Examples Of Imprisonment In Jane Eyre

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the protagonist, Jane experiences many forms of imprisonment. Imprisonment is the state of being held captive, one can experience imprisonment both physically and emotionally. Throughout the novel Jane experiences both physical and emotional imprisonment. Initially Jane lives with her Aunt in Gateshead hall, in which she is physically imprisoned by being locked in the, “red room”. Her next experience is one of being isolated, excluded and embarrassed by Mr. Brocklehurst, a supervisor of Lowood Institution, where Jane is a student. Jane, not wanting to be imprisoned by a false marriage walks away from the man she loves, Mr. Rochester. However, later on in the novel, once many circumstances have

Rochester. Throughout the novel Jane’s reactions to being faced with imprisonment mold her into the character she becomes.

Jane, initially, is unable to accept imprisonment and therefore protests tremendously. Jane is punished for misbehaving at Gateshead hall and is locked away in the “red room”. In describing Jane’s arrival to the “red room”, Bronte writes, “They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested my instantly”(11). Jane is taken to the “red room” and held down by the two of the care takers at Gateshead hall. Although Jane, protests the punishment, there is nothing she can do about it. She is physically held down. Similarly, later on in the novel Jane attends Lowood Institution as a student,

Over the course of Jane’s adulthood she pturns down two marriage proposals. Both proposals, she feels, will imprison her in one way her another, so she is able to refuse the marriage and run away. Jane is faced with her first proposal while serving at Thornfield, the estate owned by Mr. Rochester. Upon finding out that Mr. Rochester is already married, Jane is torn between her deep love for Mr. Rochester and her desire to be free. Jane interrupts Mr. Rochester in order to tell him that she is deciding to leave, Jane thinks, “...his language was torture to me; for I knew what I must do- and do soon- and all these reminiscences, and these revelations of his feelings only made my work more difficult”. (320) Jane feels that her relationship with Mr. Rochester would be a form of imprisonment. Since Mr. Rochester is already married Jane would be assuming the role of mistress and entering a false marriage. Additionally due to the major difference in social standing Jane would be dependent on Mr. Rochester. Therefore in order to escape being entrapped in a false marriage Jane leaves Mr. Rochester. Likewise, later on in the novel Jane is living with her cousins at Moor House, there her cousin, St. John, proposes with the intention of using Jane to draw an image of what his title would entail. In response to the proposal Jane