Examples Of Oppression In Jane Eyre

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Suppression and oppression are widely shown and represented throughout the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. In the beginning of Jane Eyre, the reader is exposed to the suppression of Jane by the Reed family. Jane is left out of many activities around the house and isn’t able to express any of her feelings or thoughts. Even though Mr. and Mrs. Reed are her aunt and uncle, and their children are her cousins, she cannot share her opinion on different things without being brutally reprimanded. Excluded from the Reed family group in the drawing room because she is not a "contented, happy, little child"—excluded, that is, from "normal" society—Jane takes refuge in a scarlet-draped window seat where she alternately stares out at the "drear November…show more content…
Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they ARE mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows." I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.…show more content…
Like a "rat," a "bad animal," a "mad cat," she compares him to "Nero, Caligula, etc." and is borne away to the red-room, to be imprisoned literally as well as figuratively. (Gilbert). “She retires to solitude in another room of the house with a book to keep her occupied and is never allowed to explain herself. Jane is immediately blamed without having a chance to give her account of the incident.” (Sparknotes). Jane is put in this red-room because it isolates her from everyone and serves as a punishment. In this room, Jane sees the ghost of her Uncle Reed, her uncle that died in that very room. This frightens her and she ends up fainting, but when she wakes up, her doctor and Mrs. Reed tell her that she’s going far away to attend a new school. This whole situation in the novel demonstrates how Jane is marked guilty without given a chance to tell her side of the story and defend herself. When she gets out, getting sent away by the doctor and Mrs. Reed shows the reader that it doesn’t matter whether she wants to leave or not, the decision is not up to her. She is suppressed because even if she wants to move out of that house to a new school, she is still controlled by the Reed family and is incapable of making decisions regarding herself or others. Jane has no voice or right to speak

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