Jane Eyre Reflection

In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte has the spotlight on Jane, who is the protagonist of the story. Jane is a ten-year-old orphan whose parents died of the disease typhus when she was at a younger age and is forced to live with her Uncle Reed, his wife and three children in Gateshead. Uncle Reed was the only one who was ever kind to Jane, but dies early on in the novel. Jane is left with Mrs. Reed and her children John, Eliza, and Georgiana, who had always treated Jane with ultimate cruelty. She was never able to experience the life of an ordinary child without her biological parents. In chapter II of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte wrote a passage that stood out to me throughout reading her novel. “I doubted not – never doubted – that if Mr. Reed had been alive, he would have treated me kindly.” (20) This passage is what made me more compelled to the novel because it made me wonder how different Janes life could be if Mr. Reed was still alive. Before Mr. Reed died he asked his wife, Mrs. Reed, to treat Jane as one of her own. “And in his last moments, he had

Her life could have been drastically different. After reading the entire novel, I asked myself was it a good or bad thing that Mr. Reed died and put Jane in the care of his wife? However, of the continuing of reading this novel, you realize that the life she grew upon influenced her on who she became by the end of the story. She was able to experience what having a family was like, what friendship was like, and what most people think is the most important factor in life; love. Although there were many obstacles to experience these events, without her uncle passing, she would not have been able to meet people the individuals whom she did meet, she would not have been able to find the love of her life, nor find the freedom and independence that as a child she never thought she would encounter. In the end Jane was a strong