"Jane Eyre" Study Guide Thread

[Tom]

This is the official discussion thread for the "Jane Eyre" Study Guide.

[Matt Lucas]

woohoo!

anyways, does anyone know where to get the cheapest book of Jane Eyre and Isaacs Storm?

[Matt Lucas]

testing 123...
hopefully it shows up

[Tom]

I bet the best place is to look on Amazon.com or Ebay??

[Matt Lucas]

So I have started Jane Eyre tonight. I'm going to read it on the internet, and maybe someone can post that they are done with Issac's Storm and let me borrow it. Anyways, my analogy of chapter one, and if I'm wrong hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction.

As you should know, just like sparknotes and cliffnotes, don't read my summary (I plan to do more in the future) if you have not read the chapter.

My vision from the start of Jane Eyre was the scrawny, nerdy, stay indoors type of person. She was complaining of the cold in their walk, and she doesn't even like walks regardless. The pain of her nipped fingers and toes also shows that she has never been out very much. I'm not sure but I view her also as the emo type person. She does not have very much going for her. The fear of the Reeds family is too much. Also her apparent lack of caring for the book about birds and the cold frozen areas around the poles. Not much of a person to care about the environment (which is all the rage right now) but she does care about human rights, which was shown later.

The Reeds family rejects her. Noone even cares for her, and for that time period you could see why would they? As John stated in a nut shell she had no money her parents left her and she should beg the Reeds to even survive. A terrible thing to say to anyone, common in that era but still terrible. While the three kids, Eliza, Georgiana and John were around their mother in the drawing-room, they rejected her, and she went to the breakfast room. This could show that the Reeds are vastly rich pigs by having different rooms of single activities, but it is too early in the book to tell.

Bessie is the Grandmother of the Reeds I found out after a while when it says that the other kids were sitting around their mama (signaling another proof that Jane Eyre is not of Ms. Reed, from the John Reeds spiel and the fact that her last name is Eyre). Ms. Reed said that she couldn't join the group until basically Bessie approved. After asking what she (Jane) did wrong, Ms. Reed said that that was no way to talk to her elders. She was kicked out of the group removed from the group much like the girl in Chinese Cinderella. This is the beginning of the rant from John Reeds.

John Reeds is the bully. All cartoon images could settle for the fourteen year old, like Francis from the Fairly Odd Parents, or Buford from Phineas and Ferb. Fat, huge, muscular, ugly in appearance, all could work in describing him. Without any regards to any morals, he continually beats her constantly. Jane states that it wasn't once or twice a week, once a day, but continually. On a pretty funny note, the father of John believes that his obesity could be linked to eating too many cakes and sweetmeats (modern times: Twinkies and big macs). Back to the beating. He demands at first that she come closer to him and refer to him as Master Reed. Then he "spent some three minutes thrusting his tongue out at me as far as he could without damaging the roots." In English, they are saying that he is insulting her without hitting her. Yet. He suddenly lunged at her and then after asking her what she was doing behind the curtain (which was reading the book that it seemed she had little interest in), he made her stand by the door. This is when he launched the book at her, giving her a great cut on her head. Jane Eyre then said that he was cruel, much like the Roman empire. The internet version I am reading makes it unclear, but I believe it is Jane Eyre that tells him that she has read stories of terrible beings that used to walk the earth, like Nero, etc. John gets upset and is about to tell her mother what she has accused him of being like (who is deaf and blind to the situation, and would be on Johns side anyway) but before that happens he attacks her again, with such a passion this time like it was personal. Reinforcements finally came in with the two sisters, calling for their mother and Bessie, who finally come in and lock Jane Eyre into the Red Room.

That is how I see chapter one going. if there is any bad information on here please tell me so I don't have any misconceptions later on in the book, or worse the test at the beginning of the year.

Reaction to chapter one
Jane Eyre is hopeless. There is no one in that house that likes her. Hopefully John won't kill her. If he wasn't such a fatty he could be at school. Instead, he beats up little female orphans. Maybe a little courtesy to acknowledge her existence would help her. I don't like where this book is turning though. It seems that they are showing the fact that rich people are snots to the poor, pushing a liberal agenda. Three references to rooms; the breakfast room, the red room, the drawing room, show that they are rich. Only the white house has color-named rooms that I know of. This family (through context clues) is rich and abusing her but some people may interpret it as all rich people are like that. I am by no means rich but I don't think it is right for people to push things like that that aren't true.

I am sure like all good books something changes in the life of Jane Eyre that makes her life acknowledgeable, but right now it seems hopeless. Hiding behind covers reading a book that you don't care about and having John beat you up would get you nowhere though.

[Jasmin T.]

I actually started reading Jane Eyre last night, and I've gotten through chapter three, and I was hoping I could get some help on one of the study guide questions I've become stuck on, it's the one in chapter two regarding the Romanticism and Gothicism in Jane Eyre.

As I was reading, I actually noted that as well, but I just can't seem to point out exactly what it is that shows these two characteristics, hopefully someone can help me out. I think the setting, at Gateshead Hall with numerous servants and social classes has to be intertwined somehow.

Thanks,
Jasmin

[Mr. P]

Matt,
That's great that you've started so early on "Jane Eyre." There are a couple of misconceptions in your summary that I can help clear up. Bessie is not the grandmother, but rather a nurse/governess to the Reeds, not unlike the one in "Romeo and Juliet." You also write that she seemed to have little interest in the book on birds. It's more accurate to say that the verbal descriptions (and accompanying illustrations) of wild, exotic, wintry places set her imagination whirring. She says they are "strangely impressive" and "profoundly interesting." (In this respect, she's much closer to an adventuress-dreamer like Amelia Earhart than an indoorsy "nerdy" type.) Trust me, she'll do more than her share of walking (and roughing it outdoors) later in the book.

[Matt Lucas]

well first Jasmin you have to look at the definition of gothicism. The best one I found was a style of fiction that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious, and the desolate. Kind of a harsh definition but you can obviously see it in chapter two, where we can find a deep explanation of her thoughts. Grotesque, meaning one of incongruous distortion, in appearance or manner, can be found where no one likes her. She tries to please them and it even says that she has a little love for them. They can't seem to like her and she is even below a slave. This is where the mysterious kicks in. She is a very mysterious person. Born without parents, then given to the Reeds family where the parents both made the promise to raise Jane Eyre as their own. Mr. Reed dies, and suddenly Mrs. Reed cannot find a way to love her; in that family she is unlovable. She is blamed for everything in the house. The three children of Ms. Reed are loved in every way, rich and have everything going for them; while she has none. Not to mention her deep thoughts that she has in the red room, which no one in that house could relate to. Desolate, meaning deserted, is the main part of this book. She was in another room while the kids were with their mother in the first chapter, she had no one to take her side in the John incident, and she is less than a servant. She is hopeless, deserted, grotesque, mysterious, and many other adjectives.

Romanticism is a loose term meaning using senses and feelings over reason and intellect. Jane Eyre rebelled against all the others trying to tie her down and get her in the Red Room. She mentioned that they have said that they do not have to take care of her and if they see no reason to keep taking care of her then they will send her to the poorhouse. This is like your parents saying that they will send you to the orphanage. If that was said to me, I would straighten up right then, but she lets her feelings get in the way and still rebelled. When she was alone in the room she thought about suicide. She thought about how great life would be with Mr. Reed still alive. Many radical thoughts were flowing during this chapter and that is a good in depth way of showing the Romanticism and Gothicism in this book.

Hope I helped you Jasmin!

One last thing I noticed during the chapter. I don't remember if anyone remembers this during health class in middle school but you can relate what she is going through with the five stages of dying.

denial/isolation-- she was isolated in that house. She denies any of this would be happening if Mr. Reed was around. She also denies that they would send her to the poorhouse.

anger-- she thought angrily that it was unjust that John was able to get away with the fight. Also jealousy towards the three children which were viewed as perfect to everyone else. She saw the flaws in them but saw people never did anything about it.

bargaining-- she had to think about how great a life she would have if Mr. Reed was alive.

depression-- "My habitual mood of humiliation,
self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my
decaying ire." Ire means anger.

acceptance-- at the end she said she had a species of fit, basically saying she had her place in life.

And, ironic, she was unconscious at the end of the chapter. The end!
Matt Lucas

[Jasmin T.]

Thanks Matt, I got it now.

It's actually a pretty interesting book, I just finished chapter 6.

[Preston tmsb]

Oh my gosh i've started to read it and although my first thoughts to this were it will be terrible, it's actually pretty interesting.