How does Bronte present Jane Eyre in chapters 1+2?
How does Bronte develop the character of Jane in chapters 1 and 2? At the beginning of the novel, Bronte does not specifically develop Jane’s character, but rather uses her as a method of setting the scene for the first few chapters, through her descriptions of the house and people in it. After the first few pages, however, she is assaulted by John whilst reading a book and it is at this point that we see her give her first full opinionative description of someone. This description of John is incredibly negative and somewhat harsh, showing that Jane has this idea of her superiority over him despite knowing she has a lower social standing. This portrays Jane as a rather opinionative person, as is shown again and again when she describes both people and things, such as Mrs. Reed or the red room. As the first and second chapters go on, Jane describes a multitude of people and things, but they are scarcely clearly positive; this could be Bronte showing Jane as a negative person, or show her to have almost a depressive outlook on her situation, one that is quite justified it seems through the abusive nature shown towards Jane in these chapters. In chapter two, Jane is locked into the red room because of her ‘fight’ with John, and her description of it shows it to be fairly luxurious, but gloomy and solitary. This description of the lonely room seems to reflect upon Jane herself, as they are both seemingly ‘luxurious’ on the surface, the room literally and Jane intellectually, but both have their own solitude and loneliness about them. This portrayal of Jane’s loneliness can be shown on page nineteen in chapter two with the quote “I was a discord at Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage”. This quote is Bronte showing us that Jane is fully aware of her loneliness and solitude, and perhaps that her opinionative and seemingly harsh nature is a way of her coping with her