Chapter-2
Mrs Reed got fed up with Jane’s constant complaining. She did not want to see her face again. So, she decided to send Jane to Lowood school. Jane had not been keeping good health for a few days as a result of ill-treatment given to her by John Reed. Her head still ached and bled with the blow and fall she had received. Nobody had reproved John Reed for wantonly striking her. Because she had turned against him to avert further irrational violence, she was loaded with general opprobrium.
All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality—turned up in her disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. ‘Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, accused, for ever condemned?
‘Why could I never please? Why was it useless to win anybody’s favour? Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was unusually indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. John Reed was much less punished. Nobody thwarted him, though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory. He called his mother ‘old girl’ too. Sometimes he reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own. He bluntly disregarded her wishes; he spoiled her silk attire. Yet, he was still her own darling. I dared commit no fault. I strove to fulfil every duty. Yet, I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night,’ Jane Eyre said to herself.
Jane Eyre was a discord in Gateshead Hall. She was like nobody there. She had nothing in harmony with Mrs Reed or her children on her chosen vassalage.
A doctor by the name of Mr Lloyd was called in. He examined Jane thoroughly. Then, he said to Jane, “My dear child! would you like to go to school?” Jane looked a little puzzled. She hardly knew what a school was. To her mind, it was a place where discipline was taught. All of a sudden, an idea flashed across her mind. She thought, “It seems a good change for her life. It is a good opportunity to get away from Mrs Reed’s house.’
So, she replied, “I would indeed like to go to school.” Mr Lloyd called Mrs Reed and told her that Jane needed fresh air and a change of scene. Hearing of the words of Mr Lloyd Mrs Reed felt very happy because she wanted the same thing.
A few days passed. One day, a stranger knocked at the door of Mrs Reed’s house. Bessie opened the door and let him in. The stranger sat on a chair. In the meantime, Mrs Reed also came there. She shook hands with the stranger and sat beside the stranger. Mrs Reed sent for Jane Eyre who along with Bessie came over there. Then, Mrs Reed introduced the stranger to Jane Eyre saying, “She is Jane Eyre about whom I wrote to your three weeks ago.” The stranger whose name was Mr Brocklehurst said to Jane Eyre, “O good child! would you go to Lowood school?” Jane Eyre said promptly, “Yes, yes; I would.”
Mrs Reed, then, intervened to carry on the conversation herself, “Mr Brocklehurst, this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish. Should you admit her into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and above all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency to deceit.”
It was Mrs Reed’s nature to wound Eyre’s cruelly; never she was happy in her aunt’s presence. However carefully she obeyed, however strenuously she strove to please her, her efforts were still repulsed and repaid by such sentences as mentioned above. Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut Eyre to the heart.
She dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which her aunt destined her to enter. She felt, though she could not have expressed the feeling, that her aunt was sowing aversion and unkindness along her future path. She saw herself transformed under Mr Brocklehurst’s eye into an artful, noxious child.
Thus Mr Brocklehurst took Mrs Reed’s permission with a promise that he would be back in a week or two.
Mrs Reed and Jane Eyre were left alone; some minutes passed in silence. Mrs Reed was sewing; Jane Eyre was watching her. Mrs Reed was a woman of robust frame, square-shouldered and strong-limbed, not tall, and though stout, not obese. She had a somewhere large face, the under jaw being much developed and very solid. Her bow was low, her chin large and prominent and mouth and nose sufficiently regular. Under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of ruth. Her skin was dark and opaque; her hair was nearly flaxen.
Her constitution was sound as a bell—illness never came near her. She was an exact, clever manager. Her household and tenantry were thoroughly under her control; her children only at times defied her authority and laughed it to scorn. She dressed well, and had a presence and port calculated to set off handsome attire.
Lowood school was fifty miles away from Gateshead. Right after a week Mr Brocklehurst sent a coach to Mrs Reed’s house to take Jane Eyre to Lowood school. Jane Eyre kissed Bessie who always stood by her hard times. As the coach drove away, Jane Eyre bade goodbye to Gateshead.
