Jane Eyre - Chapter 4

Difficult Words

• Insuperable – impossible to overcome
• Capricious – prone to major mood swings
• Parterre - garden
• Usury – lending money and charge ridiculous amounts of interest
• Poltroon - coward
• Sotto voce – very softly

Audra’s Slang Summary

 

Let me just preface by saying I love this chapter.  

Months pass, and nothing is said about Jane going to school.  Nothing really changes for Jane, except that John Reed is afraid of her now (Hah!), so he tends to leave her alone.  Everyone does.  And Jane gets brave.  When she overhears Mrs. Reed telling John that he is to avoid Jane because she is not fit to associate with them, Jane yells over the banister that they are not fit to associate with her. 

Mrs. Reed runs up the stairs in a fury, and Jane, lovely creature, pulls out the dead uncle card.  That’s right – the What-would-Mr. Reed-do-if-he-saw-how-you-treated-me card.  That knocks the wind out of Mrs. Reed for once…but then she boxes Jane’s ears anyway.

Moving on.

When Jane sees a carriage pull up to Gateshead, she thinks nothing of it – but then she is called down to Mrs. Reed’s presence.  That hasn’t happened for 4 months…so Jane is kinda nervous. Upon entering the drawing room, the looming figure of a man named Mr. Brocklehurst blocks her view. This man is a clergyman who rules a school called Lowood with a crazy-fundamentalist iron fist, and Lowood is the school Mrs. Reed has chosen to send Jane off to forever.

Frankly, Mr. Brocklehurst is about as awesome as Mrs. Reed.  He tries to strike the fear of God into Jane by questioning her closely about hell, believing her to be a troublesome child. 

Remember how I told you Jane is catty?  Well, get this: When asked how to avoid going to hell, Jane says that she has to make sure she doesn’t die anytime soon.  Bahaha!

Then Mrs. Reed tells Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane is a liar.

And that, of course, turns the already crazy Mr. Brocklehurst against Jane, and he promises to tell all the teachers and students at Lowood to handle Jane with contempt, so that she can be broken of her evil ways.  Exit Mr. Brocklehurst.

At this point, Jane is fuming inside.  She thought she was going to get a new start at school, but Mrs. Reed has poisoned that, just like everything else.  So, when Mrs. Reed tells Jane to go back to the nursery, she hesitates. 

Then, Jane tells Mrs. Reed just what she thinks of her.  Finally.

Mrs. Reed is speechless. 

Then Mrs. Reed is the one who leaves the room.

Jane is the winner of her first battle.

There is a sort of friendly bond formed between Bessie and Jane that evening, since Jane is not afraid of Bessie after standing up to the much scarier Mrs. Reed.  Jane is to leave Gateshead in a couple of days, and is sad to leave Bessie, and sad that Mr. Brocklehurst is going to ruin everything thanks to Mrs. Reed - but at least Jane will be away from Gateshead. 

Fin for now.

Interesting Stuff, Inspired by the Book

 

Child’s Guide

The pamphlet that Mr. Brocklehurst presents to Jane – called the “Child’s Guide” – was meant to strike fear into her heart by giving her very detailed examples of how unexpectedly she could die. 

Surprise, this was based on a real book – a magazine – called The Children’s Friend. This magazine, the contents of which are pretty terrifying, was written by the Rev. W. Carus Wilson.  Here is a link to the issue of 1824, if you’d like a taste of the nasty stories he liked to scare kids with.

A couple of things strike me as interesting here. 

1. The fact the Mr. Brocklehurst carries this book with him to Jane’s house is funny.  He assumes she is a bad child before he even meets her – probably due to the letter Mrs. Reed sent him about her, but still.  Funny. 
2. The very negative light in which Charlotte Bronte presents this view of God, and how clearly she introduces hypocrisy into the story with the very characters that are supposed to be so pious…this is interesting.  Charlotte was a woman in the 1820s. Seriously, being so forward with her opinions – even through the veil of fiction – is pretty bold.  Clever, clever woman.  

This all makes me wonder: How new are our problems with religion, really?