Week 5: the red room in Jane Eyre

Janes brief imprisonment  in the red room  is off great importance to the overarching theme of the novel.  The colour red in Christianity is used to commemorate a martyred saint, hence the room is set up as a space that commemorates the fallen patriarch, and whose presence in the room remains tangible thus his memory continues to dictate the lives of the inhabitants of Gateshead. The manor despite being run by a women still abides by the sexual hiearchary that dominated Victorian society. Therefore while  Mrs Reed tyrannises the lives of all the other occupants, yet she dared not  control the patriarch  in waiting. Thus while John Reed reviled his mother, "disregarded her wishes" called his mother old girl" she continued to call him " her own darling". Furthermore, Mrs Reed could not supplant the old patriarch by directly overruling his own dictums, thus the red room which was the " largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion" it remained largely unused though well maintained. Similarly, while Mrs Reed through her mistreatment of Jane tried to challenge the patriarchs wishes yet  is still  " bound  by this  hard- wrung pledge". Thus it becomes glaringly obvious that the lives of women in Victorian society remain defined by their relation to men, either as mothers, daughters or wives they remain submissive to men. Men then become the obstacles to a women's freedom and passion, this is symbolized by Jane's fear of the possibility of the appearance of her uncle's ghost, even though she believed was coming to her defence as the reappearance of a male guardian would have inevitably curtailed her freedom and limited her social space.

The colour red this can be taken to represent passion. It emergence after Jane's first act of rebellion, where she became a " picture of passion" foreshadows the overarching theme of the novel, that is the choice that Victorian women had to make to embrace reason over passion. The red room show as a " perfect prison" that was suffocating and confining thus warned about the dangers of unruly passion. As Bessie said to Jane "if you become passionate and rude missis will send you away." Therefore Janes first act of revolt and her usage of her bodily function laws her to be isolated and confined, away from civilized society as only  " heathen and savage tribes" are overruled by passion. Conclusively, to escape her destruction and to escape the hellish confines of the " red room, Jane would have to learn " perfect submission and stillness" and then she will be liberated.