Ashley Smith > Recent Status Updates

“I had meant to be so good and to do so much at Lowood; to make so many friends, to earn respect and win affection... here I lay again, crushed and trotted on…and could I ever rise more?”p.82

“I retired into a corner and sat down on the floor. This spell by which I had been so far supported began to dissolve; reaction took place, and soon,so overwhelming was the grief that seized me, I sunk prostrate with my face to the ground. Now I wept;I abandoned myself, and my tears watered the boards.” P.82

Chapter 6 thoughts part 11: It’s infuriating, sad, and honestly very real. Jane Eyre doesn’t just tell a story…it exposes how deeply these ideas are rooted, especially for girls.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 10: What makes it hit harder is that this struggle still exists today, just in quieter ways. Religion and social expectations are still sometimes used to tell women how they “should” react to injustice. Reading this makes me think about how complicated it is to navigate standing up for yourself while being told to stay polite, kind, and forgiving.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 9: On top of that, religion is almost used as a way to encourage these girls—especially—to quietly accept mistreatment. To forgive, stay gentle, stay submissive, and never push back. And while forgiveness has value, it’s frustrating to see it framed in a way that feels like it’s meant to keep women “in line.”

Chapter 6 thoughts part 8: On a second note, this chapter also really frustrated me because of how clearly it shows society trying to force girls into one tiny mold from such a young age. Don’t be loud. Don’t be messy. Don’t be opinionated. Don’t take up space. All of this is drilled into them early, and it’s honestly a little disheartening to read. (But needed)

Chapter 6 thoughts part 7: I don’t know exactly how I feel about it yet. The idea of using faith to cope with injustice is powerful, but also confusing when it feels like it might encourage people to accept mistreatment. Overall, this chapter really stayed with me. It’s emotional, thoughtful, and painfully real. I wasn’t expecting something this deep so early in the book.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 6: But I also think she’s trying to say that holding onto hatred will only hurt you more in the end. That forgiveness is more about protecting your own peace than excusing what others did. Still, it’s such a sad conversation for two children to be having. They’ve already had to grow up emotionally way too fast. It also puts religion in a strange light for me here.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 5: Especially when you’re a kid and you’ve been treated unfairly for years. Do you fight back? Do you protect yourself? Or do you stay quiet, forgive, and keep absorbing the hurt? Part of me feels like Helen’s approach can sound like becoming a shell of yourself—like you’re not allowed to be angry or defend yourself.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 4: She even quotes the New Testament: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you…” And while I understand what she’s saying, it’s also incredibly complicated. This scene felt so relatable to me. It’s that constant internal struggle between standing up for yourself and being told to “just let it go.”

Chapter 6 thoughts part 3: She’s angry, hurt, and completely justified in feeling that way. But Helen responds in such a calm, spiritual way. She doesn’t dismiss Jane’s feelings, but she redirects her—telling her not to dwell on resentment, to read the Bible, to remember that everyone has faults, and to try to forgive.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 2: Helen is messy, daydreams during lessons, and gets publicly scolded and humiliated by Miss Scatcherd—very similar to how Jane was treated by Mrs. Reed. Neither of them is allowed much grace. Jane asks Helen how she doesn’t hate Miss Scatcherd for treating her so badly, and then opens up about everything she went through with Mrs. Reed and her cousins.

Chapter 6 thoughts part 1: Just finished Chapter 6, and I’m really stuck on the conversation between Jane and Helen Burns. Considering they’re both so young—Jane is only about 10 or 12, and Helen just a little older—it’s such a heavy, emotional scene. They’re very similar in how they’re treated: neither of them fits what a “proper” young woman is supposed to be in this time period.

“If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way; they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should - so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.” P. 69-70

“if I had lately left a good home & kind parents, this would have been the hour when I should most keenly have regretted the separation; that wind would have saddened my heart; this obscure chaos would have disturbed my peace; as it was, I derived from both a strange excitement …reckless and feverish, I wished the wind to howl more wildly, the gloom to deepen into darkness, and the confusion to rise to clamor”

“Come Miss Jane, don’t cry,” said Bessie as she finished. She might as well have said to the fire “don’t burn.” P. 29

“I felt physically, weak and broken down; but my worst ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind: a wretchedness which kept drawing from me silent tears; no sooner had I wiped one salt drop from my cheek, then another followed.” P. 27

“Yes, Mrs. Reid, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad propensities. “

“ My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so- what thought had I been but just conceiving, of starving myself to death!” P. 22

“I had to cross before the looking glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality; and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit.“ p. 20

“With Berwick on my knee, I was then happy; happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon.”