Jane eyre first chapter. Jane Eyre. Chapters 1 2022-10-12
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In the first chapter of Jane Eyre, the titular character is introduced as a poor, orphaned girl living with her abusive aunt and cousins in a gloomy house on the moors of England. Despite her difficult circumstances, Jane is depicted as a strong and intelligent young woman who is determined to assert her independence and seek out a better life for herself.
One of the most striking aspects of the first chapter is the contrast between Jane's inner strength and the oppressive environment in which she lives. Despite the constant mistreatment and belittlement she experiences at the hands of her aunt and cousins, Jane refuses to be cowed and maintains a fierce sense of self-respect. This is most evident in her confrontation with her cousin John, who attempts to physically intimidate her after she refuses to apologize for defending herself against his bullying. Jane stands up to him, declaring "I am not an animal, to be hunted and penned. I will not be threatened and beaten with impunity" and refusing to back down even when he threatens her with a whip.
This defiance and self-possession are key to Jane's character and are central to the themes of the novel as a whole. Throughout the book, Jane struggles to assert her own identity and autonomy in a society that often seeks to define and control women. The first chapter sets the stage for this conflict by introducing us to a young woman who is already fighting to be recognized and respected as an individual.
Another important aspect of the first chapter is the setting of Gateshead Hall, which serves as a metaphor for the narrow-minded and oppressive society in which Jane lives. The house is described as "gloomy," "sombre," and "dreary," and is inhabited by characters who are cruel, selfish, and resentful. This bleak and oppressive atmosphere serves to highlight the contrast between Jane's inner strength and resilience and the external forces that seek to hold her down.
Overall, the first chapter of Jane Eyre serves to introduce the reader to a complex and multifaceted protagonist who is struggling to forge her own path in a society that often seeks to suppress and control her. Through her determination, intelligence, and self-respect, Jane emerges as a powerful and enduring symbol of resistance against oppression and injustice.
Jane Eyre Chapters 1
Lloyd speaks with Mrs. CHAPTER I There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. She soon realizes that she is in her bed and sees Bessie and Mr. After Jane saves Mr Rochester from the fire, he thanks her tenderly and emotionally, and that night Jane feels strange emotions of her own towards him. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs.
Later, Jane tells Helen that she could not have borne such public humiliation, but Helen philosophically tells her that it would be her duty to do so. Brontë Society, 2016, p. He wants Jane to marry him and serve as his assistant on his missionary journey to India. 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. The next day she walks to a nearby village and begs for work and food but receives nothing other than a slice of bread and some cold porridge. What a fury to fly at Master John! I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him … I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of "the solitary rocks and promontories" by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape - "Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.
I took a book—some Arabian tales; I sat down and endeavoured to read. Jane does not confess this to be reality, not just his imagination, for fear of exciting him in his present predicament. My look or something else must have struck her as offensive, for she spoke with extreme though suppressed irritation. Brocklehurst, Jane leaves Gateshead by the 6am coach for Lowood School. Brontë uses marriage in the novel to… Religion and spirituality are key factors in how characters develop in the novel. She had a turn for traffic, and a marked propensity for saving; shown not only in the vending of eggs and chickens, but also in driving hard bargains with the gardener about flower-roots, seeds, and slips of plants; that functionary having orders from Mrs.
When inside and drying off, she fills him in on several strange events that occurred in his absence. During the night, Helen dies. What sorrowful eyes you fix on me! The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly:it was an object of terror. Bessie supplied the hiatus by a homily of an hour's length, in which she proved beyond a doubt that I was the most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication; for change, stimulus: that petition, too, seemed swept off into vague space: "Then," I cried, half desperate, "grant me at least a new servitude! Jane and Helen begin talking and Jane discovers the school is a charity school so Mrs Reed has not in fact suffered any large expense for sending Jane to the school, despite what she led Jane to assume.
For the Reeds wealth seems to be the measure of a person's worth; Jane is poor, so she is considered unworthy of living with a gentleman's children. Mrs Reed's resentment leads her to abuse and neglect the girl. Mrs Reed confesses to Jane that she wronged her, bringing forth a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr John Eyre, in which he asks for her to live with him and be his heir. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. Their food is often inedible and served in small portions, their lodgings are cramped, and some of the teachers are extremely cruel.
All this being nothing to me, my vacant attention soon found livelier attraction in the spectacle of a little hungry robin, which came and chirruped on the twigs of the leafless cherry-tree nailed against the wall near the casement. Reed occupied her usual seat by the fireside; she made a signal to me to approach; I did so, and she introduced me to the stony stranger with the words: "This is the little girl respecting whom I applied to you. The next day, Jane is introduced to some of the school's daily routines, which consist of Bible recitations, regular academic lessons, and abominable meals. Another possible surrogate mother figure for Jane arrives in the form of the beautiful Miss Temple. Symbols and Motifs: Books, Red and White, Birds, Context Brontë includes several autobiographical aspects into the novel: Brontë was likewise a governness;. Jane feels warmly towards the headmistress Ms Temple, but dislikes a teacher Miss Scatcherd who she finds cruel and overly strict.
Jane was red room in which her late uncle had died; there, she faints from panic after she thinks she has seen his ghost. Reed looked up from her work; her eye settled on mine, her fingers at the same time suspended their nimble movements. The chapter also introduces some of the Gothic literary tradition that inform much of the narrative structure of the text. And yet, despite Mrs Reeds malevolent nature towards her, Jane attempts to end things on good terms yet again but her Aunt refuses and dies at midnight. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon.
I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide. Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. Retrieved 11 June 2019. Before they lock her up, the servants reprimand Jane for her disobedience and warn her against angering God. Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.
As an orphan at Gateshead, Jane is oppressed and dependent. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aloud. I buried a little child of five years old only a day or two since,—a good little child, whose soul is now in heaven. Jane returns to Gateshead Hall and remains there for a month to tend to her dying aunt. During this reflection of her life, she remembers her Uncle Reed who was kind to her and whose dying wish to his wife was that she look after Jane. After school is dismissed that evening, thinking that she is hated by everyone, Jane collapses into tears.
She helps clear Jane of Mr Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit and cares for Helen in her last days. Madwoman in the Attic after Thirty Years. Chapter 35 John continues to pressure Jane to marry him throughout the next week but each time she kindly declines. It was the hardest battle I had fought, and the first victory I had gained: I stood awhile on the rug, where Mr. The breakfast-room door opened. I could make no sense of the subject; my own thoughts swam always between me and the page I had usually found fascinating. Servant at Gateshead; She's the only one to give Jane any affection as a child - she later exclaimed what a "lady" Jane had turned out to be when visiting Jane at the end of chapter 10 - seen as a quiet supporter of Jane— couldn't truly say how she felt because she was under Mrs.
