READING JOURNAL - Jane Eyre - Chapter 1

Summary:
Begins in the home of the Reed family. Jane Eyre is in the drawing room reading Bewick’s History of British Birds – I think she tries to escape what is going on around her through reading and looking at picture books. Jane isn’t allowed to be around and play with her cousins Eiza, Georgiana, and John (the Reed children). John bullies Jane for no reason other than that she is an orphan. He taunts Jane and throws a book at her; she starts to lose her patience and a fight occurs between them. Mrs. Reed, Jane's aunt, blames Jane and sends her to the “red-room” as punishment. The “red-room” is where her Uncle Reed died. A negative scene has already been set; this can be seen in the 1st sentence ‘there was no possibility of taking a walk that day’ also the words ‘leafless shrubbery’ ‘cold winter’ ‘sombre’ ‘rain so penetrating’ give a negative notion. Jane seems miserable, lonely, sad etc.

Themes: Misery of Jane’s exclusion from her aunt her her cousins. Depression, isolation, confinement, segregation, melancholy, despair. Escapism through picture books.

Characters:
Jane: Jane Eyre is the main character and main narrative voice. She is isolated from the Reed family, she is seen as an outsider because she was orphaned. She seems rather independent and ‘older’ for her actual age. She is only living there because it was her dying Uncle Reeds last wish.
Mrs Reed: Mrs Reed appears to resent Jane, she treats Jane terribly compared to her own children. For example, when the fight occurred between Jane and her cousin John, Mrs Reed blamed and punished Jane when it was more so Johns fault.
John Reed: A bully and seems very stuck-up and spoilt.
Reed sisters: Eliza and Georgina also seem spoilt, but they do not seem to bully and taunt Jane as their brother does. Not much is really said about them.
Bessie: Jane's maid kind-of-thing, Bessie is presently shown as an unkind character. However, she has not had much role to play yet, so has just been introduced into the story.

Motifs: Red= red is mentioned loads in this chapter i.e. ‘red moreen curtain’ ‘scarlet drapery’ – Red suggests warning and danger signs, could possibly indicate the warning of the ‘red-room’ and punishment, suffering, anger, fear, injustice, hatred.

Places: The setting for this chapter is Gateshead, it is the family home of the Reeds. It is November, and seems to be imagined as drab, dreary and depressing as you would expect Jane is feeling.

Narrative voice: Jane is the narrator; she talks in 1st person so it encourages the reader to empathise with her character more. This is because it shows how she thinks and what she may be feeling from herself. It makes the story more personal to the readers.

Response: As a reader, I began to feel empathetic towards Jane. I feel sorry for Jane because she is lonely, isolated and not accepted by the Reeds. I am an open-minded reader, however, I found this book hard to get into at first, and it wasn’t until the second time I read chapters 1-4 that I began to actually take the story in.