SUMMARY OF JANE EYRE
All fiction has its autobiographical roots, spreading through in the case of JANE EYRE. It is important therefore to have an idea of the life of the author to get a better appreciation of the novel and the times in which it is set. This is particularly so of the Brontë’s sisters, Charlotte and Emily, who had written the early Victorian novels from the point of view women. The Brontë sisters have therefore had a tremendous revival, JANE EYRE being considered as the most outstanding novels of Victorian England. The novel grew out of Brontë’s own passions/dreams and frustrations, a kind of a wish fulfillment which few Victorian women had the courage or power to translate into fiction
The novel begins with ten-years old orphan named JANE EYRE who is living with her maternal uncle’s family, the Reeds, as her uncle’s dying wish. Jane’s parents died of Typhus. Jane’s Aunt Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her worse than a servant and discourages and at times forbids her children from associating with her. She claims that Jane is not worthy of notice. She and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically and emotionally. She is unacceptably excluded from the family celebrations and has a doll to find solace in. One day Jane is locked in the red room, where her uncle died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She is finally rescued when she is allowed to attend Lowood School for girls. Before she leaves, she stands to Mrs. Reed and declares that she will never call her aunt again, that she would tell everyone at Lowood how cruel Mrs. Reed was to her, and says that Mrs. Reed and her daughter, Georgina, are deceitful. John Reed, her son, is rude and disrespectful, even to his own mother, who he sometimes would called “Old Girl”, and his sisters. He treats Jane worse than...
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