"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and a rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it; I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed."
These opening sentences reveal that Jane, the narrator, feels inferior to her cousins and submits to Mrs. Reed, her hateful and abusive aunt. These lines reveal a tone of submissiveness and unworthiness; however, Jane still is very adept in reasoning and thinking. Despite feeling inferior and witnessing the terrible weather, she doesn't let herself get very dragged down, which gives the readers hope.
A large theme in Jane Eyre is that of inequality between social classes and genders. Jane later reveals her position on gender equality, but we can see a hint of the social class problems in these sentences. Mrs. Reed and her children Eliza, John, and Georgiana are of a highly regarded family that posses a large sum of money while Jane is an orphan left with nothing. Because Jane is living in the Reeds' house, she answers to their needs and frequently gets abused for no reason. This submissiveness and inferiority that Jane feels shows a bit of the social class distinctions that will more fully be talked about within the novel.
Jane also includes parenthesis within the second sentence of the novel. This reveals that she often has a lot of things running through her mind and believes that she needs to include every detail of the situation, which becomes much more prevalent throughout the novel. So far, these miniscule details seem to be a bit much, although it is nice to be informed of everything that is going on.
Having never read Jane Eyre, your thoughts and observations seems to fit well with the opening lines. I think it's good that you made some smaller connections, such as her immediate feelings of inferiority, and some larger connections, like the overarching theme of social inequality. This helps give me a better idea of what the book is about without actually having read it. Good work, Kristen!
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