In the opening passages of Chapter 1 of Jane
Eyre, the reader learns that Jane considers herself inferior to the Reed
children:
...I never liked long walks, especially on
chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight...and humbled
by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza,
John, and Georgiana
Reed.
Also in this chapter is
Jane's mention of the "bilious" John Reed, her cousin, who stuffs cakes and sweetmeats
into his mouth constantly. When he approaches her, Jane narrates that "every morsel on
my bones shrank when he came near me," suggesting that she is much slighter than
John.
While she explores "the depth" the mirror in the red
room reveals, she notices, too,
the strange little figure there gazing at me,
with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and
littering eyes of fear moving where all else was still,
had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny
phantoms, half fairy, half
imp.
Jane is
rather slight and plain as she also suggests in positioning herself in contrast to the
Reed children further in Chapter 2. Bewildered by her treatment, Jane wonders why she
always suffers and decides that it must be because of her physical appearance since
Georgiana who has a temper and is a "very acrid spite," with a "captious and insolent
carriage" is yet indulged because of her
beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, [that]
seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indeminity for every
fault.
Pondering upon all the
characteristics of the other Reed children, Jane
concludes,
I
know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping
child,...Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more
complacently....
It is, thus,
more by contrast with the other children of the Reed family that the reader learns of
Jane's small and unprepossessing appearance.
No comments:
Post a Comment