A Fiery Farewell

Jane's parting conversation with Mrs Reed in chapter IV foreshadows the passionate and independent nature of the protagonist. While we had seen glimpses of her temper before, especially in encounters with John Reed, we see Jane exercising agency by speaking her heart out to someone who is much older than her, and also in a position of financial power, being her benefactor, so to speak. We see Jane's internal dilemma as she struggles to respond to her aunt's "extreme though suppressed irritation." This attitude is what goaded her to speak in the first place, like a burning fire that could not be extinguished without speaking up: "SPEAK I must: I had been trodden on severely, and MUST turn." Interestingly, just this ability to be able to have a verbal spat with an overpowering force gratified her and gave her a sense of independence. 

However, in the dialogue I have henceforth quoted, Jane also identifies the ways she plans to prove her hatred of the Reeds. "I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty." "I will never come to visit you" is a blunt thing to say to someone who's home you have been residing in for years. I can't help but inadvertently draw a comparison of this scene with that in Harry Potter when Harry was conscious of the fact that he was an unwelcome burden for the Dursleys, and there was overt hatred on both sides, yet not a single time did we see Harry make such a fiery speech because blood tied him to them and that was one bond that could not be broken. However, Jane, we see as being someone who wants to discard her roots. She wants to denounce her relation publicly by telling anyone who'll listen about how the Reeds treated her: 

This is possibly the result of pent up frustrations in a household where no entity was on Jane's side, something she was conscious of every moment. The red room incident , and the injustice of her cousin's behavior is one incident she is not willing to forget, and this negative energy towards that incident also propels her into saying the things she did to Mrs. Reed: "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"

The ensuing response from Mrs Reed is something that is more than satisfactory. She seemed almost frightened, and asked Jane if she would like some water: ‘Is there anything else you wish for, Jane? I assure you, I desire to be your friend.’ But instantly Jane refutes her by reminding her that Mrs Reed had alleged that Jane has a deceitful character and thereafter, we see Mrs Reed doing something for the first time: defending and justifying herself and it is Jane who had incited this response. This scene is, without doubt, very enjoyable because we see the first instance of vengeance and Jane's character is exalted to a position of strength, if only temporarily. 

The farewell speech ends on an extremely memorable note: "Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty." One can't help but share that sense of triumph and liberty that Jane is seen embracing.