Jane Eyre

“I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed; […] You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back—roughly and violently thrust me back—into the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day; though I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, ‘Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!’ And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck me—knocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions, this exact tale. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!” 

After Mrs. Reed falsely tells Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane is a liar, Jane boldly confronts Mrs. Reed’s hypocrisy. With irony, Jane points out that while Aunt Reed claims to punish Jane for deceit, she is lying—Aunt Reed actually punished Jane for telling the unpleasant truth. Jane also criticizes the Reeds’ unfair treatment of her, refusing to affirm the lie that Mrs. Reed is a charitable person. In truth, Mrs. Reed is still bitter that her sister married beneath her station and she projects this bitterness onto Jane. With this speech, Jane rejects the idea that being poor and dependent makes her a bad person, foreshadowing the novel’s future examinations of religious hypocrisy. 

“I hold another creed: which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and to which I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes Eternity a rest—a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last: with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live in calm, looking to the end.” 

Jane’s friend Helen Burns illuminates her religious philosophy, which is steeped in forgiveness and focuses on Heaven as a restful “home.” Helen explains that she is unaffected by the mistreatment of cruel teachers like Miss Scatcherd and the harsh environment of Lowood because she thinks of Heaven as her true home, and she lives her life calmly “looking to the end.” While Jane admires the inner peace this philosophy allows Helen to achieve, she privately questions the ways this philosophy absolves people like Miss Scatcherd and