At the beginning of the novel Jane is suppressed by the Reed family as she is isolated from them she is not included in family activities and is forced to entertain herself. Gateshead is a 'dark' and 'large' place where she feels lonely. She is trapped by their controlling and powerful status. Mrs Reed locks her in the red room which is a vacant, 'cold room' where no one goes with 'crimson cloths'. The red colour correlates to Jane's emotions of fear and anger. The room is very remote and 'silent' which makes Jane feel isolated. It being the place of her uncle Mr Reeds death, she fears the ghost she sees of him while she is trapped in the room alone. Jane feels a lot of hatred and anger toward the Reed family, especially her cousin John, as an orphan she is unwelcome in the family, they do not treat her one of them and she is consider an outsider. John bullies her and Jane has to learn to stand up for herself. The incident of the red room has a long term effect on Jane Eyre 'I shall remember how you thrust me back . . . into the red-room. . . . And that punishment you made me suffer'. She has memories of the red room when she is ridiculed at Lowood school, the embarrassment bring back memories of the humiliation she went through as a child. Being trapped in the red room also represents her search for freedom and her will to not be imprisoned by people around her that are of high class. This is why she thinks of the red room again the night she decides to leave Rochester. She is searching for her independence. When Jane returns to Gateshead to visit Mrs Reed in her ill health, Jane still feels as though she is a stranger here and she will never be recognise it as her home 'I still felt as a wanderer on the face of the earth'.
When Jane is taken from Gateshead and sent to Lowood she does not expect things to be much better for her, however she hopes for it to be better than her life with the Reed family. Lowood is like a prison with its 'garden surrounded by...