does return to visit her, and forgives her. But that's far in the future.) With the logic of a mature philosopher, in fact rather like Friedrich Nietzsche to come, Jane protests the basic admonitions of Christianity as a schoolgirl: "I must resist those who ... persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel that it is deserved." And this bold declaration, which would have struck readers of 1847 (in fact, of 1947) as radical and "infeminine":
In the novel, Jane Eyre starts as a young girl of ten years old; she lives with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her cousins John, Georgiana, and Eliza. At Gateshead, Jane has undergone betrayal in the acts that the Reed family does not treat her as a part of their family. Mrs. Reed treats Jane unkindly and as if she was a victim to put it, in other words, Mrs. Reed says “ take her away to the red-room and lock her in there” (Brontë, Ch. 1). Mrs. Reed
Throughout the Victorian Era, the standard of occupations were distinctly divided based on class. These social classes that divided the caliber of work in occupations were: the upper class, middle or working class and the lower class. Occupations that required skilled labor and unskilled labor each employed people in separate classes. Men and women within each class had different jobs in accordance with the type of work in their social class. (Victorian Web.)
Many people believe that eating disorders are a product of the twentieth century, brought on by teenage girls aspiring to be supermodels like Cindy Crawford. Although such pressures are precipitating factors to many eating disorders, doctors diagnosed patients with anorexia as early as 1689 (Spignesi 7). One early example of anorexia is present in the novel Jane Eyre. Written in the mid-nineteenth century by Charlotte Brontë, this book describes a young girl whose personality bears striking similarities with that of a diagnosed anorexic. The life of the main character, Jane, has also been shown to share innumerable similarities with Brontë's own life. Biographical information from researchers and autobiographical information from Jane Eyre (whether intentional or not) verify that Brontë had an eating disorder.
In the beginning of Jane Eyre, Mrs. Reed tells the owner of Lowood Institution, Mr. Brocklehurst, that Jane has, "'a bad character, a deceitful disposition; and to let everybody at Lowood know what [she] is, and what [she] has done'" (34). Jane already despises Mrs. Reed for treating her so poorly, but now she is infuriated. If Mr. Brocklehurst describes Jane as Mrs. Reed instructs him to do, Jane will never make friends at Lowood because all of the children will fear her. Jane battles back by saying to her aunt, "'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'" (33). Jane...
In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Jane has gone through experiences and some which let her down in a few ways. Jane also has people who impact her which hinder her future. She has been through so much and sometimes things and good sometimes they’re bad. Jane’s life has really changed and she experiences many things
Society turns its back on Jane Eyre many times and in many ways. As a young orphan growing up with her extended family, the Reeds, Jane is treated as a burden, as "less than a servant" (7). Her aunt goes so far as to tell Jane 's cousins "not to go near her: she is not worthy of notice" (23). Jane is alone, physically separated from the only family she knows simply because she is dependent. With no money of her own she is reliant on the charity; her cousin John accuses her of doing nothing to earn her keep, "you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not live here gentlemen 's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma 's expense" (5). John presents a direct correlation between her lack of fortune and his scorn. It is through these interactions with the Reeds that Jane first learns that poverty is "synonymous with degradation" (20). This lesson is reiterated later when Jane runs away from Thronfield, where she was working as a governess, and loses what little money she had earned. In a nearby town, Jane must resort
The story begins with a young Jane Eyre who is essentially neither loved by anyone nor independent in nature. At this point in the story, the reader discovers that Jane is an orphan and is being supported by the Reed family. This discovery is made through the portrayal of John Reed when he is taunting Jane about her social status. John claims that since it is his family who supports Jane, it is their choice to dictate the circumstances under which she lives. In this case, Jane is not allowed to play with the younger Reed children or read a book that belongs to the Reeds. The fact that6 Jane is an orphan living under someone else's roof displays that she has not yet gained her independence.
At the beginning of the novel while Jane is living under her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she is treated disrespectfully and cruelly. She accuses Jane of being deceitful and a troublesome girl in front of Mr. Brocklehurst, the master of Lowood School. Jane is so hurt by this accusation that she cannot stop herself from defending her well being, and she stands up to her aunt. She knows she is being treated disrespectful and has much more self-worth than ...
At the start of Jane Eyre, Jane is living with her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her family after being orphaned. Jane is bitterly unhappy there because she is constantly tormented by her cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana. After reading the entire book you realize that Jane was perfectly capable of dealing with that issue on her own, but what made it unbearable was that Mrs. Reed always sided with her children, and never admitted to herself that her offspring could ever do such things as they did to Jane. Therefore, Jane was always punished for what the other three children did, and was branded a liar by Mrs. Reed. This point in the book marks the beginning of Jane's primary conflict in the novel. She feels unloved and unaccepted by the world, as her own family betrays her.
As a child, Jane Eyre suffered from much torment from her Aunt Reed and her callous cousins. She never received the love she deserved and longed for. She felt the need to escape from the misery and torture that she got at Gateshead from her so called family. In a way, Mrs. Reed helped Jane in her process of growing and maturing. Jane was determined to find something better for her in life because she did not want to feel that rejection from the Reeds. With that rejection, Jane was motivated to become someone better than they were. Jane Eyre was sent to Lowood, an orphanage school, and met Miss Temple and Helen Burns.
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...