Lesson video

Hello, everyone, welcome to our next lesson on "Jane Eyre." In our last lesson, we joined Jane when she became very angry with John Reed.

Jane has been abused by the Reed family all her life.

And when John threw a book at her, Jane had had enough.

Jane exploded and attacked John, and as a punishment, she's been sent to the red room.

Oh, I wonder what might happen there.

We're going to find out in today's lesson.

Now the extract that we're going to read is one of the most famous extracts in all of English literature, and it's known for being very scary.

So grab your pillow, and prepare to be terrified when Jane comes face to face with a ghostly presence inside the red room.

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 last lesson.

Why did Jane go to the red room? You have four options.

Option one, Mrs. Reed sent Jane to the red room as a punishment for attacking John.

Option two, Jane went into the red room to read.

Option three, Jane went to the red room as a reward for good behaviour.

Or option four, Jane went into the red room as a punishment for her rude behaviour.

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.

Jane is sent to the red room as a punishment for attacking John.

And again, Jane attacks John after he has thrown a book at her.

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 this promise that was made by Jane's uncle before he died, then we're going to read our extract.

And after that, we're going to learn about how Bronte creates a tense atmosphere in this extract.

So let's first of all learn about this promise made by Jane's uncle.

As you may remember, Jane's parents have died from typhus, so she never knew her mom and dad, but Jane then went to live with her uncle's family, that is the Reeds, and Jane's uncle died shortly after this.

Now let's learn a little bit more about Jane's uncle.

Here's a picture of him.

Jane's uncle, Mr. Reed, decided to care for Jane after her parents died.

So we get an impression that Mr. Reed was actually quite a caring man.

But, as we know, Mr. Reed became very sick and before he died, Mr. Reed made his wife, Mrs. Reed, promise to look after Jane.

So as he was dying, he told his wife, "Please look after Jane in the same way "as you will look after your own children." Now, as we know, Mrs. Reed has not done what Mr. Reed told her to do.

Mrs. Reed has broken her promise to look after Jane, and in fact, treats Jane very badly.

We know about Mrs. Reed, she's always had great love for her three children, John, Eliza, and Georgiana, but she's always held great disrespect and hatred for Jane.

In fact, she has isolated Jane from the rest of the family.

Let's now test your memory on these ideas.

You have two sentences in front of you with some of the words missing.

Press the pause button on your video now, read these sentences to your screen including the words in blank.

Off you go! I'll now show you the right answers.

Number one, Jane's uncle is called Mr. Reed.

Number two, before he died, Mr. Reed made his wife, Mrs. Reed, promise to look after Jane.

Well done if you got that right! I now want you to write some really good, interesting sentences in your book.

Number one, whereas Mr. Reed cared for Jane, Mrs. Reed blank.

Number two, Mr. Reed made his wife promise to raise Jane as her own child, but.

Number three, even though Jane is a well-behaved girl, blank.

And number four, Mrs. Reed dislikes Jane because blank.

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

Off you go! Let's now take a look at some exemplars.

Here's our first one.

Whereas Mr. Reed cared for Jane, Mrs. Reed displays hatred towards this pitiful orphan.

Number two, Mr. Reed made his wife promise to raise Jane as her own child, but Mrs. Reed has forsaken this agreement and now makes the young heroine's life miserable.

Number three, even though Jane is a well-behaved girl, Mrs. Reed frequently punishes her.

And number four, Mrs. Reed dislikes Jane because she is a dependent orphan and not one of her own beloved children.

If you would like to improve your work, press the pause button on your video now, and rewrite some of your sentences based upon what you've just read.

Off you go! Okay, let's now read our extract.

One thing that you need to know before we begin reading is you're going to get introduced to a new character here.

This is Miss Abbot.

Miss Abbot is one of the servants who work in the Reed household.

Here is a picture of the red room.

This is where Jane is locked at the beginning of this extract after she has attacked John.

Now this room is rather important for the Gateshead Hall.

This room has been untouched for years and years and years.

No one ever goes into this room.

This is the room in which Jane's uncle, Mr. Reed, died.

Now at the beginning of this extract, Jane is very angry.

She is furious that she has been punished for attacking John, but as the extract goes on, and as it becomes darker outside, Jane becomes more and more anxious.

She begins to imagine that Mr. Reed's ghost might appear to her.

Let's see what happens.

"My blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour and energy; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal and dark present.

My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no one had reproved or punished John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium and criticism.

What a consternation and distress of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection and rebellion! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question, why I thus suffered; now, at the distance of, I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.

Daylight began to forsake and leave the red-room; it was past four o'clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight.

I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank.

My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire.

All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread.

I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle, my mother's brother, that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children.

Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her; but how could she really like an interloper and intruder not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband's death, by any tie? It must have been irksome and irritating to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien and stranger permanently intruded on her own family group.

A singular notion or thought dawned upon me.

I doubted not, never doubted, that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls, occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaning mirror, I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed's spirit, harassed by the wrongs of his sister's child, might quit its abode, whether in the church vault or in the unknown world of the departed, and rise before me in this chamber.

I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural or supernatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity.

This idea, consolatory and comforting in theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it, I endeavoured to be firm.

Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a light gleamed on the wall.

Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head.

I can now conjecture and guess readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by someone across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world.

My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort.

Steps came running along the outer passage; the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.

"Miss Eyre, are you ill?" said Bessie.

"What a dreadful noise! "It went quite through me!" exclaimed Abbot.

"Take me out! "Let me go into the nursery!" was my cry.

"What for? Are you hurt? "Have you seen something?" again demanded Bessie.

"Oh! I saw a light, "and I thought a ghost would come." I had now got hold of Bessie's hand, and she did not snatch it from me.

"She has screamed out on purpose," declared Abbot, in some disgust.

"What a scream! "If she had been in great pain, one would have excused it, "but she only wanted to bring us all here: "I know her dirty tricks, I know her naughty tricks." "What is all this?" demanded another voice peremptorily; and Mrs. Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling stormily.

"Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders "that Jane Eyre should be left in the red-room "till I came to her myself." "Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am," pleaded Bessie.

"Let her go," was the only answer.

"Loose Bessie's hand, child: "you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, "be assured, I abhor artifice, particularly in children; "it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: "you will now stay here an hour longer, "and it is only on condition of perfect submission "and stillness that I shall liberate you then." "O aunt, have pity! "Forgive me! "I cannot endure it, let me be punished some other way! "I shall be killed if-" "Silence, this violence is all the most repulsive!" And so, no doubt, she felt it.

I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without farther parley.

I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene." Okay, let's go over the main things that happened in that extract.

First of all, Jane is locked in the red room as a punishment for attacking John.

After this, we learned that this is the room in which Jane's uncle, Mr. Reed, died.

Jane begins imagining that Mr. Reed's ghost is about to visit her.

Mrs. Reed, Bessie and Miss Abbott think that Jane is going mad.

Jane then faints from exhaustion, and that's the end of our extract.

Let's now test your memory on these ideas.

Press the pause button on your video now and go through these sentences, filling in the words in blank.

Off you go! Okay, let's now take a look at the right answers.

We'll go back, here we go.

Jane is locked in the red room as a punishment for attacking John.

This is the room in which Jane's uncle, Mr. Reed, died.

Jane begins imagining that Mr. Reed's ghost is about to visit her.

Mrs. Reed, Bessie and Miss Abbot think that Jane is going mad.

Jane faints from exhaustion.

Well done if you got all of those right! Okay, let's now move on to our analysis question.

How does Bronte create a tense atmosphere in this extract? So we're going to begin by looking at one quotation.

The quotation that I'm about to show comes from quite close to the opening of the extract.

Jane has been left alone in the red room for a number of hours, and Bronte now describes Jane's feelings.

Let's read! "What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How all my brain was in tumult or confusion, and all my heart in insurrection or rebellion! Yet in what darkness, what dense, thick ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question, why I thus suffered." Let's analyse this quotation and think about how Bronte's language creates a tense atmosphere.

I want to, first of all, begin with this final sentence.

"I could not answer the ceaseless inward question, why I thus suffered?" If something's ceaseless, it means it's unending.

And Jane here is talking about the ceaseless unending question, why she is suffering.

What does she mean by this? Well, Jane is probably talking here or questions on why she is being treated so terribly in the Reed household.

Jane is aware that Mrs. Reed treats our own children, Georgiana, Eliza and John very well, and yet she treats Jane very terribly.

Jane does not understand this.

Left alone and isolated in the red room for hours, Jane is confused about the source of her suffering.

She is confused about the injustice that she is suffering in this house.

Let's now move on to another part of this quotation to further demonstrate Jane's sense of confusion.

"Yet in what darkness, what dense, thick, ignorance was a mental battle fought!" So here Jane is describing herself being surrounded by darkness.

Now she's not literally surrounded by darkness right now.

It's more a symbolic darkness.

Now what is this darkness a symbol of? Well, I would suggest that this darkness is a symbol, once again, of confusion.

The darkness reflects Jane's lack of understanding.

When you're in a very dark room, you can't see around you at all.

And you don't really know what's going on around you.

And in the same way, the darkness, the symbolic darkness experienced by Jane is a symbol of her lack of understanding about the cause of her suffering.

And then we get these two descriptions here.

Very interesting language used by Bronte.

Jane says in the second line, "all my heart is in insurrection." And in the fourth line, she says that she's fighting a mental battle.

Now that word insurrection describes a rebellion.

So if everyone rose up in insurrection against the government, they would be involved in rebellion against the government.

So Bronte is using very violent imagery here to describe Jane's emotions.

I think this violent imagery reflects Jane's sense of anxiety as she sits alone in the red room.

Her heart is in insurrection or rebellion.

In other words, her heart, her emotions are in rebellion against her mind.

She feels that she's lost control of her emotions and feelings.

She is overwhelmed with her feelings of anger and pain.

This sense of anxiety and overwhelming emotions that cannot be controlled is further enforced by the description of a mental battle that Jane is fighting.

A mental battle does not mean a literal battle, this is a battle that takes place inside someone's mind.

Jane has lost control of her emotions.

She is overwhelmed by her sense of torment and pain and hurt.

Okay, so here's the notes that I've made upon this quotation.

Press the pause button on your video now, and take down some of these notes into your book or into your paper, off you go! Let's now write about this.

So here's the quotation.

In a minute, I want you to answer this question, what is Bronte suggesting about Jane's emotions through this description? Now, if you want to, you could use this as an opening sentence.

Bronte demonstrates that Jane is overwhelmed with anger and resentment through the description.

And then you can continue your answer after that.

And here's some key words that you can use to help you answer this question.

You don't need to use all of them, just use a few of them.

Press the pause button on your video now and answer this question in your book or on your page.

Off you go! Let's now take a look at an exemplar answer.

Bronte demonstrates that Jane is overwhelmed with anger and resentment through this description.

Having attacked John, after he threw a book at her, Jane is locked in the red room.

Isolated and alone on this dreary afternoon, the pitiful orphaned reflects upon her ill treatment at the hands of the Reed family.

She is tormented by the ceaseless inward question, why I thus suffered.

The miserable heroine cannot understand why Mrs. Reed treats her own children with affection, but Jane with such cruelty.

Jane is left in dense ignorance and darkness as she contemplates these questions.

Indeed, such thoughts torment her into a state of anguish.

Jane's heart is in insurrection as she fights this mental battle.

Bronte uses this violent language to emphasise the overwhelming force of the protagonist's feelings of hurt and frustration.

Press the pause button on your video now, if you would like to improve your answer, having read this exemplar.

Off you go! Let's now take a look at another quotation.

We're going to think about how this quotation creates a tense atmosphere.

This is describing the weather outside the red room.

Let's read.

"Daylight began to forsake and leave the red-room; it was past four o'clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear or dull twilight." Twilight means the sun is setting.

"I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall." So this quotation comes from quite close to the beginning of the extract, but once again, it creates this very tense atmosphere.

Let's zoom into these two phrases here on the third last line, "the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall." This description is of Jane listening to the sounds outside the red room.

The rain is beating against the window and the wind is howling outside.

Now I would suggest that Bronte is using personification of the weather here, right? So personification is when you describe a animal or a thing as if it is a person.

So you attribute characteristics of people onto things.

Here, Bronte is describing the weather as if it's a person.

So first of all, she describes the rain beating against the staircase window as if it's some sort of lunatic banging on the window, trying to get inside.

And then she describes the wind howling.

Now we know that the wind cannot howl, because the wind doesn't have a voice.

But Bronte is describing the wind as if it has a voice.

She is describing the wind as if it's howling, as if the wind is a very sorrowful person, crying in a very, very loud voice.

Why does Bronte describe the weather in this way? Well, I would suggest that this violent weather reflects Jane's anger.

The weather is a reflection of Jane's emotions.

Perhaps the wind, the rain beating against the window is a reflection of how Jane really wants to get outside.

She wants to beat the window to escape, and the wind howling reflects what Jane wants to do.

She wants to howl in anger and sadness at her situation.

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

Off you go! Okay, let's now answer a question on this.

Here's our quotation.

What is Bronte suggesting about Jane's emotions through this description? You're going to answer this question, here's a sentence starter to begin.

Bronte uses this description to reflect the intensity of Jane's despair.

That word despair, if you're in despair, it means that you feel hopeless and very, very sad.

Here's some key words that you can use in your answer.

Press the pause button on your video now and complete this answer in your book or on your page.

Off you go! Okay, let's now take a look at our exemplar answer.

Bronte uses this description to reflect the intensity of Jane's despair.

As Jane sits isolated and alone in the red room, she watches a drear twilight fall across the land.

This pitiful orphan then hears the rain beating violently on the staircase window, and the wind howling outside.

Bronte uses personification here through describing the rain beating frantically and angrily against the window, as if it's a lunatic trying to get in.

The writer also personifies the wind howling like a person crying mournfully.

Bronte personifies the weather to reflect Jane's feelings of rage and sadness over her unjust punishment.

It seems nature itself is joining this pitiful orphan in the midst of her troubles and sorrows.

Press the pause button on your video now, if you would like to improve your answer, based upon this exemplar.

Off you go! Let's now take a look at our third and final quotation.

This is towards the end of the extract, and this is when Jane looks at a light and she begins to worry that this light that's shining in the room is sort of like, it's a sign that she's going to be visited by her uncle's ghost.

Let's read.

"I thought the swift darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world.

My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort." So as you can see, this is a very scary moment in Jane's life.

She thinks she's about to be visited by her uncle's ghost.

Of course, us as a reader know that's probably not true.

Later on in this extract, Jane explains that the swift darting beam is actually probably a lantern.

There's nothing for Jane to be worried about at all in all likelihood.

However, Jane thinks that this light is a sign that something supernatural is about to visit her.

She views the light as a herald of some coming vision from another world.

Now that word herald, a herald is a sign.

So the light is a sign or a herald that a ghostly presence is arriving from another world.

Someone from another world, someone from the afterlife is about to visit Jane.

Why does Jane think this? Why doesn't she think it might be a lantern? Well, I would suggest Jane thinks that a ghost is about to visit her, because she's already filled with such anxiety and sorrow.

She's overwhelmed with emotion and her mind is playing tricks on her.

She's maybe seeing things that aren't really there.

In a sense, she is beginning to go mad.

And we can see this level of anxiety that Jane experiences in this very long sentence here.

Let me read it one last time for you.

"My heart beat thick, my head grew hot, a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated; endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort." So we've got this very long sentence here, and we really need to think to yourself, why does Bronte use such a long sentence which goes on for four lines in this specific situation? Well, I suggest that this long sentence creates a mounting sense of tension.

As the sentence goes on, the tension increases.

In this description, this very long sentence reflects Jane's overwhelming anxiety.

Okay, press the pause button on your video now, and take some notes upon this quotation.

Off you go! Okay, let's now do some writing upon this.

Here's our quotation.

Here's our question.

What is Bronte suggesting about Jane's emotions through this description? Here's a starting sentence.

Bronte uses this description to convey Jane's mounting sense of terror.

And here are some key words that you can use in your answer.

Press the pause button in your video now, and answer this question in your book or on your page.

Off you go! Let's now take a look at an exemplar.

Bronte uses this description to convey Jean's mounting sense of terror.

Having been left alone in the red room with her tortured thoughts for hours, Jane is possibly beginning to lose her sanity.

She sees a swift darting beam, which is probably a lantern, and identifies it as a herald of some coming vision of another world.

Remembering that her uncle, Mr. Reed, died in the red room, Jane now worries that his ghost may appear to her.

Jane, who is understandably horrified by the idea of a supernatural visitation, now begins to panic.

In the next description, "My heart beat thick," Bronte uses a long complex sentence to convey Jean's mounting sense of dread as she imagines this coming vision.

The writer uses the length of the sentence to convey Jane's overwhelming sense of terror.

Press the pause button on your video now, if you would like to improve your work having read this exemplar.

Off you go! Here's our credits for today's lesson.

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

Well done for all of your hard work today! In our next lesson, we're going to join Jane when she meets another terrifying character.

In fact, someone who is even more scary than the ghost that she might have seen in today's lesson.

Jane is going to meet Mr. Brocklehurst.

The headmaster of her new school.

Jane's troubles are just beginning.

I'll see you next time.

And before you go, make sure you complete the end-of-lesson quiz! I'll see you next time.