Jane Eyre Chapter 1 - 6
Jane Eyre is a ten-year-old girl living at Gateshead Hall, with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her three cousins John, Eliza, and Georgina Reed. Jane sequesters herself in the breakfast room on one dreary and rainy afternoon, hiding from her relatives in a window seat. She gathers a book to herself and loses herself in the descriptions of icy isles in lonely seas. Her reading is interrupted by the entry of fourteen-year-old John Reed. He calls her to him as he seats himself on a chair, and Jane dreads the beating that she is to receive. He strikes her with force and berates her for being a dependent on his household. He admonishes her for taking a book from the shelf as he claims that the books, like everything else in Gateshead Hall, would one day belong to him. He strikes her brutally and then throws the book at her. The book causes Jane to fall and cut her forehead open against a door. She calls him a tyrant and slave driver like one of the old Roman Emperors and he charges at her. Jane fights him, and hears him screaming “Rat!”. They are separated from the fight, and Jane is conducted to the Red room in the unfriendly arms of Abbot, the maid, and Bessie, the nurse, upon the command of Mrs. Reed.
The Red Room is one of the stateliest rooms and yet the most disused for it had been the room in which Mr. Reed had breathed his last, and where he had been laid in state. Jane falls into despair as she begins to wonder why her cousins are treated so gently despite being so full of vice, while she is treated in the most wretched manner despite behaving well with everyone. She concludes that had she been more brilliant and handsome then she would have found more love in the home of her relative. As she looks about the room, she recalls that Mr. Reed had been the one to take her into his household for she had been his niece through his sister. He had passed before Jane could form any memories of him but it was believed that he had charged Mrs. Reed to care for Jane as if she were her own child while he had been on his deathbed. The thoughts of her uncle and the cold surroundings cause Jane to believe that she has seen the movement of a ghost. She screams and rushes to the door, but Mrs. Reed mistakes Jane’s scream as an act to escape her punishment and orders that she be locked in the room again. Jane experiences a fit as she is locked in again, and the world loses focus.
She wakes much later and is comforted to realize that she has a stranger in addition to Bessie at her bedside. The apothecary man, Mr. Lloyd, assures Jane that she will be well soon, and Bessie behaves most civilly. She overhears Bessie’s conversation with one of the servants and learns that she had collapsed in the room while strange things had been seen around Mr. Reed’s grave. Jane manages to sleep but experiences no rest as her nerves are stretched thin and she cannot help but cry. None of the things she had once desired seem to give her any joy, and when the apothecary returns, he finds her quite desolate. Jane gratefully unloads her despair as she tells him that she is sad because no one loves her, and though her home is rich and luxurious, it is still uncomfortable. The apothecary wonders if she would like to live with her relatives, and Jane dismisses that notion for Mrs. Reed had told her that the only other relatives she had were too poor to support her. He then asks her if she would like to go to school, and Jane readily agrees. The apothecary makes the suggestion, and Jane later learns that Mrs. Reed had readily accepted the suggestion. She also learns that her father had been a poor clergyman who had married her mother against the wishes of Jane’s grandfather Reed. Her grandfather had then disinherited her mother, but both her mother and father had died from an infectious fever leaving Jane alone in the world until her uncle had taken her into his household.
Jane gathered from the conversations she heard around the house that Mrs. Reed was unlikely to tolerate her presence much longer and that Jane would soon be liberated from Gateshead. The children were forbidden from talking to her since she had fallen sick, and although John attempted to torture her once again, Jane reacted with such violence and hate that he ran to his mother. Jane antagonized her aunt by asking her how her husband would think of her if he could see how cruel Mrs. Reed was to Jane. In this way, Jane was alienated from all except Bessie, who was gentle sometimes and scornful at others. Christmas and New Year passed while Jane had nothing except her little doll for company. A carriage arrived in January bearing Mr. Brocklehurst of the Lowood institution. Jane was called to a meeting with him and Mrs. Reed, who did her utmost to poison Jane’s future. Jane could not bring herself to counter Mrs. Reed’s claims that Jane was a deceitful child that needed to be disciplined and humbled. Mr. Brocklehurst promises Mrs. Reed that the conditions of the school would humble Jane, and prepare her for the role that she would play in life. A fuming Jane then confronts Mrs. Reed once he has departed and tells her that she would tell everyone how cruel and deceitful Mrs. Reed is herself. She is visibly taken aback by Jane’s words and leaves after telling Jane that she would leave for school soon.
Jane exults in her first victory but the argument leaves a bad taste in her mouth. She goes out into the garden where she is found by Bessie, and Jane behaves warmly with her while frankly telling her not to scold her. Bessie tells Jane to behave more confidently and not to be too afraid for it can be quite provoking. Jane leaves Gateshead after a couple of days aboard a coach bidding no one but Bessie a farewell. The journey is long and tiresome, but Jane arrives at the Lowood institution in good spirits. She is taken into custody by the superintendent, Maria Temple, whom Jane finds to be extremely kind and charming. Jane is given to the care of a visibly overworked Miss Miller as she is taken to the schoolroom where about eighty girls of varying ages are seated. Jane watches the girls pray and sit for a sparse meal. She is taken to the dormitory where she sleeps next to Miss Miller. The next morning the girls are woken before sunrise, take lessons on the bible, and are then given breakfast that none of the girls, including Jane, can eat. The girls are then organized into four groups that are led by four teachers including Miss Miller, and Miss Temple comes in later to conduct classes as well. After the morning classes are over Miss Temple tells the students that she had heard about the poor breakfast and so had brought in bread and cheese for the students.
In the interval between classes, Jane learns that Lowood Institution is a school for charity as the limited tuition of the school is supplemented by charitable subscribers. The school was built by Naomi Brocklehurst, whose son, Mr. Brocklehurst is a clergyman and the treasurer of the institution. Jane understands that her new home is less than welcoming but she experiences no sadness at being removed from Lowood institution. Jane befriends the peculiarly devout Helen Burns as she sees her reading a book. Later she observes the horrible manner in which Helen is treated by Miss Scatcherd during class and asks her why she does not resist. Helen repeats the lessons from the bible and points out the mistakes she makes to incite the teacher’s fury. Jane tries to tell Helen that it would be better if she resisted those who behaved poorly with her and exemplifies it by telling her evil Mrs. Reed and John had been with her. Helen notes that Jane remembers the pains that she had been inflicted too well, and asks her not to dwell on the hurts she had been caused. Helen also observes how attentive Jane is during her classes, a quality she believes she lacks although she admits that she never quite has any trouble paying attention during Miss Temple’s class.
Analysis
Jane Eyre can be classified as a novel belonging to the bildungsroman genre, which also draws on the Gothic tradition. Bildungsroman is a German word that can be directly translated as a novel of education, and like the other books of this genre, we follow the protagonist through various experiences that help them grow and evolve.
Jane Eyre has five different settings and the first two are introduced here in this first section. Jane grows up in Gateshead, whose name could also serve to signify the beginning of Jane's journey, and she is then sent for education to Lowood, where she encounters the darker realities of poverty through the privations exerted on her by Mr. Brocklehurst.
It is evident from the outset that Jane doesn't have a place to call home, and this aspect of her character forms one of the major aspects of Jane's journey. She tells Mr. Lloyd that she doesn't belong at Gateshead because she is neither loved there nor is she needed there.
The novel draws on the Gothic tradition at several pivotal moments of the plot, and it first does so when Jane is locked in the Red Room, for she fears that her maltreatment at the hands of her aunt will cause her uncle to rise as a specter. This experience of being a captive in the luxurious yet eerie Red Room continues to haunt Jane well into her adult life as she cannot help but recall the terror she felt there whenever she encounters a troubling situation.
