Jane Eyre

BY CHARLOTTE
BRONTE
Characters The Reeds
Jane Eyre Mrs. Reed
John Reed
Mrs. Abbot
Georgina Reed
Bessie Eliza Reed
 All events are told in the past from Jane’s
point of view.
Key Facts
The setting is early 19th Century in
England.
Jane Eyre
The protagonist

Orphaned as a child

Becomes governess at Thornfield

A feisty young child, who grows into a

strong woman.

Embodies the English working-class

woman.
Introduction

Jane Eyre is an orphan in 1800s England.

Jane’s parents died of typhus when she was a baby.

Mrs. Reed, her aunt, has agreed to raise her, but she and her
three children treat Jane cruelly.

Yet, Mrs. Reed expects Jane to be thankful.

When Jane tries to
stand up for
herself, her aunt is
furious and sends
her to the Red
Room as a
punishment.
Reed Family
Jane’s family on her father’s side.
Mrs. Reed is Jane’s cruel aunt who sends
Jane to Lowood; she locks Jane in the
“Red Room” for punishment.

John, Eliza, and Georgiana are Jane’s

spoiled cousins; they are rude and
selfish; they either torment Jane or
ignore her
 The Novel opens at Gateshead Hall, the stately home of Mrs. Reed
and her three children: Eliza, John, and Georgiana. While the three
siblings and their mother sit comfortably by the fire, ten-year-old 
Jane Eyre, the protagonist and narrator of the story, is made to sit at a
distance. Jane is the poor, orphaned niece of Mrs. Reed’s late husband,
and—as her relations and the servants frequently remind her—it is only
Mrs. Reed’s charity that keeps Jane from the poorhouse.
 Banished from the company of her aunt and cousins, Jane grabs
a book, Bewick’s History of British Birds, and retreats to an adjoining
room to read. She is interrupted, however, by the entrance of her
fourteen-year-old cousin, John Reed, who berates her for reading
“his” books and cruelly reminds her of her lowly status in the
household. He proceeds to hit her before throwing the book at her
head, causing her to bleed.
 Unable to stand his abuse any longer, Jane yells at
John and they begin to fight. Mrs. Reed walks in on their
scuffle and, blaming Jane, orders the maids to lock her up
in the red-room.
Characters

Mrs. Reed Bessie

Mrs. Abbot

Jane Eyre
John Reed Georgina Reed
Eliza Reed
Questions Time 
1- Why did Jane feel miserable?
2- How did John Reed Treat Jane and Why?

3- Why was Jane put in the Red Room? How

would she spend her time in the room?

4- How do both servants look upon Jane?

1- Why did Jane feel miserable?
- Because she was an isolated, powerless ten-year-old orphan, she was living with
an aunt and cousins who disliked her.
 
2- How did John Reed Treat Jane and Why?
-John hated Jane. He bullied and punished her all the time and she lived in terrible
fear of him.
- Because John believed he was important as he is the heir to Reed fortune and
Mrs. Reeds would see no fault in her dear boy.
 
3- Why was Jane put in the Red Room? How would she spend her time in the
room?
- Because she fought John back, when he attacked her.
- Jane spent terrible time in the red room she was alone and thought bitterly of the
people whom she lived with.
- She would try to think of a reason why did they always accuse, scold and hate
her.
4- How do both servants look upon Jane?
- Both Miss Abbot and Bessie scolded Jane and saw Jane as an ungrateful
wicked little kid.