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Summary and Analysis of Volume I, Chapters 1-5
Volume I, Chapter 1 Summary: Jane Eyre narrates from the home of the well-off Reed family, Gateshead Hall. Refused permission by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, to play with her with cousinsEliza, John, and Georgiana10-year-old Jane reads Bewick's "History of British Birds." The bullying John interrupts her reading and says that, since she was orphaned and is dependent on his family, she has no right to read their books. He strikes her with the book and they fight, but Jane acquits herself well and scares him off. The other children alert Mrs. Reed, who locks Jane away in the "red-room." AnalysisImmediately the reader is positioned on Jane's side through careful novelistic craftsmanship. From the first page, Jane is oppressed, sent off while her cousins play. We learn through exposition from John that she is a penniless orphan, dependent on the heartless Reed family; indeed, social class will play an important role in the rest of the novel. She is also a sensitive girl given to flights of fancy while reading, but she also displays her strength in her defense against John. All the elements are in place for a classic "Bildungsroman," the literary genre originating in the German literally as "novel of formation" or, as it is generally known, the "coming-of-age" story. In the Bildungsroman, classic examples of which are Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, the young protagonist matures through a series of obstacles and defines his or her identity. Volume I, Chapter 2 Summary: Jane resists physically and verbally as the servants Bessie and Miss Abbot lead her to the red-room, named for the color of most of its drapery and furniture. The room also contains a miniature version of Mr. Reed, who has been dead nine years; his actual body lies in a vault under the Gateshead church. Before they lock her up, the servants reprimand her for her disobedience and warn her against angering God. Jane catches her ghostly reflection in the mirror and, thinking about her miserable condition and about her dead uncle, recalls how he took the orphaned Jane in and made Mrs. Reed promise to take care of her. Suddenly, a ray of light enters the room, and Jane cries out, believing the light is a ghost. She alerts Bessie, Miss Abbot, and Mrs. Reed, but they accuse her of trickery and refuse to free her. After they leave, Jane faints. Analysis: The red-room has both deathly associations (red as the color of blood, the room's containing a miniature version of the dead Mr. Reed, and Jane's belief that she sees a ghost in it) and is a clear symbol of imprisonment. Throughout the novel, Jane will be imprisoned in more metaphorical ways, particularly relating to class, gender, and religion. Ironically, although John is the root cause of Jane's imprisonment here, the three aggressors in this chapter are all women, and Jane's one savior, it appears, was her uncle. The chapter also introduces Gothic details with the ghost Jane thinks she sees and the revelation that Mr. Reed's body lies beneath the church. The Gothic novel, popularized in the 18th-century, utilizes supernatural, suspenseful, and mysterious settings and events to create an atmosphere of horror and morbidity. The Gothic novel is also characterized by damsels in distress (and women are frequently the protagonists); though Jane faints here, common for Gothic women, she proves herself strong-willed and determined to fight back against her oppressors. Volume I, Chapter 3 Summary: Jane wakes up, dimly aware of voices and of someone's supporting her. She soon realizes she is in her bed and sees Bessie and Mr. Lloyd, the apothecary. He gives instructions for Jane's care and departs, and Bessie, more concerned than before over Jane's health, leaves soon after. Jane sleeps and awakens the next day feeling terrible. The family is away, and under Bessie's care she takes Gulliver's Travels, but is unable to thrill to its fantastical tales as she normally does. She cries after Bessie sings her a sad song (a popular one composed by Edward Ransford, c. 1840) about an orphan. Mr. Lloyd returns and, once Bessie is gone, Jane tries to tell him about the ghost of Mr. Reed she saw. He does not believe her, and whenever she brings up the abuses she suffers at Gateshead, he observes that she is lucky to live in such a beautiful house. She thinks she has some poor relatives, but would not like to live with them, even if they were kind. She would, however, like to go to school. The family returns, and Mr. Lloyd speaks with Mrs. Reed and apparently recommends sending Jane to school. Later, while pretending to be asleep, Jane overhears Miss Abbot discussing how Mrs. Reed was glad to get rid of Jane, and about her parent's history: her mother married her poor clergyman father against the wishes of her friends and family, was financially cut off by her disapproving father, and the two died of typhus while visiting poor people in a manufacturing town after a year of marriage. Analysis: The conflicts of social class, which were suggested in Chapter I by John's taunting of Jane, deepen here. Jane has the odd situation of being poor within a rich family. As such, her notions of poverty are skewed; as she admits, children "have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable povertypoverty for me was synonymous with degradation." Her parents, too, ran into problems with class, as her rich mother's marriage to her poor father directly resulted in both their deaths. Adding insult to injury, Bessie's song drums home Jane's status as a "poor orphan child." Jane, of course, is poor in both pitiable and pecuniary terms, without anyone to love her and without any money for self-sufficiency. Volume I, Chapter 4 Summary: Time passes and Jane regains her strength, but the subject of her unhappiness is never broached, and the family treats her even more poorly than before. Jane challenges Mrs. Reed one day, questioning what her late husband would think of her behavior. Jane is excluded from family celebrations around the holidays, finding solace only in the doll with which she sleeps and in Bessie's kindly goodnight kisses. In mid-January, Mr. Brocklehurst, whose Lowood school Jane learns she will attend, visits Gateshead and interrogates Jane about her religious beliefs, warning her she must repent and cleanse her "wicked heart." Mrs. Reed hopes Jane's time at Lowood will reform her, particularly her tendency to lie, an accusation that stings Jane. After Mr. Brocklehurst leaves, Jane defends her honesty to her aunt and launches a series of recriminations. Mrs. Reed seems stunned and leaves, but Jane's victorious feelings soon give way to remorse. She feels better later when Bessie, who informs her that she will leave in a couple of days for the school, confides that she prefers Jane to the other children. Analysis: Jane's love for her doll constitutes one of the major themes of the novel, that "human beings must love something." However, being loved is just as important, and the only affection Jane receives is from Bessie, who acts as a surrogate mother figure. Religion makes its first formal appearance in the novel through Mr. Brocklehurst. Already, we can see the religious hypocrisies Brontë exposes; he believes the deceitful Mrs. Reed over Jane, and relishes the seemingly heartless reformations that take place at school. Fire and ice are running motifs throughout the novel; the former is associated with Jane and with positive creation, while the latter is associated with her antagonists and with negative destruction. Brontë is often subtle with these symbolic attachments; Mrs. Reed's eyes, for instance, are twice compared to ice in this chapter: "hercold, composed grey eyeher eye of ice continued to dwell freezingly on mine." Volume I, Chapter 5 Summary: Jane leaves Gateshead by coach alone for Lowood. She is introduced to some of the school's daily routineswhich consist largely of Bible recitations, regular academic lessons, and abominable mealsand sleeps in a room filled with other girls. The next day she meets the kindly, beautiful superintendent, Miss Temple, and another girl, Helen Burns, who informs Jane that all the student are "charity-children"orphans whose tuition is largely made up for by benefactors. One of the nastier teachers, Miss Scatcherd, mistreats Helen in class, though the stoic Helen impressively bears her punishment. Analysis: Immediately we see that Lowood's religious education does not necessarily mean the orphans are treated well. Their food is basically inedible, their lodgings are cramped, and some of the teachers are cruel. Brontë drops a few hints about the suspicious goings-on when Helen reveals that "benevolent-minded ladies and gentlemen" make up the tuition and that Mr. Brocklehurst is the treasurer of the house. Another possible surrogate mother figure arrives in the form of Miss Temple. Her name, with its religious overtones, indicates that she is the only teacher at Lowood who truly upholds the Christian ethic.
ClassicNote on Jane Eyre
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