While you’re welcome to discuss anything you’d like in the first 9 chapters of Jane Eyre, here are some prompts to get you started thinking:
- Critical discussion of Jane Eyre often revolves around the 5 main houses Jane lives in over the course of the novel: Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield Manor, Moor House, and Ferndean. In the reading for today, you’ve already been introduced to two of these houses. Choose one and discuss it. What does Jane learn there? What are her struggles? How does the house seem to fit with the Gothic format?
- Discuss the events and possible symbolism of the Red Room at Gateshead
- Examine the significance of Helen Burns or Miss Temple in the novel
- How are religious beliefs important in these opening chapters of the novel?
In my first read of Jane Eyre, immediately the book is set apart from the rest. I noticed that this book picks up in the heat of the issue, instead of builds to it. In Northanger Abbey the background of Catherine, and then builds to her moving, meeting other characters, and then the conflict. But in Jane Eyre, our heroine is already experiencing the abuse. The first setting is in Gateshead Hall with the Reed Family. Jane’s parents are already past, and she is now forced to stay in this abusive household. Jane endures verbal and emotional abuse by the mother and even the servants, but her main physical abuser is the son John. She is told she is “less than a servant”, and she told she should be more dismissive to appeal to this family who is giving her shelter. Although we have readers know that changing her attitude will not help her, Jane goes through mental debates about her situation. So right off the bat, we can see key gothic tropes such as no parental figures, and a poor damsel in distress. We also get some of the “haunted or eerie settings” in Jane Eyre too. We first see this in the Red Room in the Gateshead Hall Residence. After Jane suffers a beating from John, she speaks out against John and is thrown into the Red Room. The room has red accents, mahogany furniture, and a “secret drawer in the wardrobe”. Jane says the room is chill, silent, and remote. Mr. Reed, the husband, died in that very room nine years prior. This alludes to the eerie feeling this room possesses. Later on in the novel, I assume will see even more of these tropes play out, due to the fact that this book seems to move quicker and it is a more obvious female gothic book.
Gateshead Hall is the first of the five houses that Jane will live in throughout the novel, and it is one that follows the standard setting of the female gothic almost perfectly. It’s described as very dreadful and she talks a lot about the weather being stormy, rainy and windy, which is also a trope of the gothic to display the heroine’s emotional and mental state. The house itself though, acts as Jane’s prison, especially when considering the “red room” that she is sent into as a punishment by her aunt. And it is here that Jane is shaped greatly by the isolation of being an orphan and and the cold treatment of her relatives only really makes that feeling worse. I also thought it was kind of interesting how in Gateshead Hall, it’s supposed to be a wealthy and extravagant manor, but Jane describes it in cold and harsh terms, because of the trauma and abuse she endures at the Hall.
Following the rules of a classic Gothic novel, the main character Jane, is in search of a motherly figure. Like one would, she desires the warmth and guidance of a mother. At the Lowood Institution, Jane meets Miss. Temple who dramatically helps Jane grow and understand her journey. Growing up without a mother is difficult as we can analyze within many works of Gothic or other forms of literature. A character like Miss Temple is very important to the story, as she is the one who represents maternity wear maternity should typically be. When convention is thrown off, like an absent mother in a Gothic novel, characters like Miss Temple are placed strategically within the novel to offer benefit to the main or other characters. . She offers her the comfort and support that Jane ever so desired and “fills in,” as a mother, anywhere a mother is due in Jane’s life.
The novel starts at Gateshead Hall, where Jane Eyre spends most of her childhood. Jane fell under the care of the Reed family after the death of her parents. Although a blood relative to the Reeds, they treat Jane as an outsider and a burden to the family. At the request of Mrs. Reed, Jane is restricted from playing with her cousins and is often bullied by John Reed. In an attempt to stand up to John’s abuse, Jane is sent to the Red Room. The Red Room is the abandoned room where Mr. Reed died, and Jane believes it to be haunted by his spirit. The Red Room contains supernatural elements commonly seen in the Gothic genre. Furthermore, while residing in Gateshead Hall, the Reeds’ treatment of Jane becomes her main struggle and why she views the home as a prison. It is also important to include that the Reeds themselves fit into the typical Gothic format as they represent the cruel stepfamily who takes care of the heroine in her early life.
Jane Eyre fits the Gothic much better than I initially thought it would based on my preconceived notions of the novel. Both houses that are introduced within the first nine chapters of the novel fit the idea of the “Gothic castle” but while they are not literally castles, they maintain an element of mystery and strife for a young Jane. At Gateshead, Jane is treated cruelly by Mrs. Reed, as is typical for the usual “stepmother” in a Gothic novel, additionally Jane frequently mentions her gaze catching a ghost when she is in the Red Room. The elements of fear and cruelty make the home feel “Gothic” in a sense. Lowood has an element of the Gothic as well, with it’s bleak and drab interior and the cold and ‘blue’ exterior, there is nothing exciting or happy about Lowood, and here, Jane is also treated rather cruelly. I’m excited to see how the rest of the places that Jane ends up at fit within the Gothic genre.
Both Gateshead and Lowood School very much so fit into the gothic tropes. Gateshead is an ominous and decadent mansion that just straight up seems haunted, like legitimately the Red Room definitely has some ghosts or something in there. Gateshead, to me, just seems like one of those creepy houses they use in every ghost story. The struggles Jane faces at Gateshead are abuse, loneliness, and general grief of the way her life is. No one really shows her any kindness and she’s essentially just left to fend for herself.
Lowood also has quite the gothic vibe, I see it as being like those really intricately built schools in England but like if all the life was sucked out of it. Jane faces a different set of struggles here, that being overbearing authority figures, a low quality of life standard, and the general struggles of being at a new place where you feel like no one likes you. Helen definitely seems like a good role model for Jane, even though she should really think more highly of herself than just blaming herself for someone being cruel to her.
I also find the religious beliefs of characters in this novel really interesting, like the fact that Mr. Brocklehurst tries to use religion to justify practically abusing children for doing normal children things is so heinous. I find the contrast of different religious characters quite interesting too, like there’s Helen who’s just a little saint and shows everyone kindness who is quite heavily religious and then there’s Mr. Brocklehurst who just uses his religion to bully people. The religious themes are important to these opening chapters because it sets up a means for characters to act a certain way, like it just wouldn’t be as entertaining if Mr. Brocklehurst was just bullying kids for sport with no justification to himself because that leaves his character really stereotypical and flat. Honestly I just find it all quite interesting because I went to a religious private school in high school and there would be little absurd things that would happen (obviously not quite to that heavy of an extent) so I just find it entertaining personally because some people really do act like that.
So far, Jane Eyre seems to fit the gothic genre the most out of all the books we have read so far, and I find it much more interesting and enjoyable as well. Jane’s time at the first house, Gateshead Hall, hit many of the marks of gothic stereotypes. Her parents died when she was only an infant, her uncle who would have potentially been her father figure passed as well, and she was then stuck with her horrible aunt and cousins that treated her as if she was less than a human being. Her childhood was nothing but full of neglect, hostility, isolation, gaslighting, and emotional, mental, and, from John Reed, physical abuse. Gateshead Hall was her own gothic castle in which she was imprisoned, constantly tormented by John’s bullying, Mrs. Reeds defamation of her character, and her incessant state of solitude. Her only solaces were in reading fantasy books and sometimes spending time with Bessie when she was a in a pleasant mood. Jane’s life growing up is quite similar to that of Cinderella’s, with her fairy godmother perhaps coming to her in the form of Mr. Brocklehurst allowing her to escape the manor and go to school. It was quite shocking to see a child as young as 10 possess a mental state as Jane did, caused by years of depression and mistreatment. Jane’s hysterical episode caused by the fear of seeing a ghost when locked in the red room was also very alarming. The constant emotional distress fits perfectly in the gothic format, and I felt constant pity towards Jane. I have only finished up to chapter 5 so far and I’m very happy Jane escaped the Reeds to Lowood, which already seems much more pleasant. However, I am also very anxious to see if Lowood is indeed actually better for Jane, or if something will happen that will make it even more insufferable than Gateshead Hall.
Jane’s experience in both the Gateshead Hall and the Lowood School really set the mood for the novel and show how Jane’s surroundings shape her childhood. I feel as if both locations played negative roles into her upbringing and additionally form the mood of Gothic literature. Experiencing abuse, neglect, and deceit from such a young age forms Jane into a timid but outspoken character, which is shown through her perseverance and defiance towards others. She is heavily mistreated and uncared for in both locations, and the house and school bring the classic characteristics of a gothic novel: mystery, fear, and villains. Through the story we can see Jane rise as the heroine, attempting to fight her way through the mistreatment. Jane Eyre is the female protagonist that faces the typical emotional distress familiar in gothic works, and although we are not fully through with the book, we learn a lot about Jane’s character and how the story will be shaped around her character traits.
Based on all the books we’ve read in class so far, Jane Eyre seems to fall under the gothic genre the most. Jane Eyre is the classic gothic heroine with absent parents and a wild childhood. Lowood school is an important setting in this novel. It is a house seen commonly in traditional gothic books. It inhabits a large structure like many haunted mansions and castles in this genre. When Jane first arrives at Lowood all alone, the weather is horrible, another traditional theme. The storms are aggressive, and the winters cold and miserable. Not long after Jane arrives at the school, she finds out that it is a school for orphan girl’s, and that the Reed’s didn’t pay anything for her to go there. She struggles as just another student who is underfed, overworked, and forced to abide by the school’s strict rules. Her aunt tells Mr. Brocklehurst that she is a liar, a man everyone is terrified of, who then exposes her to the entire school. She then has her first friend die of consumption. Although Jane does learn a lot academically, the rest of this schooling is horrible which I’m sure is just the start for this story.
I have never read Jane Eyre, so my guess is that an important theme of the novel is going to be hypocrisy, specifically religious hypocrisy. This can be seen most clearly in the character Mr. Brocklehurst, who preaches modesty and religiosity, but his family is no where near modest, and he (from what I can tell so far) is not a good man at all.
Additionally, this is a rather underdeveloped thought so I’m not sure how to entirely put it into words, but I’ve noticed a theme of “stone” in the novel. I’m not sure what it symbolizes yet, possibly the coldhearted or hypocritical, to refer back to what I just said, but I’ve been looking for it since Mr. Brocklehurst was introduced. I drew this connection because introductions of characters are important, and the very first introduction we see of him is a description of a “black pillar” (very unyielding, possibly bad-natured?), and then he goes on to preach the traditional fear tactic of “fire and brimstone” to Jane. Brimstone, again, mentioning stone. It’s probably a stretch, but I’ve noticed it a few times since, so I’ll continue to be on the lookout to draw connections.
The first chapter was not interesting and made no sense to me. Once I got to the second and third the story started to pick up and I started to enjoy it more. I was shocked when I found out that John Reeds was abusing Jane when he was just 14 years old and already felt and acted like he had so much power. After the few incidents happened, I thought when Mrs. Reeds and the guy were talking, they would send Jade to a local school and still live at the house with Mrs. Reeds and John reeds, I was so wrong. I never thought Jane would be going to an all-girls school, I just assumed she would go to school, and I am honestly happy Jane was able to go to an all-girls school so she could get away from people that did not want her such as Mrs. Reeds and John Reeds who would hit her and push her. I really never thought that Helen would die because it started off as a cough and then it progressed to the typhus epidemic which made half of the girls sick and sadly killed Jane’s best friend Helen.
Lowood school shows many traits of classic gothic literature, along with the people who inhabit it. When Jane first arrives to Lowood it is dark outside and after traveling by herself she is escorted into the building where she is not fully aware of her surroundings. The school is a very large building and the students are not treated very well, getting very little food, and being subjected to harsh weather conditions. Many instances at Lowood, Jane describes storms engulfing the building and during the winter the surroundings are bleak. Jane also describes the way to Miss Temple’s room down long corridors and up and down staircases until she eventually reaches the secluded room, a very gothic description. The students of the school are children whos parents were not able to support them so they were sent to school on charity. This contributes to the gothic trope of absent parents, something that is very prevalent in this Novel. Also, Mr. Brocklehurst acts as the overbearing and frightening male figure for these girls, they tend to do better when he is not there. These gothic elements that are introduced at Lowood set the scene for the rest of the novel, and secure Jane’s place as the somewhat traditional gothic heroine based on upbringing.
When I previously read Jane Eyre, the Red Room was a key topic of discussion. I viewed it similar to the way I view it now. The red room was a place where Jane’s Aunt sent her to be punished. Not only was the room a place of exile for Jane, but it can be seen as how Jane is more than just physically trapped. In the red room, Jane is left alone with her thoughts, and she can not make the decision to escape. This is similar to how Jane’s life will become throughout the entire novel. Jane is trapped in situations because of who she is, and where she is financially. She is another example of a gothic heroine who is trapped because of the other men and people in her life. The red room is a perfect physical example of how Jane is stuck in life and is looking for some sort of freedom. The red room is holding her back from what she wants and holding her back from being able to make her own decisions. It will continue to be important in the novel when Jane is feeling restricted.