Jane Eyre
Relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed
The relationship between Jane and her aunt Mrs. reed was always been unpleasant. This passage consists of Jane’s outburst after all the suffering that her aunt has put her through, just before her departure to Lowood School which is traditionally cruel in a rigidly religious way.
Jane is a strong willed, determined to win this battle as Mrs. Reed despises her and allows her own children to bully Jane and constantly get vehement criticism from them. Mrs. Reed favours her own spoiled children and harshly punishes Jane for her impudence, even locking her up in the "red-room." Jane's character is not one that endears her to others. Her experience in the red room brings forth her emotional outbursts. Therefore Jane’s unique traits of courage, boldness, and strong will, all help her succeed in her time period.
Jane argues she is not “deceitful” and show hatred towards Mrs. Reed by saying, ‘I, do not love you. I dislike you the worst’. This contrasts Jane’s behaviour with causing repetition of ‘I’ to emphasise the pronoun. This is where Mrs. Reed starts to feel a little bit disturbed and offended, as “her hands lay still”, not having the power, shocked to hear the words coming from Jane’s mouth. Bronte uses a metaphor to describe Mrs. Reed’s cold heartless actions as “her eyes of ice”. She keeps silent, which immediately makes Jane the more authoritative figure in the conversation, making it sound as if quit a silent and tense atmosphere. To increase the tension Bronte also adds her eyes continued “to dwell freezingly”, which again gives the idea of it all being a harsh cold situation filled with hate.
Mrs. Reed answers with a question towards Jane, asking if she has anything more to say but really she does not want to hear any more. The tone she was using was as if she was addressing “an opponent of adult age”, with a little but more respect towards Jane while she was speaking to her, speaking to someone...