Today, we open a new book, Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre is a novel about love. The protagonist, Jane Eyre, is a pure-hearted, thoughtful woman who lives at the bottom of society and suffers a lot. Her life experience is sympathetic, but her stubborn character and courage to pursue equal happiness are more appreciated.
The novel is mainly about the love between Jane Eyre and Rochester. Jane Eyre's view of love deepens her personality. She believed that love should be based on spiritual equality and should not depend on social status, wealth, and appearance.
True happiness can only be attained if both men and women truly love each other. Let's start today with Jane Eyre's self-description.
Under somebody's roof
On that day, because of the cold winter wind from lunchtime, it was cloudy and heavy rain, and it was impossible to go out. I sat alone in the dining room reading Beauik's book, feeling happy and afraid that others would disturb me.
The disturbing man came quickly, and Reed came in and sat down in an armchair, and he gestured for me to walk over and stand in front of him.
Reed was a fourteen-year-old elementary schoolboy, four years older than me, and the son of his aunt. He didn't have much affection for his mother and sisters, and he hated me.
He often bullied me, abused me, made every nerve in me afraid of him, and as soon as he approached, every muscle in my bones contracted.
Sometimes I would be overwhelmed by him because I had nowhere to cry in the face of his intimidation and bullying.
Stills from the movie Jane Eyre
The servants did not want to stand on my side to offend their young master, and Mrs. Reed pretended to be deaf and dumb, and she ignored her son's beatings and scolding me.
I was accustomed to regurgitation of Reed, so I went to his chair. He didn't say a word and suddenly beat me up. I staggered and took a step or two back from his chair before I could stand up.
"You are not qualified to touch our book. Mom says you depend on others to feed you, you have no money, your dad has nothing left for you, you should beg for food, not with decent children like us.
You shouldn't eat the same food as us and wear the clothes your mother paid for. Now I'm going to teach you a lesson about the benefits of turning over our bookshelf.
These books are mine, even the whole house, and in a few years they will belong to me. Roll and stand by the door, farther away from the mirror and the window. ”
I did what he said, and at first I didn't know his intentions. But when he lifted the book, held it firmly, and stood up to pose as he was about to throw it over, I screamed and instinctively flashed to the side.
But it was too late, and the book had been thrown over, and it hit me just in time, and I fell down in response, and my head hit the door, and the pain was unbearable. My fears had crossed their limits and been replaced by other emotions.
"You are a vicious and cruel child!" I say. "You're like a murderer —you're a slave overseer —you're like a Roman emperor!"
I had read Golsmith's History of Rome, had my own views on characters such as Nero and Caligula, and had made analogies to them, but I never expected to say them so loudly.
"What! What the! "He yelled." Is that what she said? Eliza, Georgiana, did you hear her? Will I not tell my mother? But I have to do it first—"
He rushed straight at me, and I felt a drop or two of blood running down my head and neck, and I felt a hot and sharp pain. These feelings prevailed for a while, and I was no longer afraid, and I fought with him like crazy.
I didn't quite know what my hands were doing, only to hear him scold me, "Rat!" rat! He howled like a slaughtered pig.
His helpers were close at hand, Eliza and Georgiana had already run out to ask for help, and Mrs. Reed went upstairs to the scene, followed by Betsy and the maid Abbott.
They pulled us away, and all I heard was them say, "Oops! Such a great anger came out of Young Master John's body"; "Who's ever seen that angry?"
Mrs. Reed then added, "Take her to the Red House and shut her up." Immediately, two pairs of hands held me down and pushed me upstairs.
Tortured
The Red House was the bedroom of Mr. Reed, who had been dead for nine years, and it was in this room that he was breathless, where his body was admired and his coffin was carried away by the morticians.
Since then, there has always been a gloomy atmosphere of worship, so it is not often broken into.
I was locked in this room by them and began to wonder why I was always suffering, always being blindsided, always being sued, always being blamed?
Why can't I ever be likable? Why do I try to win pleasure and still to no avail? Eliza is selfish and willful, but respected;
Georgiana is so temperamental, poisonous, and strong words that are dazzling and empty, but they are connived by everyone.
Her beauty, her rosy cheeks, and her curly blonde hair make her loved and ugly.
As for Reed, no one confronted him, let alone taught him a lesson, though he did everything bad: twisting off the head and neck of a pigeon, killing a peacock, letting a dog bite a sheep, and sometimes calling his mother "old girl."
He was brutal against his mother, often tearing up her silk garments, but he was still "her precious egg". I didn't dare to have the slightest mistake, I did everything with all my might, people still scolded me for being naughty and hating billets.
The days in the Red House are coming to an end. After four o'clock, the dull afternoon is turning into a bleak dusk. I heard raindrops still knocking on the windows of the stairs, and the fierce wind roaring in the bushes behind the foyer.
Gradually, I became cold like a stone, and my courage disappeared. The usual sense of humiliation, the lack of self-confidence, the loneliness and depression, poured out the anger that I would not dissipate, and everyone said that I was bad, maybe I was indeed so.
I suddenly flashed a strange thought. If Mr. Reid had been alive, he would have treated me well.
At this moment, I sat, looking at the white bed and the shadowy wall, and from time to time I glanced at the glistening mirror with a seductive gaze, and I couldn't help but recall all kinds of rumors about dead people.
It is said that because people disobeyed their dying instructions, they were very uneasy in the grave and would revisit the human world, severely punish those who made false oaths, and avenge those who were oppressed.
I thought that The ghost of Mr. Reed, moved by the grievances of his niece, would come out of the dwelling, whether it was the tomb of the church or the unknown world of the dead, and come to this house and stand before me.
I wiped away my tears, held back my cries, fearing that wailing would alarm some unknowable sound to soothe me, or summoning some haloed face in the darkness, with a strange look of pity, leaning over me.
It sounds a comforting thought, but if it were to be done, it would be terrible. I struggled not to think about it, looked up, and boldly looked around the dimly lit room.
Just then, a bright light flashed on the wall. My nerves were very tense with excitement, and I thought that the light that was passing by quickly was a precursor to the arrival of some ghost from another world.
My heart was pounding, my mind was hot and swollen, and my ears were whirring, thinking it was the flapping of wings, as if something was approaching me.
I felt depressed, I felt suffocated, my endurance collapsed, I couldn't help but scream like crazy, rushed to the door, and shook the lock desperately.
Plunged into despair
Outside there were footsteps on the porch, the keys turned, and Betsy and Abbot entered the room. "Ah! I saw a light, presumably a ghost coming. At this point, I took Betsy's hand, and she didn't pull back.
But Mrs. Reed said that I was playing tricks, and that no matter how much I begged for forgiveness, she thought in her heart that I was a vicious, despicable, and sinister creature.
She pushed me back and locked the door. I heard her go in a dignified manner. Shortly after she left, I guess I had a spasm and fainted, ending the noise.
When I woke up I was lying on my little bed, and the pharmacist, Mr. Lloyd, was looking at me, and he said I would get better slowly and asked me how I got sick yesterday.
I said they locked me up in a haunted house until it got dark, and I felt bad.
Mr. Lloyd smiled slightly, and at the same time frowned, "Ghost? Talk nonsense! Just because it makes you feel bad? Are you still afraid in the daytime? ”
"I'm not afraid now, but it's going to be night again soon." In addition, I felt bad for something else. I replied.
He asked me what else was going on? I told him everything, saying that I was an orphan, no one cared about me, and that my aunt had taken care of me as my uncle's last wish, and that she was forced to be helpless, but she was not good to me, and that her son often beat me.
Listen, he asked me if I wanted to go to school? I thought that I might be able to leave school and embark on a new journey of life, so I said I would.
"Well, who knows what will happen?" Mr. Lloyd stood up and said. "This kid should change the air, change the place," he added to himself, "the nerves are not very good." ”
Just then Betsy returned, and at the same time there was the sound of a rolling carriage on the gravel road. "Is it your wife, nanny?" Mr Lloyd asked. "I'll have to talk to her before I go."
Betsy invited him into the breakfast room and led the way. Extrapolating from what happened later, the pharmacist, in a subsequent meeting with Mrs. Reid, boldly suggested sending me to school.
epilogue
Today, we read that Jane Eyre was an orphan, raised in her aunt's parents, living under the fence, and she was often bullied and tortured by Reed.
She was stunned by her aunt's imprisonment in the Red House because she was beaten up by Reed's beating, and the kind pharmacist asked her if she would like to go to school and helped her to advise her aunt. Would her aunt allow her to go to school? Will Jane Eyre usher in a new life? Let's look forward to tomorrow's reading.