How Charlotte Bronte Creates Sympathy for Jane in the First Two Chapters of the Novel

How Charlotte Bronte Creates Sympathy for Jane in the First Two Chapters of the Novel

Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre (1848) is a story is about a ten

year old orphan girl called Jane Eyre. Her circumstances are as

follows; when both of her parents died within a year of her birth,

leaving her into the care of her Aunt, Mrs Reed. Mrs Reed is a widow

of Jane's uncle, who broke her promise to late husband by mistreating

Jane cruelly. Then Jane is also bullied by here three cousins,

especially 14-year-old John. She is also regarded as "less then a

servant" (chapter 2). Bronte creates sympathy for Jane in the first

two chapters of the novel in various ways. These include, the settings

she creates, the language she uses to describe Jane, the way the

chapters are structured and understanding of the social context of the

time.

In 'Jane Eyre' Charlotte Bronte bases her plot on the Gothic Genre

making the novel dark and mysterious with hints of supernatural

elements.

Charlotte Bronte first makes you sympathise with Jane through the

settings she creates. The novel opens with striking contrast between

the bleakness and chill of the winter world outside and the cosy

intimacy of a family, sitting comfortably around a fire in the drawing

room of Gateshead. In the opening sentence, the writer makes us feel

the sympathy for Jane by saying, " There was no possibility of taking

a walk that day". This is because of the weather, which is dull and

wet. Bronte's novel setting is to evoke sympathy of the reader. He

mood of the paragraph is determined from Jane's description of the

winter weather, "leafless" "cold winter wind" and "chilly". Jane fi...

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...osed to her own children who she regards as her "precious little

darlings", whom she believes are well behaved and pretty. We feel

empathy for Jane here, as we know that she is bullied by her cousins,

particularly John Reed who describes her as "You rat!" (chapter 2).

Mrs Reed also shows no sympathy for Jane when she screams of terror in

the red room, and orders that Jane "should be left in the red room

till further notice" (chapter 2).

The whole two chapters are very sympathetic towards Jane Eyre and the

reader cannot help, show commiseration for Jane, who is badly

mistreated by the Reed household. Overall, Charlotte Bronte creates

sympathy for Jane Eyre through the settings she creates, the language

used to describe Jane ad a young orphan girl, how the chapters are

structured and through social context of the time.