Lesson video

Hello everyone, welcome to our next lesson of Jane Eyre.

In our last lesson, Jane arrived at Lowood School and she was shocked at the horrendous conditions of this school.

The pupils were forced to eat burnt porridge for breakfast.

It's absolutely freezing.

And the teachers are very strict indeed.

In today's lesson, Jane is going to struggle to adjust to the life of a military regime of her new school.

And then she's going to meet a very mysterious girl called Helen Burns.

I must say, this is one of my favourite characters in our story.

So, without farther ado, let's begin.

For today's lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper and a pen.

If you do not have this equipment, press the pause button on your video now, go and collect this equipment and then we will begin our lesson.

Let's begin with a recap from a previous lesson.

How did Jane respond when John Reed threw a book at her? You've got four options.

Option one, Jane attacked John in revenge.

Option two, Jane asked Mrs. Reed for help.

Option three, Jane forgave John and said, "Don't worry.

I'm okay." Option four, Jane left the room to go and read by herself.

Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I will now tell you the right answer which is, of course, option one.

When John Reed throws a book at Jane, Jane becomes overwhelmed with anger and attacks John in revenge.

Well done if you got that right.

I'll now tell you my plan for today's lesson.

First of all, we're going to learn about how Jane responds to injustice.

We're going to learn about how Jane responds when other people treat her unfairly.

We're then going to learn about forgiveness.

And after that we're going to read our extract, and then think about this question, how does Helen respond to injustice differently to Jane? Let's begin.

So let's first of all think about how Jane responds to injustice.

And this is what I would suggest, Jane seeks revenge when she suffers injustice.

In other words, when people treat Jane badly, Jane seeks to hurt them in revenge.

I've got two examples of Jane seeking revenge upon people who hurt her throughout our novel.

Our first example is, of course, this, Jane attacks John when he throws a book at her.

Remember she becomes overwhelmed with anger and attacks him.

And here's our second example, Jane says hurtful things to Mrs. Reed after they meet Mr. Brocklehurst.

You may remember that Mrs. Reed told Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane was deceitful, that Jane was a liar and that's not true.

So Jane decided to get revenge.

And she said a lot of mean and hurtful things to Mrs. Reed.

She told Mrs. Reed that she hated her and that she never wanted to live in Gateshead Hall ever again.

As we can see, Jane seeks revenge, again, when she suffers injustice.

So we can see that Jane is a very passionate character at the beginning of our story.

And that Jane is often overwhelmed by feelings of anger when she suffers at the hands of other people.

But, Jane might well change as our story continues.

Remember that this novel is a Bildungsroman.

A Bildungsroman is a story that follows the character as they grow up and mature.

So at the beginning of our novel Jane is a young immature girl, but at the end of our novel Jane will be a mature lady.

I would suggest that Jane might learn to cope with injustice in a more mature way throughout the course of our novel.

Let's now learn about forgiveness.

This is our new word for today.

Forgiveness is deciding not to hold a desire for revenge and feelings of anger, against someone who has wronged you.

So if someone does something bad to you, you decide that you're no longer going to feel angry against them and you're no longer going to seek to harm them.

You're no longer going to seek to get revenge on them.

Let me give you some examples of people displaying forgiving behaviour.

Even though his brother broke his toy, Leandro did not become angry.

Instead, he forgave his brother.

So in this example Leandro's brother has broken his toy but Leandro decides he's not going to be angry, he's not going to get revenge, instead, he's going to forgive his brother.

Jim decided not to forgive Karsten for stealing his football.

Instead, Jim was filled with anger.

The next day, Jim picked up Karsten's lunchbox and threw it in the bin.

In this example, Jim decides he's not going to forgive Karsten, instead he's filled with rage and he decides he's going to harm Karsten in revenge for stealing his football and therefore Jim takes Karsten's lunchbox and throws it in the bin.

This is not forgiving behaviour.

"Please forgive me Mum," said Kasonde.

"I am really sorry that I lost my phone." In this example, Kasonde is pleading with her mum to firstly not feel angry with her and to secondly not punish or harm her because she has lost her phone.

Kasonde is asking her mum to be forgiving.

Let's now test your understanding of this idea.

Which person is displaying forgiveness? Option one, after Rose broke Gordon's lunchbox, he said, "Don't worry it's fine." But that night Gordon was filled with rage against her.

Option two, Gina punched Larissa for stealing her pet hamster.

Option three, Callum is kind to all of his friends.

And option four, Alfie told Simon, "I'm upset that you broke my phone.

But don't worry, mistakes happen.

Do you want to play football? Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen which option describes someone displaying forgiving behaviour, off you go.

I'll now tell you the right answer, which is, of course, option four.

In option four, Simon has, in a sense, harmed Alfie, Simon's broken Alfie's phone, but Alfie decides that he's not going to be angry with Simon.

He says that don't worry about it, mistakes happen and Alfie decides that he's not going to get revenge on Simon, instead he's going to play with Simon instead.

Alfie is displaying forgiving behaviour.

Now some of you may have chosen one of the other options.

You may have chosen option one.

Now option one does describe Gordon deciding not to harm Rose and revenge after she's broken his lunch box.

But Gordon cannot be described as forgiving Rose because Gordon is filled with rage against her.

And if you forgive someone, you decide that you're not going to be angry with them.

So option one does not describe forgiving behaviour.

Some of you may have chosen option two, Gina punched Larissa for stealing her pet hamster, that's certainly not an example of forgiveness.

That's the opposite, this is an example of revenge.

And some of you may have chosen option three, Callum is kind to all of his friends.

Kindness is not the same thing as forgiveness as we've seen.

If you forgive someone, they wrong you and you decide that you're not going to be angry with them and you're not going to seek to get revenge on them.

Well done if you got this question correct.

Let's now read our extract about Helen Burns.

Here's a picture of Helen Burns on the screen.

We're going to read about one of the first times that James sees Helen Burns.

In this extract Helen is been forced to complete a terrible punishment by her teacher.

Helen's teacher's not very happy with her and as told her to stand in the middle of a room for a long time in front of all the other pupils.

This is a very humiliating punishment to have to undergo in front of your classmates.

Now, Jane is shocked by how calm and composed Helen appears as she goes through this punishment.

Let's read.

"The punishment seemed to me in a high degree ignominious and humiliating, especially for so old a girl.

She looked 13 or upwards.

I expected she would show signs of great distress and shame; but to my surprise she neither wept, cried nor blushed: composed, calm, though grave and serious, she stood, the central mark of all eyes.

'How can she bear it so quietly? So firmly and strongly?' I asked of myself.

'Were I in her place, it seems to me I should wish the earth to open and swallow me up.

She looks as if she were thinking of something beyond her punishment, beyond her situation, of something not round her nor before her.

I have heard of day-dreams, is she in a daydream now? Her eyes are fixed on the floor, but I'm sure they do not see it.

Her sight seems turned in, gone down into her heart.

She's looking at what she can remember, I believe, not at what is really present.

I wonder what sort of girl she is, whether good or naughty.

'" So in this extract, Jane is filled with curiosity as she sees Helen complete this punishment.

Jane wonders about why Helen appears to be so calm and so composed as she completes this humiliating punishment.

And Jane wonders what Helen may be thinking about.

What is it that gives Helen this strength? We'll find out across the rest of this lesson.

Now, we're going to read a next part of an extract.

This happens on another day in school.

"The next day commenced and began as before, getting up and dressing by rush light; but this morning we were obliged to dispense with the ceremony of washing and not wash yourselves.

The water in the pitchers was frozen.

A change had taken place in the weather the preceding evening, and a keen north-east wind, whistling through the crevices of our bedroom windows all night long, had made us shiver in our beds and turned the contents of the ewers to ice." Now, so it's been a really, really cold night and the girls are unable to wash themselves because the pitchers, the basins of water, are frozen.

In the extract that we're about to read, Jane now goes to history class.

And Mrs. Scatcherd, the history teacher, becomes very angry with Helen, even though Helen is actually being a very good and polite pupil.

Let's read, "'Burns!' Such it seems was her name.

The girls here are all called by their surnames as boys are elsewhere.

'Burns, you're standing on the side of your shoe, turn your toes out immediately.

' 'Burns, you poke your chin most unpleasantly, draw it in.

' 'Burns, I insist on holding your head up.

I will not have you before me in that attitude,' et cetera, et cetera.

A chapter having been read through twice, the books were closed and the girls examined.

The lesson that comprised part of the reign of Charles I, and there were sundry or many questions about tonnage and poundage and ship-money, which most of them appeared unable to answer.

Still, every little difficulty was solved instantly when it reached Burns.

Her memory seemed to have retained the substance of a whole lesson, and she was ready with answers on every point.

I kept expecting that Miss Scatcherd would praise her attention, but, instead of that, she suddenly cried out.

'You dirty, disagreeable girl! You've never cleaned your nails this morning!' Burns made no answer.

I wondered at her silence.

'Why,' thought I, 'she does not explain that she could neither clean her nails nor wash her face, as the water was frozen?'" Next of all, Mrs. Scatcherd becomes so angry with Helen Burns that she tells Helen to go into the cupboard and take out an object for being punished.

"Burns immediately left the class, and going into the small inner room where the books were kept, returned in half a minute, carrying in her hand a bundle of twigs tied together at one end.

This ominous tool she presented to Miss Scatcherd with a respectful curtsy.

Then she quietly, and without being told, unloosed her pinafore, and the teacher instantly and sharply inflicted on her neck a dozen strokes with the bunch of twigs.

Not a tear rose to Burns' eye.

My fingers quivered at the spectacle with a sentiment and feeling of unavailing, unending and impotent, powerless anger.

Not a feature of her pensive, thoughtful face altered its ordinary expression.

'Hardened girl!' Exclaimed Miss Scatcherd, 'nothing can correct you of your slatternly, lazy habits.

Carry the rod away.

' Burns obeyed.

I looked at her narrowly as she emerged from the book-closet.

She was just putting her handkerchief into her pocket and the trace of a tear glistened on her thin cheek." Jane is very confused about why Helen is able to endure all of these unjust punishments.

Helen is being very well behaved and Miss Scatcherd is being very mean and nasty to Helen.

So, later on this day, Jane decides to talk to Helen herself.

Let's read about this conversation.

This is James speaking at the beginning of this extract.

"'What is your name beside Burns?' 'Helen.

' 'Do you come a long way from here?' 'I come from a place farther north, quite on the borders of Scotland.

' 'Will you ever go back?' 'I hope so, but nobody can be sure of the future.

' 'You must wish to leave Lowood?' 'No! Why should I? I was sent to Lowood to get an education, and it would be no use going away until I have obtained that object.

' 'But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you?' 'Cruel? Not at all! She is severe and strict, she dislikes my faults.

' 'And if I were in your place, I should dislike her, I should resist her.

If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand, I should break it under her nose.

' 'Probably you would do nothing of the sort.

But if you did, Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school.

That would be a great grief to your relations.

It is far better to endure patiently a smart and pain which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty foolish action, whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.

And besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.

' 'But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people.

And you are such a great older girl.

I am far younger than you.

I could not bear it.

' 'Yes it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it.

It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what is your fate to be required to bear.

' I heard her with wonder.

I could not comprehend and understand this doctrine of endurance, and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance and forgiveness she expressed for her chastiser and wrongdoer.

Still, I felt that Helen Burns considered things by a light invisible and unseen to my eyes.

I suspected and thought she might be right and I wrong, but I would not ponder the matter deeply.

I replied, 'You should only be good to those who are good to you.

It is all I ever desire to be.

If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have all their own way.

They would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse.

When we are struck at without reason, we should strike back again very hard.

I am sure we should.

So hard as to the person who struck us never to do it again.

' 'You will change your mind, I hope, when you grew older.

As yet you are but a little on untaught girl.

' 'But I feel this, Helen.

I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me.

I must resist those who punish me unjustly.

It as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.

' 'Heathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine, but Christians and civilised nations disown it.

' 'How? I don't understand.

' 'It is not violence that best overcomes hate, nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.

' 'What then?' 'Read the new Testament, and observe what Jesus Christ says and how He acts.

Make His word your rule, and His conduct and actions your example.

' 'What does He say?' 'Love your enemies.

Bless them them that curse you.

Do good to them that hate you and spitefully use you.

'" Let's now revise the main things that happened in this extract.

First of all, Miss Scatcherd becomes angry with Helen Burns in class, even though Helen is a good pupil.

Secondly, Miss Scatcherd says that Helen is dirty and tells her off for not cleaning her nails.

But Helen has not had the opportunity to wash this morning because the water in the pitchers was frozen.

Miss Scatcherd hits Helen over the neck with a bunch of sharp twigs.

Helen remains calm this whole time.

Jane is confused about why Helen doesn't stand up against this injustice.

Helen then explains that she follows Jesus' example and tries to love her enemies and forgive people who wrong her.

Press the pause button on your video now, take a look back at this summary of our extract, and then we will test you on these key words.

Off you go.

Okay, let's now test your memory, press the pause button on your video now, go through these five points, filling in the words in blank.

Off you go.

Okay, let's now take a look at our answers.

Number one, Miss Scatcherd becomes angry of Helen Burns in class, even though Helen is a good pupil.

Number two, Miss Scatcherd says that Helen is dirty and tells her off for not cleaning her nails.

But Helen has not had the opportunity to wash this morning because the water in the pitchers was frozen.

Number three, Miss Scatcherd hits Helen over the head with a bunch of sharp twigs.

Helen remains calm this whole time.

Number four, Jane is confused about why Helen doesn't stand up against this injustice.

And number five, Helen explains that she follows Jesus' example and tries to love her enemies and forgive people who wrong her.

Well done if you got all of those right.

Let's now think about this question.

How does Helen respond to injustice differently to Jane? In other words, how does Helen respond differently to Jane when someone hurts her? Let's take a look.

So, let's think about Helen Burns and how she responds when she is unfairly punished by her teachers.

Well, Helen decides that she's not going to get angry or seek revenge because she believes that revenge creates more evil in the world.

This is what she says to Jane.

"It is far better to endure patiently a smart," that word smart means a pain, "which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty foolish action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you." So, in Helen's view, it's better to forgive your enemy than seek revenge, because if you seek revenge, then you are responsible for spreading evil yourself.

You lower yourself to the same position as the person who hurt you.

Helen instead thinks that when we are treated unfairly, when we suffer injustice, it's better to absorb this injustice ourselves, and accept that we've been hurt, rather than seeking revenge against those who have harmed us.

She believes that a world in which people forgive would be a far better world than one in which everyone seeks revenge on those who harm them.

And Helen is inspired in these views by the teachings of Jesus on forgiveness.

This is what she says to Jane.

She says she follows Jesus teachings on, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you," to bless someone means to do something good for them.

Something that will benefit them, "do good to them that hate you and spitefully use you." So, Bronte presents Helen as a very religious character.

She clearly does her best to follow the teachings of Jesus on loving your enemies.

The sort of religion followed by Helen is one that is characterised by forgiveness and love.

Even when that forgiveness and love is extended to one's enemies.

Now, Helen's ideas confuse Jane a huge amount because throughout the novel, as we've seen, Jane responds to injustice in a very different way than Helen.

Press the pause button on your video now and take some notes on these ideas.

Off you go.

Let's now think about how Jane responds to injustice.

Jane thinks about this issue of injustice very differently to Helen.

She is confused by Helen.

As she listens to Helen talking about how we should love and forgive our enemies, this is what Jane thinks.

"I heard her with wonder.

I could not comprehend and understand this doctrine of endurance, and still less could I understand or sympathise with the forbearance and forgiveness she expressed for her chastiser and wrongdoer." Jane cannot understand why anyone would want to forgive their enemies.

Remember, as we've learned throughout our novel, Jane is a very passionate character.

And one of the emotions that has often controlled Jane's actions is that of anger.

Whenever Jane feels that someone has wronged her, such as Mrs. Reed or John Reed, Jane has always lashed out in anger.

She cannot understand why anyone would want to love someone who hurts them.

So Jane is very confused by Helen's words.

In fact, Jane believes that revenge prevents injustice.

She thinks that people seeking revenge will make the world a better place.

This is what she says to Helen.

"When we are struck out without a reason, we should strike back again, very hard, I'm sure we should.

So hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again." So Jane believes that the world would be a better place if we all stood up for ourselves.

If every time someone wronged us, if every time someone struck us, if we struck them back again even harder so that they'll never strike us again, the world would be a better place.

So Jane very clearly believes in the idea of self-defense.

She believes in an eye for eye.

If someone harms you, you should harm them back.

Now this is very different to Helen's beliefs.

Helen believes that when we seek revenge, we actually add to the evil of the world.

Rather than making the world a better place, revenge actually makes it a darker place in Helen's view.

So, as we can see, Jane and Helen have two very different views on this idea of injustice.

However, I don't think Jane completely, I don't think Jane's completely at odds with Helen here.

In fact, I would say, in a strange way, even though Jane doesn't understand Helen, she still admires this pupil.

She admires Helen for her strength and endurance.

Whenever Jane watches Helen being punished by standing in the middle of the classroom, all by herself, in front of all of her classmates, she asks herself, Jane asks herself this, "How can she bear it so quietly, so firmly and strongly?" Jane is struck by Helen's strength and Helen's endurance.

And this is what draws Jane towards this character.

She wonders why Helen is able to endure so much suffering with such a brave face.

Press the pause button on your video now and take some notes upon these ideas.

Off you go.

Okay, let's now prepare to write about these ideas.

Complete the sentences, even though Helen is unjustly punished by Miss Scatcherd, whereas Helen accepts the injustices that she suffers, Jane disagrees with Helen's acceptance of unjust suffering, but, despite being very different to Helen, Jane, Then you've some key words that you can use in your sentences.

Press the pause button on your video now, complete these sentences in your book or on your page, off you go.

Let's now take a look at some exemplar sentences.

Number one, even though Helen is unjustly punished by Miss Scatcherd, she passively accepts these humiliations because she wants to follow Christ's example of loving her enemies.

Number two, whereas Helen accepts the injustices that she suffers, Jane believes that we should seek revenge in order to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.

Number three, Jane disagrees with Helen's acceptance of unjust suffering, but also admires Helen for her endurance and strength.

Number four, despite being very different to Helen, Jane is still drawn towards this mysterious girl and curiously wonders how she can bear her injustices so quietly, so firmly.

If you would like to improve your sentences having read these exemplars, press the pause button on your video now and improve your sentences.

Off you go.

Now for those of you who want to push yourselves even farther, here's an extension task.

Write a paragraph answering the following question, how does Helen respond to injustice differently to Jane? You've got some key words that you can use in your answer there.

If you would like to complete this extension task, press the pause button on your video now and write this paragraph in your book or on your page, off you go.

Here's the credits for today's lesson.

And that brings us to the end of this lesson.

Well done for all of your hard work today.

Join us in our next lesson, when the fearsome Mr. Brocklehurst visits Lowood School, and Jane is going to make a mistake and get in a lot of trouble.

Join us next time, I'll see you later.

And before you go, make sure you complete the end of lesson quiz.

I'll see you next time.