Child's Sense of Injustice in Jane Eyre - Essay Example

A Childs Sense of Injustice Charlotte Bronte’s most popular book Jane Eyre is a narration of sorts in which the protagonist – who the book is titled after – tells the story about her life from her birth till the time she herself gives birth to a son. The novel itself can be divided into sections regarding different important periods of her life. One of these - that is the first volume of the book - is about her childhood and what problems she faced during that part of her life. The story starts off with a ten year old Jane who lives with ‘her suppressing and humiliating guardian Aunt Reed’ (Kern 12) and three cousins: Eliza, John and Georgiana. She is an orphan left behind homeless at the death of both her parents when her mother’s brother Reed takes her in. He adores his sister’s daughter and on his death bed makes his wife promise that she would always look after Jane. Mrs Reed agrees, however, the promise is not fulfilled in the way it was meant to be. The Reeds live at Gateshead and here is where Jane spends the first ten years of her life at. Considering the fact that she is an orphan with only the Reeds as her known, living relatives and no one else, it would be thought that she would be treated like family, in such a way that she would not feel alone with the absence of her parents. Yet this is not the case. Jane is made to feel inferior at Gateshead repeatedly, she ‘is constantly differentiated, excluded (…) leaves her as an outsider to the Reed family’ (Peters 20). She is not treated like a family member, in fact, even worse than that. ‘Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room (…) Me, she had dispensed from joining the group’ (Bronte 3). This may be due to the various reasons regarding her lack of social status, her father being a poor minister; a passionate personality which was not quite the thing at that time; and plain looks, quite the opposite of what the Reed children were, Georgiana in particular as she says in the book that she is ‘humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed’ (Bronte 3). Even the servants believe that Jane’s station in life is below theirs since she is not, in all actuality, a part of the family. She has ‘no money’ (Bronte 7) nor does she do any work to earn her keep for living there. She is often lectured on even by the servants regarding how she should behave in front of her benefactor and how, if it has not been for her generous spirit, Jane would have been sent ‘to the poorhouse’ (Bronte 9). These reminders, in return, lead to her not being content and not transforming into a child Mrs Reed would have wanted her ward to be. The Aunt talks of how ‘she really must exclude me (Jane) from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children’ (Bronte 4) when she is the reason why Jane is not the sweet, docile child she would have preferred. If the child had been treated well, she might have done everything in her power to please her guardian to show how grateful she was. Jane is frequently excluded from family time and does not play with her cousins nor does she celebrate occasions like Christmas with them. It is not even polite indifference, which would still be bearable even if not fair. Jane is said to be ‘bullied and punished … continually’ (Bronte 6) by John Reed for no reason at all. Instead of looking after his young cousin, he insists that she call him ‘Master Reed’ (Bronte 6). He calls her ‘Madam Mope’ and even a ‘bad animal’ (Bronte 5), which certainly do not count as terms of endearment for a loved one. Once he pushes her which leads to her retaliating and hitting him back, calling him a ‘wicked and cruel boy!’ (Bronte 7). When they are taken to Mrs Reed, she does not listen to Jane’s pleadings but rather chooses to side with John despite the telling bloody gash on Jane’s face. For her punishment, orders are given to ‘take her away in the Red Room, and lock her in there’ (Bronte 8). This was, in fact, the room where John Reed died. Jane is to be kept under lock and key over here until she promises to start behaving well. She keeps imagining ghosts and all that a haunted room is associated with. This affects the ten year old psychology. Normally, no child should be punished in such a way, and, Jane, in particular, was not even at fault and this is what makes her even more upset. She is caged in a haunted room for speaking her mind, saying the truth and for doing that she is oppressed. This incident is then followed by her being sent to Lowood School run under Mr Brocklehurst. Over here, the living conditions are awful. It is ‘a very hard time for her, including bad and little food, insufficient heating and very harsh treatment’ (Däne 5) and the rules are strict and unfair. And, finally, it is these conditions which lead to the outbreak of the typhus fever which leads to the death of many students. Amongst these is Jane’s only friend Helen Burns. Helen is, also, highly abused by Ms Scatcherd despite her great intelligence and diligence to work. Jane takes offence but her friend admits to deserving the punishment. Jane is, quite understandably, not happy with the way she is treated during her childhood. However, ‘she does manage to speak up against her tormentors’ (Blaha 26). She is ill-treated by her relatives and injustice is forced on her till she makes her escape to Lowood. Over here, too, she has a hypocrite of a head who preaches often but does not follow his own words. But she does understand the difference between right and wrong even if it is not taught to her and that is what helps her to become a better person in the future. Bibliography Blaha, Oliver. Two versions of Bildungsromane: Jane Eyre and David Copperfield. GRIN Verlag, 2006. Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Carleton, n.d. Däne, Stefanie. Survey on social status and societal structures in the novels "Jane Eyre" and "Emma". GRIN Verlag, 2010. Kern, Catharina. The Realisation of Jane Eyre As a Bildungsroman. GRIN Verlag, 2007. Peters, Laura. Orphan Texts: Victorian Orphans, Culture and Empire. Manchester University Press, 2001. Read More