The Red Room

“What does Bessie say I have done?” demands the ten year old Jane Eyre from the heartless Mrs. Reed.

This question can be taken as the question made by the ‘revolted slave’ per say, who is rebelling against the injustices done to her. The very placement of the words in her question drip with anger and revolt at Bessie's misrepresentation of herself. We can see Jane as the character who wants to stand up for herself, and does so when she is able to. Considering how Jane is "less than a servant" for the Reeds, this is very much an act of striking out against injustice for Jane. She can also very much be likened to fire, for she is fiery and described as passionate, for she lashes out further when attempts are made to trample her. Being no more than an outsider to “the said Eliza, John, and Georgiana…clustered round their mama”, she is frequently hit, humiliated, and tortured, yet we see a streak of wildness in Jane, which is being tamed by Mrs. Reed.

This taming is done in the form of taking Jane Eyre up to the Red Room when she lashes out against the said John Reed, and having her locked up there till the point that she faints from fear and terror.

The Red Room is the room of Mr. Reed, the patriarch of the house, the male establishment, who dies in the very room. It is the famous forbidden room; an abode of the patriarch. It is described as this massive and huge room which is empty. Yet it is now intruded by Jane Eyre; intruded by that one person who could have been saved if the patriarch of the house was alive.

The room is red, crimson, and mahogany; all colors reflecting danger, oppression, aggression, passion, and suppression. It is the space where one is locked up, where passions are controlled, crushed, and policed.

One can say that Jane Eyre never leaves the Red Room in the entire novel, until the very end, for she is to be tamed by others when she is a child; by being constantly put down by Mrs. Reed or her children; and then later one sees her taming herself, by not succumbing to her desires, or looking for a new servitude instead of a new life.