The following is a clip about how Victorian children were commonly punished at school. It is presented in a quite comical manner, but it provides truthful information about this period in time. After your reading of chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8, you will have become familiar with Jane’s life at Lowood School, and the treatment she and other girls received as students there. Would it be possible for a school to keep the old Victorian teaching methods in today’s world?
Chapter 5: Jane arrives in her new home, Lowood School for Girls. She learns the daily routine and by passing meets Miss Temple, the superintendent of the school, who is very kind towards her. However, her encounter with the upleasant French teacher Miss Scatcherd is far from agreeable, especially at the sight of her harsh treatment of a young student named Helen Burns.
Chapter 6: Janes discovers that life at Lowood is harsh. Frozen water to wash themselves, lack of proper food to eat, overload in their work assignments, and they’re forced to sit still for what seems an eternity during sermons. She however finds comfort in her friendship with Helen Burns. Jane is astonished at how Helen endures the constant mean treatment from Miss Scatcherd. She tells Jane that she practises a doctrine of Christian endurance (loving her enemies and accepting her privation) which Jane does not approve for thinking it is “such meek tolerance of injustice”
Chapter 7: Mr Brocklehurst returns to the school after a journey. Jane becomes really nervous at his sight, since it reminds her of the promise he made to Mrs. Reed, to warn everyone at the school about her supposed wickedness and habit of lying. She accidentally drops her slate in his presence, and he gets furious. He forces her to stand on a stool while he tells the rest of the school that she is a liar, forbidding the other students to speak to her for the rest of the day and exhorting them to withhold their friendship from her. Helen Burns is Jane’s only comfort. She provides silent consolation by smiling at her every time she walks near.
Chapter 8: After her punishment, Jane feels ashamed and depressed. She thinks her reputation has been ruined for good at Lowood. Helen convinces her that it’s all the way round, and that girls feel more pity for her than revulsion. Jane tells Miss Temple that she’s not a liar, and about her horrid childhood at Gateshead. Miss Temple writes to Mr Lloyd (the Reeds’ apothecary) to confirm Jane’s sayings, which are soon corroborated. Miss Temple publicly declares Jane to be innocent. Relieved and contented, Jane devotes herself to her studies, excelling at Drawing and French.
1.- Imagine that you are falsely accused of stealing someone’s wallet at school. Your accuser is a credible witness, believed by your peers. Do you insist on your innocence and try to prove it? Do you confront your accuser? How do you live with the disapproval of your peers? Is the knowledge of your innocence enough to sustain you? Write a reflection statement referring to these questions.
Of course I would insist in my innocence, if I don't then what kind of person am I, and if my friends don't believe me then the are not my true friends. If i don't insist in my innocence I would be left by my friends like the a thief, I would not only be accepting something that is wrong but I would also be lying, and if later on they find who did it, I would be left like a liar, so there are truly no escape of lying about this.
What is your opinion of Mr Brocklehurst’s philosophy of education?
I don't agree with the philosophy he uses to teach. Maybe that was the way he was taught and he thought it was fine. As he was the one running the school everyone obeyed to him. I think that in those times, apart from being Victorian, it was not fine to treat like that, because as soon as they know he was the cause of the diseases and death he was fired.
Compare Jane Eyre to other mistreated heroines from children’s stories (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White). Knowing that Jane Eyre is the novel that broke many rules about how a mistreated heroine should act, compare and contrast them to Jane.
I think that the only difference is the support they all had. Of course not a heroin but if we compare to the closest example to this treatment in school, we find Matilda, and Matilda was treated the same way in the school with the difference that she had magical powers. Jane has to try and solve her problems in a real way.
The following is the 1944 American film adaptation of Jane Eyre, directed by Robert Stevenson and with Peggy Ann Garner in the role of Jane and a surprisingly young Elizabeth Taylor in the role of Helen Burns. From min 07.44 – 12.00 you can witness how Jane is cruelly exposed in front of the school as a “liar” by Mr Brocklehurst. Based on this part of the story, answer the following questions:
No comments:
Post a Comment