Abuse In Jane Eyre

Abuse is a topic that has become a very popular subject of discussion recently. With the current President, his plans for women’s rights, and the topic of sexual abuse becoming more prominent, tensions have quickly increased. Yet there are many other types of abuse, even if most have similar effects on people. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte follows the life of a young woman named Jane Eyre. She is injured and maltreated for most of her upbringing and even after she is able to distance herself from those people, she always struggles with the aftermath what had happened in her childhood. Because her parents had passed away, Jane went to live with her Uncle and Aunt, but her Uncle passed away and she was left with Mrs Reed, her aunt, and her three

In the beginning of the novel, when the reader is introduced to Jane, she is living with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and her two daughters as well as one son, John Reed. John thinks of himself as the master of the house because his father, Jane’s uncle, had passed away. This family kept Jane alive, but treated her like a disgusting outsider and repeatedly abused her. John Reed would harm Jane when she was a child: “I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strong” (Bronte 13). From having experienced this abuse before, she knew what to expect and attempted to prepare herself. This violence and constant preparation was significant throughout Jane’s life, and continued to affect her no matter her age or maturity. Abuse and neglect can be physical, emotional, medical, educational, or sexual, and in Jane’s case it was both physical as well as emotional (“What is Abuse and Neglect” 3). A child experiencing abuse can also often be compliant and withdrawn from the outside world (“What is Abuse and Neglect” 6). Jane, from the start of Bronte’s novel, was portrayed as an intellectual shy girl who always has her head down in a book. She, at one point, crawled onto a window seat

If there was ever a situation in which she would be harmed, Jane would automatically be reminded of the pain in her past. This is proven when Jane was punished at Lowood by standing on a stool and she described her punishment by writing, “There I was, then, mounted aloft: I, who had said I could not bear the shame of standing on my natural feet in the middle of the room, was now exposed to general view on a pedestal of infamy” (Bronte 79). It took this event for her to show how ashamed she is and is forced to relive the embarrassment as well as agony that years of violence had created. Her reaction would have been to search for a way out and away from this torture, but all of her hope was long gone. Once Jane is finished with Lowood, she goes to be a governess for Mr Rochester’s daughter, and at the same time they fall in love with each other. When told about Blanche Ingram and the likeliness she will marry Mr Rochester, Jane in “an hour or two sufficed to sketch [her] own portrait in crayons; and in less than a fortnight [she] had completed an ivory miniature of an imaginary Blanche Ingram...The contrast was as great as self-control could desire (Bronte 187). Traumas, like what Jane has been through, “that generate shame will often lead survivors to feel more alienated from