While Mrs. Reed’s hatred of Jane is evidenced early in the book, her villainy reached its peak when she wrote to Jane’s uncle that Jane was dead. Why did Mrs. Reed do that? What possible advantage did it give her? If that act was simply the climax of Mrs. Reed’s enduring hatred, how can you account for the fact that she still had so strong an urge to confess her misdeed to Jane?
I think Mrs. Reed told John Eyre, Jane was dead because of her pride and guilt. She didn't want Jane to be happy when she was miserable. Mrs. Reed was jealous of Jane's mother because she was her husband's "great favorite" and she took it out on Jane, believing Jane would never fight back. When Jane stands up to Mrs. Reed, saying "I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick," shaking Mrs. Reed to her core. I think it also upset Mrs. Reed, to have Jane point out Mr. Reed was "watching" her and knew how she was mistreating Jane. Mrs. Reed confesses to Jane, saying, "I wish [you] had died" and "I have twice done you a wrong which I regret now. One is breaking my promise which I gave to my husband to bring you up as my own child; the other-" and showing Jane the letter from John Eyre, wanting to adopt her. I think Mrs. Reed wanted to confess to get the guilt of her chest and also because she knows Mr. Reed won't be happy with her when she finally joins him in the afterlife.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the author’s telling the story in the first person? Do you get to know Jane better that way? Why or why not? Do you think you would get a more unbiased understanding of the other characters if they were analyzed by an all-seeing author instead of being seen only through Jane’s eyes? Why, or why not?
I think it is better through Jane's eyes because we get to read her confessions about the other characters and the thoughts going through her head, such as falling in love with Mr. Rochester and leaving after finding out he was still married. We get heartfelt confessions and warnings like, "Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt? May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonized as in that hour left my lips; for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love." If it was from third person, we might have not gotten the great build up to the mystery of Thornfield Hall through Jane's experiences and discovering Mr. Rochester's wife in the attic.
What do you think was the author’s purpose in making both Jane and Mr. Rochester physically unattractive?
Jane Eyre needed to be an "ugly duckling," because she had to grow into a "swan." We needed to see being treated harshly for her looks and feel unloved, so we could see her blossom when she finally found love. Mr. Rochester needed to be unattractive, so Jane wouldn't feel inadequate or inferior while being around him. Jane's plainness and humble persona makes Mr. Rochester want to talk to her and find more about her. Because she was so plain looking like himself, Mr. Rochester felt comfortable talking to her as an equal. Jane believes Mr. Rochester's easy "manner freed [her] from painful restraint; the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him" (Ch. 15). When Jane starts falling for Mr. Rochester, she says about his looks, "And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude and many associates, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire" (Ch. 15). Jane's philosophy is that "Beauty is in the eye of the gazer." She admits Mr. Rochester's looks "were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me; they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, — that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me" (Ch. 17). Their story reminds me of the movie, The Enchanted Cottage, where both of the main characters are plain and disfigured, but when they fall in love, they can only see each other's beauty.
Jane told Mr. Lloyd that she was afraid of poverty. What evidences do we have later on that she seemed to be equally uneasy about having luxuries and wealth?
I think she first felt that way about poverty, because the Reeds brainwashed her into thinking she was less because she was not as rich as them, so she wanted to be equals and have the luxuries they had. When she was at school and discovers she has a talent for drawing, she is not amused by luxuries, but by her artistic accomplishments, saying, "That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper, of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings. I feasted instead on the spectacle of ideal drawings, which I saw in the dark - all the work of my own hands." (Ch. 8). I think as she grew up, she wanted love more than anything, because she associates love with happiness rather than having riches. She had also seen how money negatively affected The Reeds and the people she met in her life.
What was the importance of religion in Jane’s life? Why are there many more evidences of her religious faith in the later parts of the book?
Jane at first doesn't believe in religion or God because of her harsh upbringing and says, " If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust; the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should — so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again." Helen Burns urges her to forgive the Reeds for their misdeeds and to not seek "vengeance." After listening to Helen's theories, Jane says, "my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell: and for the first it recoiled baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it, it saw all round an unfathomed gulf: it felt the one point where it stood — the present; all the rest was formless cloud and vacant depth: and it shuddered at the thought of tottering, and plunging amid that chaos." When Helen is dying, Jane is very upset by the fact that a child is dying and wants to know where her friend will go. I think is Helen's death that finally resolves Jane into figuring out what she truly believes and developing a moral compass. It is through her faith and integrity, Jane is finally able to forgive Mrs. Reed on Reed's deathbed, saying "Love me, then, or hate me, as you will, you have my full and free forgiveness: ask now for God's, and be at peace."
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