Lesson video

Hello everyone.

Welcome to our next Jane Eyre lesson.

Now, today we are looking at one of my favourite extracts in the whole novel.

Let me set the scene.

As you know, from our last lesson, Jane's life in the Reed household is rather miserable.

They treat her terribly.

For her whole life, Jane has accepted this abuse, but today something is going to happen which is going to push Jane over the edge.

Let's just say, things are going to get rather violent.

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 question from our last lesson.

Where is Jane living at the beginning of the novel? Option one, her parents' house, option two, the Reed's house, option three, Jane is living with her uncle, or option four, Jane is at boarding school.

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

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

Jane is living at the Reed's house at the beginning of a novel.

Now you may have said option one, but then you would have forgotten that Jane's parents are actually dead.

That is what's made, as a consequence of a parent's death, Jane is therefore an orphan and is forced to live with the Reeds.

You may have also chosen option three, Jane is living with her uncle.

If you've chosen option three, you've probably forgotten that Jane's uncle has also died.

And you may have chosen option four, Jane is at boarding school.

Jane will go to boarding school later on in the novel, but she is not at this school at the beginning.

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 recap from our last lesson, we're then going to learn some new vocabulary, this word tyrant, we're then going to read our extract, we're then going to learn about John Reed's cruelty, and then we're going to learn about how Jane stands up for herself.

Let's begin.

First of all, let's recap from our last lesson.

So we were introduced to our main characters in our last lesson.

Here is Jane Eyre.

Jane's parents have died from typhus before the beginning of our novel.

Jane lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds, and Jane's uncle has also died.

So Jane, the start of Jane's life has been characterised by death and suffering and loss.

Jane now lives with Mrs. Reed.

Now, Mrs. Reed has three children, John Reed, Georgiana Reed, and Eliza Reed.

Mrs. Reed is very close to her three children, but she is not at all close to Jane.

In fact, Jane, as we saw in our last lesson, is isolated from the rest of the Reed family.

They live at Gateshead Hall, and they have a nurse called Bessie.

Okay, let's now test your memory, go through these three sentences.

Tell the screen the full sentences filling in the gaps, off you go.

Let's now go through the answers.

The Reed family live t a house in Yorkshire called Gateshead Hall.

Jane is an orphan.

Her parents have died, so she lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds.

Mrs. Reed has three children, Georgiana, Eliza, and John.

Well done if you got that right.

We're not going to learn some new vocabulary, tyrant.

Now a tyrant is a person in the position of power who is cruel and unfair.

Now this word tyrant is related to another word, tyrannical.

This word tyrannical is an adjective used to describe someone who behaves like a tyrant.

I'll now give you some examples using these words.

The country is ruled by a tyrant who kills anyone who disagrees with him.

This sentence describes a tyrant.

In other words, this sentence describes a leader with a lot of power who clearly is unfair and cruel because he kills people who disagree with him.

My tyrannical boss is making me work late every single evening.

So once again, this boss could be described as tyrannical.

First of all, they are powerful.

They are the boss of this person who is speaking, and they're also clearly cruel and unfair because they make them work late every single evening.

Their life was terrible because of the tyrant who treated them badly.

Once again, we've got this tyrannical leader who treats people underneath them unfairly, and with cruelty.

This word tyrants describes the person in a position of power who is cruel and unfair.

Okay, let's now test your understanding of this idea.

Which person's behaviour could be described as tyrannical? You have four options.

Option one, every pupil in Mr. Patel's History class always followed his instructions.

They held great respect for him.

Option two, Linda, the servant of the household, plotted a cruel revenge on her masters.

Option three, Mr. Bates, the office manager, fired his secretary because she put too much milk in his tea.

Option four, the judge ordered that the thief should be fined for his crimes.

Press the pause button on your video now, and tell the screen, which option describes someone who is acting in a tyrannical way.

Off you go.

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

Mr. Bates is tyrannical for two reasons.

So first of all, we can see that he is a person in power.

He is the office manager, and he's also very clearly unfair and cruel because he fires the secretary over this very small mistake of putting too much milk in his tea.

Now some of you may have chosen option one, so well done if you got option three right.

Some of you may have chosen option one.

Every pupil in Mr. Patel's his history class always followed his instructions.

They held great respect for him.

This is clearly describing a powerful person.

Mr. Patel clearly has lots of authority with his class, but that does not make Mr. Patel a tyrant.

A tyrant is not just someone who is powerful, but it's also someone who uses their power to treat people beneath them unfairly or with cruelty.

Mr. Patel is not tyrannical.

You may have also chosen option two.

Linda, the servant of the household, plotted a cruel revenge on her masters.

Now Linda is cruel like other tyrants, but she cannot be described as a tyrant because Linda is not a powerful person.

She is just a servant of the household.

Linda cannot therefore be described as a tyrant.

And option four, the judge ordered that the thief should be fined for his crimes.

So in this situation here, the judge is clearly very powerful, but I would not describe him acting in a cruel or unfair way.

Instead, he's justly punishing the thief for his crimes.

In this extract here, we are going to meet a tyrannical character.

But before we begin, I've got one thing to explain about how we're going to read this.

Here's a sentence from our extract.

He gorged himself habitually at the table.

Now some of you may not know what that word gorge means.

To gorge yourself means to eat a lot of food.

What I've done throughout the extract is I've added some definitions to these words that you may not understand as you read.

So the way that I've written this sentence in the extract is this.

He gorged himself, ate a lot food, habitually at the table.

In brackets, we have a definition of this word, gorged, of these words gorged himself.

The words in brackets are my words.

The words in bold are Bronte's words.

This will help you understand the extract as you read.

At the beginning of this extract, John Reed is looking for Jane Eyre.

John is very angry with Jane because Jane is reading a book that John believes belongs to him.

Let's see what happens.

John Reed asks Jane to see him.

"I want you to come here" said John, and seating himself in an armchair, he intimated or pointed by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.

John Reed was a school boy at 14 years old, four years old older that I, for I was but 10.

Large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome or unhealthy skin, thick liniments or wrinkles, and a spacious large visage, or face, heavy limbs and large extremities.

He gorged himself and ate a lot of food habitually at the table, which made him bilious and sick, and gave them a dim and bleared eye and fat flabby cheeks.

He ought now to have been at school, but his mother had taken him home for a month or two on account of this delicate, poor health.

Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent to him from home, but the mother's hearts turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John's sallowness or sickness was owing to over application or too much hard work, and perhaps to pining after home.

John had not much affection and love for his mother and sisters , and an the antipathy or hatred to me.

He bullied and punished me, not two or three times in a week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually.

Every nerve I had feared him, and then every morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near.

There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired because I have no appeal whatever against either his menaces or has inflictions.

The servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him.

And Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject.

She never saw him strike or hurt and abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence, more frequently, however behind her back.

Habitually and constantly obedient to John, I came up to his chair.

He spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots.

I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused and reflected on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it.

I wonder if he read that notion or idea in my face for all at once without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly.

I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium and balance, retired back a step or two from his chair.

Let's just analyse what's going on in these two paragraphs a bit more.

We get told here a lot about how John treats Jane.

We get told that he bullies and punishes Jane, not two or three times a week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually.

So John is continually tormenting Jane by being very cruel and unfair towards her.

But Jane doesn't know how to stand up for herself.

We get told that every nerve I had feared him, that every piece or morsel of flesh in my bones shrank when he came near.

So obviously, Jane feels very timid towards Joan.

She is not yet capable of standing up for herself.

Now we can understand why Jane might be quite hesitant to stand up for herself when we consider her position.

First of all, we get told that the servants did not like to offend John, their young master by taking my part against them.

So the servants in the house obviously don't want to anger John because the servants work for John's mother, Mrs. Reed, and then Jane Eyre says that Mrs. Reed was both blind and deaf on the subject.

In other words, Mrs. Reed ignores John bullying Jane.

And that is why Jane is hesitant to stand up for herself.

There's no one in this house who will help Jane.

So Jane says that she is habitually obedient to John.

What does that mean? Well, in other words she has made a habit of following John's instructions.

She's habitually obedient to this horrible boy.

Now this paragraph ends and John punches Jane.

Let's see what happens next.

John said, "That is for your impudence and rudeness "and answering my mama awhile since," said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains "and for the look you had in your eyes "two minutes since, you rat." Accustomed to John Reed's abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it.

My care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.

"What were you doing behind the curtain?" He asked.

"I was reading." "Show the book." I returned to the window and fetched it thence.

"You have no business to take our books.

"You are at dependent.

"Mama says you have no money.

"Your father left you none.

"You ought to beg and not to live here "with gentleman's children like us "and eat the same meals we do "and wear the clothes at our mama's expense.

"Now I'll teach you to rummage "and look in my bookshelves "for they are mine.

"All the house belongs to me "or will do in a few years.

"Go and stand by the door "out to the way of the mirror and the windows." I did so, not at first aware of what was his intention, but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm, not soon enough, however, the volume or book was flung.

It hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it.

The cut bled, the pain was sharp.

My terror had passed its climax.

Other feelings succeeded.

"Wicked and cruel boy." I said, "You are like a murderer.

"You're like a slave driver.

"You are like the Roman emperors." I had read Goldsmith's History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, and et cetera.

Also, I had drawn parallels in silence which I never thought thus to have declared aloud.

"What, what?" He cried, "Did she say that to me? "Did you hear her Eliza and Georgiana? "Won't I tell mama? "But first," he ran headlong at me.

I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder.

He had closed with a desperate thing.

I really saw in him a tyrant, a murderer.

I felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down my neck, and when sensible or aware of somewhat pungent, overwhelming suffering.

These sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort.

I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me, "Rat, rat." And bellowed and screamed out loud Help or aid was near him.

Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs. Reed who was gone upstairs.

She now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid, Abbot.

We were parted.

I heard the words, "Dear, dear, "What a fury to fly at Master John." "Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion." Then Mrs. Reed subjoined.

"Take her away to the red room and lock her in there." Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.

Bronte has not yet explained what the red room is, but clearly Jane is being taken to the red room as a punishment for attacking John.

Let's now recap the main things that happened in the extract that we've just read.

First of all, John continuously bullies Jane, the servants won't stop this bullying because John is the son of their employer Mrs. Reed.

Mrs. Reed, meanwhile, ignores John's abuse of Jane.

At the beginning of the extract, Jane is happily reading a book.

John becomes angry and claims that the book and the rest of the house did not belong to Jane because she is not a member of the Reed family.

John then throws a book at Jane.

Jane then tells John that he is a tyrant, like one of the Roman emperors that Jane's obviously been reading about.

Jane next attacks John.

Jane is then dragged by the rest of the family to the red room.

Okay, press the pause button on your video now.

Go through these six sentences.

Tell the screen is sentences, filling in the gaps.

Off you go.

I will give you the answers.

Number one, John continuously bullies Jane, the servants won't to stop this bullying because John is the son of their employer Mrs. Reed.

Mrs. Reed meanwhile ignores John's abuse of Jane.

Jane is happily reading a book.

John becomes angry and claims that the book and the rest of the house do not belong to Jane because she is not a member of a Reed family.

John then throws a book at Jane.

Jane tells John that he is a tyrant, like one of the Roman emperors.

Jane next attacks John.

Jane is dragged by the rest of the family to the red room.

Well done if you got all six of those sentences correct.

Let's now analyse John's cruelty in this extract.

Here's a quotation demonstrating John's cruelty.

This is what John says when he discovers that Jane has been reading his books.

Let's read.

"You have no business to take our books.

"You are at dependent.

"Mama says you have no money.

"Your father left you none.

"You ought to beg and not to live here "with gentleman's children like us "and eat the same meals we do "and wear clothes at our momma's expense.

"Now I'll teach you to rummage "and look in my bookshelves, for they are mine.

"All the house belongs to me or will do in a few years." These words reveal a great deal about John's tyrannical and cruel personality.

Let's first of all zoom into this first insult.

John says that Jane is a dependent.

In other words, John is saying Jane lives on the support of the Reeds.

She is dependent on the Reed's kindness.

Now for John, this is a reason to judge Jane.

John clearly thinks that Jane is not as important as other members of the family because she is an orphan.

In fact, even though Jane has been living with this family her whole life, John says this, he says, "You ought to beg." In other words, Jane does not deserve to live in the Reed house.

She deserves instead to live on the streets and beg for food and money.

John does not think that Jane deserves to live in the Reed's house.

He does not think that she is important enough to live with them.

In fact, John then says this.

He says that Jane does not deserve to live with gentleman's children like us.

Now that word gentlemen refers to a gentlemen, someone who is rather rich and powerful.

So John here is implying that Jane does not have the high social status required to live with the Reeds.

He's been rather snobbish here.

And then he says this.

He says, my books, "I'll teach you to rummage "and look at my bookshelves for they are mine.

"All the house belongs to me or will do in a few years." So John clearly thinks that he's a head of this household.

He views all the possessions of the household as belonging to him since he is the oldest member, oldest male member of the family.

Now, because of this, John thinks he's very powerful, and he thinks that he has the power to boss Jane around.

As you can see, John is a very tyrannical and cruel character.

Press the pause button on your video now.

Use the words on the screen to take notes upon this quotation.

Off you go.

I now have some sentences that I want you to complete in this quotation.

John something bullies Jane.

So you're going to write an appositive here.

So this will be a short phrase giving us additional information about John.

Remember that on either side of an appositive, we have a comma.

Two, John abuses Jane because.

Three, even though Jane has been living with the Reeds her whole life, comma, then you're going to finish that phrase, remember the comma after the word life.

Number four, Jane is unprotected from John's cruelty because, and here are some key words and quotations you can use to help you write.

The key words are in bold, and for quotations that you might want to use are in this white colour with a blue background.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete these sentences in your book or on your page.

For some of the sentences, you may want to write more than one sentence.

Off you go.

I'll now show you my answers.

John, the tyrannical son of Mrs. Reed bullies Jane.

John abuses Jane because he judges her as an orphan who is ultimately unworthy to live with gentleman's children.

Even though Jane has been living with the Reeds her whole life, John regards her as a parasitical dependent who ought to beg on the streets rather than live off his family.

Number four, Jane is unprotected from John's cruelty because of his powerful position in the household.

The servants of the house are too timid to rebuke the spoiled son of their employer.

Mrs. Reed meanwhile continues to ignore John's abusive behaviour, since our beloved child can do no wrong in her eyes.

Press the pause button on your video now.

Take a look through your sentences and see if you would like to improve your sentences now.

Okay, we're now going to analyse how Jane stands up for herself in this extract.

This is a quotation describing how Jane has acted towards John throughout her life.

We get told that she's been habitually obedient to John.

I came up to his chair.

Now that sentence in this phrase, habitually obedient, this phrase demonstrates that up until now, Jane has been submissive and passive in responding to John's abuse.

That word submissive again describes someone who obeys someone without complaining and to be passive means that you do not take matters into your own hands.

You allow things to happen to you rather than deciding what will happen yourself and being active.

So in other words, Jane has allowed John to treat her really badly throughout her whole life.

Press the pause button on your video now, and take some notes on this quotation.

Off you go.

Let's now take a look at our next quotation.

So this is when Jane becomes very angry with John.

John has just thrown a book at her and now she explodes.

This is what she says.

"Wicked and cruel boy." I said, "you are like a murderer.

"You're like a slave driver.

"You are like the Roman emperors." So let's get into these words, wicked and cruel boy.

Here, Jane is criticising John's unfair behaviour.

She recognises and admits for the first time that he has been abusing her and treating her unfairly.

She then says this, she says, "You are like a slave driver.

"You are like the Roman emperors." Now I imagine that Jane has read about a slave drivers and Roman emperors through all the books that she's read.

So this review is a lot about how Jane views John.

Jane recognises that John is more powerful than she is, but fights against him anyway.

She recognises that he is like a slave driver, a slave driver is someone who owns slaves and makes them work very hard.

Compared to John, Jane is just a slave, she's powerless.

And then she says this.

She says that John is like a Roman emperor.

So on one hand, Jane recognises that John is very powerful.

But by saying these words, by implying that John is tyrannical and unfair and cruel, Jane is fighting against him anyway.

Jane is being assertive here.

She is standing up for herself.

That's what that word assertive means.

If you're assertive, you're good at defending yourself, at speaking your mind, and standing up for her rights.

She will no longer allow John to abuse her.

Press the pause button on your video now and take some notes upon this quotation.

Off you go.

This is the novel's first moment where we can see that Jane is beginning to change.

Throughout her whole life, Jane has been a timid and passive orphan who has allowed the Reed family to abuse her.

But now she's beginning to stand up for herself.

Jane has taken the first step towards maturity.

By the end of this novel, Jane will no longer be a timid and frightened little orphan.

Instead, she will become a mature, strong, and confident lady who now takes life into our own hands.

This is characteristic of a Bildungsroman genre.

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

Throughout this novel, we're going to watch Jane Eyre grow up and mature.

Here's some sentences for you to complete.

Jane comma blank comma is continuously bullied by John.

So you're going to add an appositive there.

That would be a phrase providing more information about Jane.

Two, whereas Jane has usually responded to John's cruel treatment through blank comma she now.

Three, even though John is in a far more powerful position that Jane comma.

Jane's actions suggest.

And Bronte uses this moment to demonstrate.

Here's some key words, and the key words are bold.

And the quotations you can use as evidence are in white with a blue background.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete these sentences in your book or on your page.

Off you go.

I'll now show you my exemplar answers.

Number one, Jane, who is a timid little child at the beginning of a novel, is continuously bullied by John.

Two, whereas Jane has usually responded to John's cruel treatment through submissive acceptance, she now rebels against the injustice inflicted on her by this wicked and cruel boy.

Three, even though John is in a far more powerful position than Jane, she refuses to passively accept his abuse.

She is like a slave who now rebels against their slave driver.

She knows that she may be punished severely for such assertiveness, but can no longer submit to such ill treatment from this bully.

Four, Jane's actions suggests that she is not as timid and passive as she initially appears.

This orphan actually possesses a strong sense of justice and is determined to defend herself against abuse.

Five, Bronte uses this moment to demonstrate that Jane is changing as a character.

She has begun a development from a passive and timid orphan to a confident and assertive woman who will take charge of her life.

Press the pause button on your video now if you would like to improve your answers based upon these exemplars.

Off you go.

And that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Here's the credits that we've used in this lesson.

So Jane has now stood up for herself and fought against her cruel cousin, John Reed.

Join us in our next lesson when Jane is punished by being sent to the red room.

Now between you and me, the red room is rumoured to be haunted by a ghost.

Things are going to get a little bit scary.

I'll see you next time.

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