Lesson video

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to another "Jane Eyre" lesson.

Today, we are going to begin reading our novel.

I cannot wait to begin! At the beginning of our story, we are introduced to Jane Eyre when she is a child living with the Reed family.

As you're going to see, the Reeds are a truly horrible set of characters that treat Jane Eyre terribly.

Prepare your box of tissues, because this opening is going to break your heart.

It's already broken mine.

You've been warned, so 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.

To begin our lesson, let's have a recap from what you learned last lesson.

Here's a question for you.

What is a Bildungsroman? Is it A, or is it option one, a novel named after its main character? Option two, a story with a female protagonist? Option three, a novel set in Yorkshire? Or option four, a narrative describing how a character grows up, learns about the world, and develops from immaturity to maturity? 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 four.

A Bildungsroman is a narrative describing how a character grows up, learns about the world, and develops from immaturity to maturity.

Well done if you got that right.

Give yourself a pat on the back! I'll now tell you my plan for today's lesson.

First of all, I'm going to introduce you to the Reed family.

This is the family that Jane is living with at the start of our novel.

We'll then learn some new vocabulary, this word submissive.

We'll then read our extract, and to finish, we're going to look at this question, why is Jane miserable while she is living with the Reed family? So, let's begin! I'll first of all introduce you to the Reed family.

So let me just update you on what's happened in Jane's life before the start of our novel.

Here's a picture of Jane here.

Jane's parents have died from typhus.

That was a very common disease during the Victorian era.

Jane now lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds.

Now, Jane's uncle wanted to take care of her, but another tragedy struck her life.

Having moved in with the Reed family, Jane's uncle dies.

So Jane's uncle is dead before the beginning of our novel.

As you can see, Jane's young life has been characterised by sorrow and death, right from the moment that she's been born.

So Jane is now living with the Reed family.

Now, her uncle is married to a lady.

This is of course, Mrs. Reed.

Now, Mrs. Reed has three children.

She has John Reed, Georgiana Reed, and Eliza Reed.

These are Mrs. Reed's three children.

Now, Mrs. Reed is very, very close to her three children.

She views them as her darlings.

She's very affectionate towards them and thinks the world of them.

But Mrs. Reed does not feel the same way about Jane Eyre.

In fact, the whole family don't like Jane Eyre very much.

They don't spend much time with her at all.

Jane is isolated from the rest of the family.

As you're going to see, Jane lives a rather lonely and solitary life at the beginning of the story.

Later on in the lesson, I'll explain why the rest of the Reed family don't like Jane Eyre very much.

Now, the Reeds and Jane live in this house.

This is Gateshead Hall.

It's a rather lovely house, and they're a rather wealthy family.

And they have a nurse who's called Bessie.

Okay, and now I want to test your memory on what we've been through so far.

So press the pause button on your video now, go through each of these three sentences, tell the screen the full sentence, including the words in blank.

Off you go! Okay, I'll now give you the right answers.

So the Reed family lived at 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.

Okay, I'm now going to introduce you to a new word, some new vocabulary.

Our word for this lesson is submissive.

Now, if you're submissive, you're someone who gladly obeys others without arguing.

Let me give you some examples of this word.

In Victorian times, children were expected to display obedience and submissive behaviour towards adults.

In other words, children were expected to obey adults without arguing.

"I will no longer be submissive," screamed Alan.

"You teachers will no longer control me!" So in this example here, Alan is saying that he's no longer going to be submissive to his teachers.

In other words, he's no longer going to obey his teachers without rebelling.

Here's another example, in Victorian times, wives were expected to act submissively and accept their husband's authority over the household.

In other words, wives were expected to obey their husbands gladly.

So to remind you of the meaning of our word, a submissive person is someone who gladly obeys others without arguing.

As we read through our extract, I want you to try to spot which character is expected to be submissive in this story.

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

Which person is displaying submissive behaviour? You have four options.

Option one, when Yolanda's mother told her to do her homework, Yolanda swore angrily but went to her room and began.

Option two, Titus was very kind and quiet in his preschool today.

Option three, Pedro agreed with his mother's instructions and quietly went to bed, or option four, Fiona refuse to give the teacher her phone.

Press the pause button on your video now, and tell the screen which person is displaying submissive behaviour.

Off you go! I will now tell you the right answer, which is, of course, option three.

Pedro is displaying submissive behaviour because he is gladly following his mother's instructions to go to bed without arguing.

Well done if you got that right, but some of you may have chosen one of the other options.

You may have chosen option one.

So Yolanda does indeed follow her mother's instructions.

She's obedient, she goes to her room, and begins her homework.

But Yolanda cannot be described as submissive because she does in fact become very angry.

She swears at her mother before she follows her mother's instructions.

We can't describe Yolanda as submissive because she doesn't gladly accept her mother's instructions.

Instead, she becomes angry.

Now, some of you may have chosen option two, Titus was very kind and quiet in his preschool today.

Just because you're kind and quiet doesn't mean you're submissive.

A submissive person, as I've said, is someone who gladly obeys other people.

Some of you may have chosen option four, Fiona refused to give the teacher her phone.

Fiona is actually the opposite of submissive.

Fiona is actually rather defiant and rebellious because she does not follow her teacher's instructions at all.

Okay, we're now going to get ready to read our extract.

I just have one quick thing to explain to you before we begin.

So Bronte uses a first-person narration in this novel.

That means that the novel is written from Jane Eyre's perspective.

So here's a sentence from the extract that we're about to read.

"I never liked long walks." Now the I in that sentence is Jane Eyre.

So this novel is written from Jane Eyre's perspective.

In other words, it's written with a first-person narration.

Let's begin.

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning, but since dinner, Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early, the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.

I was glad of it.

I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons.

Dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room.

She lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her, for the time neither quarrelling nor crying, looked perfectly happy.

Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance, but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner, something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were, she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.

' 'What does Bessie say I've done?' I asked.

'Jane, I don't like cavilers or questioners.

Besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner.

Be seated somewhere.

Until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.

'" Okay, we're now going to begin analysing this extract.

We're going to answer this question.

Why is Jane miserable while she is living with the Reed family? And I've got three big ideas to answer this question.

I think the first reason that Jane is so miserable is this, Jane is isolated from the Reed family.

In other words, Jane doesn't spend much time with the Reed family.

They cut her off from conversation.

Jane is lonely while she is in this house.

Now, I'm now going to give you a quotation that we can use as evidence for this idea.

"The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room.

She lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her, for the time neither quarrelling nor crying, looked perfectly happy.

Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance.

'" I've got some questions to ask you about this quotation here.

We're going to think about how these words demonstrate that Jane Eyre is isolated from the Reed family.

Here's my first question.

Who are Eliza, John, and Georgiana sitting beside in this room? Look at the quotation and try to find the right answer.

Press the pause button on your video now.

The right answer is, of course, this, "The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered," or gathered, "round their mama," Mrs. Reed, "in the drawing room.

She lay reclined on the sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her." So, Eliza, John, and Georgiana are sitting close to their mother.

Okay, here's my next question.

What word does Bronte use to reflect Mrs. Reed's feelings for Eliza, John, and Georgiana? Press the pause button on your video now and try to find the quotation, the word, in these lines that answer this question.

Off you go! It is, of course, "her darlings." Mrs. Reed views Eliza, John, and Georgiana as her darlings.

What do you think these words reflect about Mrs. Reed's feelings towards her children? Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen your thoughts.

I'll now give you my thoughts.

I think these words describing Mrs. Reed's feelings for her children reflect her affection for Eliza, John, and Georgiana.

These three children are her darlings.

It's clear that she loves them very much.

Okay, so it's clear that Mrs. Reed has great affection for her own three children.

But let's now compare how Mrs. Reed feels towards her own children compared to how she feels towards Jane Eyre.

Is Jane sat near to the Reed family or far away? Find two quotations as evidence.

Off you go, press the pause button on your video now.

She is, of course, sitting far away.

We can see this from these two quotations.

"Me, she had dispensed from joining the group." "'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance.

'" In other words, Jane Eyre is forced to stay at the opposite side of the room to the Reed children.

Jane is not allowed to sit near the Reed children.

What might Bronte be suggesting about Jane's relationship with the Reed family? Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen your thoughts.

Here's my thoughts.

I would suggest that these words demonstrate that Jane is isolated from the Reed family.

She is not allowed to sit beside Mrs. Reed's children.

Perhaps the physical distance between Jane and the Reed children is symbolic of an emotional distance between these characters.

Even though Jane has been living with the Reed family throughout her whole life, she is not treated as a member of this family.

She is a second-class member of this family.

How do you think Mrs. Reed treats her children differently to Jane? I now want you to press the pause button and tell the screen your thoughts.

Here's my thoughts.

I would suggest that these words demonstrate that Mrs. Reed values her children more than Jane.

It's clear that there's a lot of favouritism going on in this house.

While Mrs. Reed has great affection for her own children, she clearly does not have much time or affection for Jane Eyre at all.

Jane Eyre is cut off from the rest of the family.

I now have two questions for you to complete in your book or on your page.

Question one, Mrs. Reed makes Jane sit at a distance from the rest of the family.

Why does Mrs. Reed treat Jane like this? And question two, what is Bronte suggesting about the relationship between Jane and the Reed family through this moment? Now to help you, I've got two tables.

This is our first table.

It's got some keywords that you could use in your answer.

And this is my second table.

This is evidence that you could use in your answer.

Now, some of these pieces of evidence, the second one and the third one, have a quotation in them.

You can see those quotation marks around the word "darlings," around the word "dispensed," and around that phrase "at a distance." Remember, if you use these quotations, to include the quotation marks around them.

Press the pause button on your video now.

Answer these two questions in your book or on your page, and use the keywords and evidence to help you write your answers.

Off you go.

We'll now take a look at some exemplar answers.

Mrs. Reed makes Jane sit "at a distance" from the rest of the family.

Why does Mrs. Reed treat Jane like this? Mrs. Reed makes Jane sit "at a distance" from the rest of the family because she does not regard this orphan as sufficiently important to sit beside her own children.

This cruel aunt uses this instruction to emphasise Jane's low status in her household.

Question two, what is Bronte suggesting about the relationship between Jane and the Reed family through this moment? Bronte uses this moment to demonstrate how Jane is treated unfairly by the Reed family.

While Mrs. Reed is evidently devoted to her own children, she is dismissive and cruel towards Jane.

The writer contrasts Mrs. Reed's affection towards her "darlings" with her disdain towards Jane to emphasise the injustice that the eponymous heroine suffers at the beginning of the novel.

Having read those two exemplar answers, you now may have some ideas which you could use to improve the answers you've already written.

If you would like to improve the answers you've written, press the pause button on your video now.

Okay, let's now move on to our next idea.

So, so far we've begun answering this question, why is Jane miserable while she's living with the Reed family? And this is our first idea to answer this question.

Jane is isolated from the Reed family.

Here's our next idea.

I think Jane feels less important than the Reed children.

Let me explain.

Why does Jane feel less important than the Reed children? Well, I think it's for a few different reasons.

First of all, Jane is an orphan from another family.

Both of her parents are dead.

And therefore, Jane never fully feels that she's a member of the Reed family.

She feels like an imposter.

She does not truly feel at home at Gateshead.

My second point would be this, Jane feels less important than the Reed children because she doesn't feel as attractive as the Reed children.

Let me explain this.

Here's what Jane says.

She says that she is "humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed." Now, if you're humbled by something, in this context, that word humble means ashamed.

So Jane says that she's ashamed of my consciousness of my physical inferiority compared to these kids.

Now, if you're conscious of something, you're aware of something.

Now what is Jane aware of that makes her so humbled, that makes her so ashamed? Well, she says that she's humbled by her awareness or consciousness of her physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

Now, if you're inferior to someone, you're not as good as someone, and if you're physically inferior to someone, you don't look as impressive as they do.

So here's a picture of Jane.

Throughout the whole novel, Bronte demonstrates that Jane is a rather plain-looking child, a rather plain-looking woman.

She's not particularly beautiful at all.

And Jane is not nearly as strong as John Reed, and in that way, she's physically inferior to John.

And compared to Georgiana and Eliza, Jane is nowhere near as physically attractive or beautiful as these two girls.

In this way, Jane feels physically inferior to the Reed children.

So, here's my question for you.

For what two reasons does Jane feel less important than the Reed children? Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer.

I'll now show you the right answer.

Why does Jane feel less important than the Reed children? Well, we've got two reasons.

Number one, Jane is an orphan from another family.

And number two, Jane doesn't feel as attractive as the Reed children.

Well done if you got that right.

Now, so far throughout this lesson, we've been trying to answer this question, why is Jane miserable while she is living with the Reed family? We've come up with two reasons so far.

Number one, Jane is isolated from the Reed family.

And number two, Jane feels less important than the Reed children.

Here's our third and final reason.

Jane is expected to be submissive and powerless in the Reed family.

To remind you what that word submissive means, a submissive person is someone who gladly obeys other people without arguing.

Let's now find our evidence that Jane is expected to be submissive and powerless in this family.

Here's our quotation from the end of our extract.

Before this quotation, Mrs. Reed explains that Jane has been very badly behaved.

And because Jane's been so badly behaved, she's not allowed to sit beside the Reed children.

At the beginning of this quotation, Jane is asking, "What does Bessie say I have done?" So Jane is confused about why she's behaved badly.

She doesn't know what she's done wrong.

She doesn't know why she's not allowed to sit beside the Reed children.

And then Mrs. Reed becomes very angry indeed.

Let's read this again.

"'What does Bessie say I've done?' I asked.

'Jane, I don't like cavilers or questioners.

Besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner.

Be seated somewhere, and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.

'" Okay, let's now analyse this quotation.

So it begins, and Jane is very confused.

She asks this innocent question, "What does Bessie say I have done?" These words demonstrate that Jane cannot understand why Mrs. Reed is unhappy with her.

She cannot understand why she's unable to sit beside the other children.

And this is how Mrs. Reed responds.

Now, Mrs. Reed's response has quite a lot of quite big words in it, so we're going to go through each of these words, explain what they mean.

So, "Jane, I don't like cavilers," now, a caviler is someone who begins unnecessary arguments, "or questioners, besides, there's something truly forbidding," now if something's forbidding, it's worrying, it's terrifying, "in a child's taking up her elders," so your elder is someone who is older than you, "in that manner." Okay, let's now break this quotation down a bit.

So here's my question, why is Mrs. Reed angry with Jane? Press the pause button on your video now, and using this information on the screen, tell the screen your thoughts.

Off you go! Here's my thoughts.

I think that Mrs. Reed is angry because Jane is questioning her authority.

Mrs. Reed does not want to be questioned at all, even when the question, like this question asked by Jane here, is really rather innocent.

Mrs. Reed is determined to make Jane Eyre submissive.

She wants Jane Eyre to demonstrate unquestioning obedience to her authority.

Here's my next question, how does Mrs. Reed want Jane to behave? To help you think about this question, let's look at the end of this quotation.

"Be seated somewhere, and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent." How do we think Mrs. Reed wants Jane to behave? Tell the screen the thoughts that you have now.

I'll now give you my thoughts.

I think Mrs. Reed wants unquestioning obedience and submissive behaviour from Jane.

When she says that she wants Jane to "speak pleasantly," she really means that she doesn't want Jane to question her decisions.

She wants Jane to be obedient and submissive.

Okay, I now have two questions for you to answer.

Question one, why does Mrs. Reed rebuke Jane for questioning what she did wrong? Question two, what is Bronte suggesting here about Jane's relationship with the Reed family? You have these keywords to help you write your answer.

And you've also got this evidence and some quotations to help you write your answer.

Press the pause button on your video now, write your answer in your book or on your page, and use the keywords and evidence to help you write.

Off you go! I'll now give you my exemplar answers.

Question one, why does Mrs. Reed rebuke Jane for questioning what she did wrong? Here's my answer.

Mrs. Reed rebukes Jane for questioning what she did wrong.

Mrs. Reed harshly criticises Jane's innocent query by saying, "I don't like cavilers and questioners." Here, Jane's tyrannical aunt is demanding unthinking obedience from her pitiful niece.

Even though Mrs. Reed is treating Jane unfairly, she is determined to squash any signs of dissent from the young girl.

Question two, what is Bronte suggesting here about Jane's relationship with the Reed family? Bronte uses this moment to demonstrate Jane's powerless position in the Reed family.

This vulnerable orphan's freedom is narrowed down to a simple choice.

She can either speak pleasantly and submissively accept her low status in the family, or she can remain silent.

Either way, Mrs. Reed is determined to crush Jane's attempts to stand up for herself and speak out against her unfair treatment.

So we've read through these exemplars.

If you feel like there's some ideas in these exemplars that you would like to fit into your writing, press the pause button on your video now and improve your answers.

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

Here's our credits for all the pictures that we've used today.

Wow, what a sad opening to our novel! As you can see, poor Jane Eyre is treated terribly by the Reeds! She's treated as if she's not nearly as important as they are! She's not even allowed to sit near the children in the family.

And then, when she questions Mrs. Reed, she's told to stop arguing or be silent! Now, so far, Jane has been very submissive and accepted this unfair treatment, but that's not going to last for long.

In fact, in our next lesson, Jane is going to explode in anger.

Things are going to get a little bit crazy.

I'll see you next lesson.

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

I'll see you next time!.