Free Sample Essays > European Literature
Wide Sargasso Sea: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Everyone needs some form of affection from the time of birth. A hug, a kiss, a simple “I love you” can make a person feel whole. However, in today’s society we find it harder and harder to find the affection that we need to fulfill our lives. A young child sits and plays his trumpet loudly and proudly at a family Christmas party wanting people to admire his talent, especially his mother. His relatives continue to talk above his playing, and his mother goes about offering everyone food and drinks giving him no acknowledgment or encouragement. When his sister enters the room dressed in a new party dress, everyone stops to tell her how beautiful she is. He keeps playing because this type of response is normal to him. When the child is done he quietly takes his trumpet and goes to his bedroom. No one even realizes he has left the room. Everyone is still fussing over how pretty and smart his sister is. The child appears to be a strong, independent individual. What is not seen is that this same child is crying out silently for love. A simple “good job”, or “I love you”, would suffice. All throughout this young child’s life he has encountered many disappointing moments like this. He gets no acknowledgment and his sister always comes first. It’s as if his mother has a daughter and no son. The mother always seems to put the daughter first and doesn’t give her son the acknowledgment and love that he needs. In the novel “Jane Eyre”, this is precisely the case. Jane is also a strong, independent individual, seeking new horizons and while seeking out these new horizons she is also crying out silently for love.
In Jane’s early childhood day’s spent at Gateshead, being raised by her Aunt Reed, memories were not the fondest. Jane’s aunt looked at her as a burden upon her. Jane was also many times miss treated by her Aunt Reeds three children John, Eliza, and Georgiana Reed. Being that Jane’s aunt wanted nothing to do with her, Jane was often punished when she had done nothing wrong. In talking with her children she makes a comment in front of Jane, ‘Don’t talk to me about her, John: I told you not to go near her: she is not worthy of notice. I do not choose that either you or your sisters should ever associate with her’ (20). This type of comment effects Jane making her feel unloved and unwanted. Jane withdraws herself completely from the idea that she will ever be loved by her Aunt Reed.
Jane’s life begins to make a small turning point when her Aunt Reed makes a decision to remove Jane from her home, by sending her to a school known as “Lowood”. Jane welcomes the idea of being sent away to “Lowood”, she sees this school as being her escape from a place that she is not loved [next page]