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Summary GCSE Jane Eyre Notes
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  • Course
  • English
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  • Jane Eyre

GCSE grade 9 Jane Eyre analysis. Notes for all 38 chapters and complete in depth analysis for the most important chapters, motifs, symbols and moments. Includes GCSE grade 9 level analysis.

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  • August 28, 2023
  • 66
  • 2022/2023
  • Summary

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  • gcse
  • janeeyre
  • englishlit
  • janeeyrenotes
  • analysis
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jane eyre notes
Chapter 1 - Introducing Jane
KQ: How does Bronte introduce the character of Jane
How Bronte introduces Jane
● Bronte immediately introduces the reader to associate Jane with her inferiority in social status and gender relations
● Jane is passionate, fiercely passionate and intellectual
● Jane is excluded due to her social status
● As innovative and a new type of literary heroine which challenged victorian ideologies of women and previous literary
female stereotypes who are passive, domestic ‘good girls’

Summary
● It's a cold, wet afternoon when the novel opens at Gateshead
● Jane is isolated from the reeds and sits alone in a window seat, reading Bewick’s History of British Birds
● John catches her reading and strikes her, and then hits her again with the book causing her to bleed
● They both fight and Jane is blamed for it and hence sent to the red-room as punishment

Key Quotes
● ‘[...] she had dispensed from joining the group [...]’ (pg 14)
○ Jane was alienated from the Reeds
○ ‘She’ refers to Mrs Reed (mrs reed excluded her from her and her children)
● Page 16 description of John Reed
● “Wicked and cruel boy! [...] You are like a murderer - you are like a slave driver - you are like the Roman emperors!”
(pg 17)
○ Bronte highlights how John Reed can be seen as a symbol of oppressive patriarchal power

Pre reading questions
1. Look back at paragraphs 5 and 6, how is setting used for effect here?
● Jane is separated from the outside world, she is isolated and separate from the Reeds as she sits
on the window seat by herself with the red curtains around her
● ‘I was shrined in double retirement’ - Jane is almost protected from the Reed family in her own secluded
‘shrined’ place on the window seat with the ‘red moreen curtain[s]’ almost shielding her and providing Jane
with her own escape from the Reed family. (quotes on pg 14)
○ This could suggest Jane’s longing to find a place of peace away from the Reeds and therefore
suggests her longing to escape them
○ However, it also suggests her loneliness
● It is significant Jane is suspended between the outside world and Gateshead with a window
separating the two.
○ It highlights how she is isolated from both the Reeds and society (the outside world),
and it is foreboding how throughout the novel, she will grow and mature to get out of
this liminal space and aspire to find her position in society
○ Liminal space - To be in a liminal space means to be on the precipice of something new but not
quite there yet. You can be in a liminal space physically, emotionally, or metaphorically. Being in a
liminal space can be incredibly uncomfortable for most people.
● A motif of entrapment is introduced early in the novel as birds are introduced which represent
freedom and perhaps Jane’s longing for that same freedom, but she is entrapped within the cruel
treatment of the Reeds
○ The motif of entrapment is repeated throughout the novel, especially as Jane moves residencies
from Gateshead to Lowood, where the girls there are clearly trapped within religious restraint
● The outside world is separated from her by a glass window, suggesting that freedom is currently
inaccessible to her

,2. How is Jane introduced to us? Find and analyse two quotes from the third paragraph.
● Jane is introduced as physically and socially inferior to the Reeds
● ‘She had dispensed from joining the group’ (pg14)
○ Jane is alienated from the Reeds and her initial description introduces the reader to
associate her with two key themes: class conflict and gender difference
○ Jane is immediately isolated from love and affection
● For a modern reader, it evokes pathos that jane is alienated and is seen as an outsider even
though she's just a child
● Jane is introduced through other people, suggesting she doesn’t have a distinguished identity yet,
something she will find throughout the novel

3. How is colour used in this opening section? Find two examples.
● Red imagery is used in the ‘scarlet drapery’ and red is a recurring symbolic motif throughout the novel,
representing the Red Room, Jane’s passion, fire imagery, love and even evil and hell
● White and cold imagery is also used as Jane sees a ‘winter afternoon’ through the window, ‘a pale blank of
mist and cloud’
○ Red and white imagery in the same paragraph introduces the theme of fire vs ice, where red, fire
associated imagery is often associated with jane’s passion and lack of self control throughout the
novel, whereas white and ice imagery are associated with deprivation of imagination and the
mind/soul, along with perhaps submissiveness

4. What is the significance of ‘Berwick's History of British Birds’ and how does Bronte use it to
characterise Jane as intellectually powerful?
● Avian imagery (bird imagery) have connotations of freedom that jane longs for as birds are
known to soar and are associated with development and growth, as baby birds are often pushed until they
can finally fly, maybe suggesting Jane will be infleneced throughout her life and meet people who will help
her grow and reach her full potential
○ Like a bird jane longs to be free and soar to her potential and how she wants to escape
the Reed household
● Jane observes things that “child as [she] was, I could not pass quite as a blank” possibly suggesting that she
notices things that most children would not pay attention to
○ presents her as an intellectual child
● Jane also says she is not interested in the book yet she still reads it while children typically read books they
enjoy unless forced to do so
○ so this could be another indication as to Jane’s intelligence

5. In what way could John be read as a symbol of oppressive patriarchal power?
● Johns dominance is reinforced through the imperative verbs he uses
● Jane is very critical of johns appearance, potentially highlighting him as a villain to the reader
● Even though john hit jane, everyone assumed jane hit john, which shows favourable nature
towards oppressive male patriarchal power
● ‘Picture of passion’ has negative connotations and suggests being a passionate woman is wrong
in the victorian era

The Bildungsroman novel (conext)
● Originating in germany, the literary genre was hugely popular during the 19th century
● The style focuses on the personal development and maturation of a main character, typically a man,
through trials and tribulations
● There needs to be some sort of moral growth and the characters development is the main part of the
narrative
● The genre often features a conflict between the main character and society
● The genre allows writers the scope to explore psychological depth of their protagonists and create a
greater sense of realism
● Examples are emma by jane austen

,Fairy tales and Literary realism (context)
● Literally realism is part of the realist art movement beginning in the mid nineteenth century
● Literary realism in contrast to idealism or Romanticism, attempts to represent familiar things as they are.
● Realist authors choose to depict everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of using a
romanticised presentation
● Fairy tales are a type of short story that typically involves folkloric fantasy creatures such as dwarfs and
usually magic
○ Conventions include: truth prevails over lies, generosity comes to be rewarded, obstacles are
overcome by hard work and love, good triumphs over evil
○ Many people view jane eyre as having some conventions of a fairy tale

, Chapter 2 - The Red Room
KQ: What is the symbolic significance of the Red Room?
Symbolic significance of the Red Room
● Oppression of women
● transition from childhood to adulthood (puberty)
● the abuse and injustice Jane suffers
● the power of fear and the effect it can have on the mind
● introduces Jane's struggle to master her emotions
● introduces them with the theme of entrapment and madness – draws a parallel with Bertha.

Summary
● Jane is locked in the Red Room
● She sees her ‘strange fairy-like’ reflection in a mirror
● She senses a supernatural presence, perhaps Mr Reed, and screams in terror
● The servants and Mrs Reed think Jane screamed on purpose to be let out.
● Jane is kept locked in the Red Room and so she faints in terror and falls ill

Key Quotes
● ‘I resisted all the way: a new thing for me [...]’ (pg 17)
● ‘She’s like a mad cat.’ (pg 17) - bessie speaking
● ‘My impulse was to rise from it like a spring’ (pg 18)
○ Noun ‘Impulse’ suggests it is janes gut instinct, therefore suggesting it is part of her character to be resilient
and strength
○ Verb ‘rise’ suggests strength of character and resilience
○ Simile ‘like a spring’ highlights how Jane is able to ‘bounce back’ from being oppressed (or compressed like a
spring is)
● Jane should be ‘useful and pleasant’ not ‘passionate and rude’ (pg 18)

Pre reading questions
1. What is the significance of the line ‘my impulse was to rise from it like a spring’?
● It's a simile to emphasise Jane’s resilience and perseverance
● Jane’s ‘Impulse’ suggests she immediately has a natural desire to defy conventions and defies
gender norms, of women and children
● Jane bring compared to a spring highlights how she will not tolerate pressure and oppression and
Bronte highlights her strong willed character here
● ‘If you don't sit still, you must be tied down’
○ Passionate girls are taught to become passive and restrained
○ Relating to society and how if you do not comply to societal norms, you will be forced to

2. How are the servants characterised here, is there a difference?
● Bessie is presented as complicit as her role as a servant means she is forced to comply to Ms Reed,
highlighting how you don't always have a choice in life
● Parallels between Bessie and jane
○ They are both inferior to the reeds
● Bessie is morphing and exposing jane to the harsh reality of the world and she is expressing to her that no
matter how much you want to be passionate, its just not possible in reality
○ Bessie helps jane mature

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