Jane conceives of "home" as an emotional place created by interpersonal relationships, not as a physical shelter.
Morgan T.
2/12/2013 11:18:30 pm
Agree, because home isn’t just where you physically live – it has to be somewhere that you not only feel comfortable and safe, but also have loving relationships with other people. It’s even possible for Jane to be homeless here even though she has lived in the same place a large majority of her life. It’s also possible for Jane to have more than one home because she has different family and relationships that create several comfortable refuges for her. I would say one of Janes first noticeable escape is any book she picks up. She begins to read and she becomes engulfed in a book.
Melanie M.
2/27/2013 05:27:12 am
I agree with you. She meet at least one person (the house keeper) who makes her feel safe while she is at the Reed houeshold. In chapter one, as you stated, the book is her escape. She never feels safe or "at home" except for around her friends. For her, it is more emotional than physical.
Tori Burris
2/12/2013 11:23:08 pm
In the first few chapters at Gateshead, Jane purposefully avoids all the Reeds and doesn't seem to truly find people she connects with until Lowood. When she finally does connect, she is content to stay in a place full of illness and starvation rather than go to Gateshead because she percieves her friends as her adopted family and -by extension- her home. When Helen dies and Ms. Temple leaves, then she feels restless and feels the need to flee because her family is gone.
Caitlyn E.
2/27/2013 02:36:46 am
I agree with Tori when she talks about Jane's lack of connecting at Gateshead and I think that because of that, Jane never felt at home with the Reeds. There seems to be a pattern with Jane, because she left Gateshead, Lowood (after Helen and Ms.Temple are gone), AND Thornfield (when she leaves Rochester). Maybe her parents (accidental) abandonment helped develop this fleeing pattern.
Alex Price
3/1/2013 02:11:21 pm
I agree with all of this, however I don't know it's her parents abandonment or moreover her neglect at Gateshead leaving her unable create a absolute relationship that would provide her with some form of constance in her life. That left her with out a permanent home with someone showing her unfaltering love.
Caitlyn E.
3/1/2013 02:41:02 pm
To Alex
Nick McCaffery
2/12/2013 11:25:38 pm
I agree, because at the beginning of chapter one, the weather is cold, and the rain is "penetrating" enough to where outdoor activity is not able to happen. Although Jane is in the house, away from the harsh environment outside, she still isn't at home in the house, due to the miserable people she encounters there.
Hunter H.
2/12/2013 11:26:23 pm
I agree with Morgan. Jane doesn not consider living with the Reeds home. It is more of a prison to her since there does not seem to be an escape. When she gets to Lowood, and makes freinds, she does not want to leave and go back to gateshead. even though Lowood is a strict school, she feels more at home because she has felt the love of miss temple and of Helen
Kyle W.
2/12/2013 11:26:32 pm
I'll agree with this statement. In chapter 2 Jane states "Thank you Mr. Rochester, fr your kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you; and wherever you are is my home, - my only home"
Kyle W
2/12/2013 11:29:51 pm
Sorry, spoiler alert... ch34
Mackenzie M.
2/13/2013 12:29:17 am
Agree. After Miss Temple gets married and moves away from Lowood, Jane says, "From the day she left I was no longer the same: with her was gone every settled feeling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree a home to me." The people she made relationships with at Lowood made it a home for her for so many years, rather than the physical shelter it offered.
Anna H.
2/25/2013 11:58:50 am
I agree that Jane does not consider physical shelter as home. She makes this clear when she says to Rochester "I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only home" (pg. 282). She considers the people she is surrounded by and loved or cared for by as home.
Kelly M.
2/27/2013 12:23:15 am
I agree. The quote Anna used from page 282 is direct proof that Jane sees her "only home" as a person, in this case Rochester, rather than a place.
Rubab T
2/13/2013 10:04:46 am
Yes Jane does believe that home is a place for interpersonal relationships and when Mrs Temple leaves Jane does not feel at home anymore " From the day she left I was no longer the same: with her was gone every settled feeling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree a home to me" Jan even living in a place of starvation was happy because she their was someone that cared about her.
Jasmine T
2/14/2013 10:33:03 am
Agree. Her relationships are home to her. She tells Mr. Rochester "I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only home." (pg. 282) Also her relationships with Miss Temple, Helen, and Adele show that as well.
Lucia E.
2/14/2013 11:02:10 am
I agree, Jane consider where ever she feels excepted and feels like she belongs she consider home. In Chapter 22 she says with " I love Thornfield:- I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life.. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence, with what I delight in,--with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind."
Nathan M.
2/17/2013 08:24:53 am
Jane tells Mr. Rochester, "Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you; and wherever you are is my home, – my only home" (Bronte 282). I see Mr. Rochester as Jane's true benefactor. Mrs. Reed only have Jane the physical necessities-food, shelter, clothing, blah blah blah- and the whole time Jane wanted to leave. If home is really a home to you, you don't want to leave it forever. Mr. Rochester, however, provides Jane the mental and emotional necessities-Love, care, and protection. A home more than anything is meant to provide love; somewhere you can go to for a little spiritual R&R. This is why Jane considers home to be in Mr. Rochester's presence rather than in Mrs. Reed's prison of walls and plaster.
Gold C.
2/19/2013 01:15:41 pm
I agree because Mr. Rochester loved her and "Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved...I must renounce love and idol, One drear word comprised my intolerable duty--'Depart!'" (pg. 364) When Jane no longer had any relations with Mr. Rochester, she wanted to leave Thornfield.
Ashton T
3/1/2013 05:56:18 am
I agree, even after Jane leaves Thornfield, she still thinks of Rochester for comfort. "Perhaps you think I had forgotten Mr. Rochester, reader, amidst these changes of place and fortune. Not for a moment. His idea was still with me, because it was not a vapour sunshine could disperse, nor a sand-traced effigy storms could wash it away;...(pg 462)
Rebecca P.
2/20/2013 02:35:11 am
I agree because at first she does not actually think of thornfield as a home because she referred to it as a "stagnation" (130), but once she finally meets and spends time with Mr. Rochester she starts to feel more at home, so to say. The reader can tell this when he is gone for a while she said she was permitting herself to "experience a sickening sense of disappointment" knowingn that there is a chance he might not be coming back any time soon.
Megan B
2/20/2013 08:57:04 am
Home is where you are wanted, respected, and treated as a individual. Jane's "home" in the Reeds was not like that. Jane was barely considered a individual in that home. So when Jane reaches the Rochester's it is something she holds highly in her life.
Dani W.
2/23/2013 05:20:50 am
Highly agreed. Jane dislikes the Reeds, and never sees Gateshead as a home but more of a prison. When she moves to Thornfield she finds friends in Ms.Fairfax and Adele and also enjoys Rochester's company. She finds it difficult to run away from Thornfield because of her love for Rochester, to whom she actually says, "wherever you are is my home-my only home" (p.282). When she takes up residence in Moor House, she becomes friends with Diana and Mary and they spend a lot of time together. When all of the residents at Moor House move away and abandon it, Jane feels the loss of Diana's and Mary's company. The part that truly shows her value in relationships as the foundation of a home, however, is when she recieves a large sum of money from her uncle in Madeira, and she feels overwhelmed by the money she acquired, stating "I again felt rather like an individual of but average gastronomical powers sitting down to feast alone at a table spread with provisions for a hundred" (p.443). She uses it to bring the Moor House occupants back under the same roof, where she can enjoy Diana's and Mary's friendship once more. She would rather stay in a small, ordinary home with friends than spend her fortune on a mansion where she stays alone.
Ana E
2/26/2013 10:36:51 am
Agree. I don't think Jane ever viewed Gateshead as her true home.
Caitlyn E.
3/1/2013 02:48:34 pm
Agreed! As soon as she lost her connection with Rochester, she decided to leave him, again proving that Jane resides in her connections.
Kyle W.
2/26/2013 11:18:22 pm
I agree, because in chapter 7 Jane states ""how people feel when they are returning home from an absence, long or short, i did not know: I had never experienced the sensation." She goes on to talk about how she has traqveled, but feels like she has no physical home
Stephanie D.
2/26/2013 11:35:21 pm
I agree, because she would rather leave Rochester and get away from she morally dissaproves of, and live on the street just to know she is whole in mind and thought.
Tatiana C.
2/27/2013 10:38:48 am
I agree. Jane views the places in which she stays as merely her current living quarters, and that is it. When she is in Thornfield she sees going back to the house as merely returning to security", but refers to the house as it. "To pass its threshold was to return to stagnation..." (pg. 130). And this description of the house was not due to the short time she had spent there as she later says "What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed in the storms of an uncertain, struggling life..." (Pg. 131) and compares herself to a man in a "too easy chair". In essence saying she is comfortable where she is. Despite this comfort she has no attatchment to the structure, rather to the people inside of it.
Voskuil
2/28/2013 06:14:22 am
"Jane conceives of 'home' as an emotional place created by interpersonal relationships, not as a physical shelter."
Lydia F.
2/28/2013 08:42:24 am
I agree, with the statement that Jane found a "home" within relationships. Jane never claimed that Gateshead was ever a home, and never felt at home, but because it can be assumed that she finds home within people, you can imply that Bessie was her first sense of a home because Bessie was the only one who was nice and cared for Jane while at Gateshead. Jane favored Bessie undoubtly, "Long did the hours seem while I waited the departure of the company, and listened for the sound of Bessie's step on the stairs" (pg 27). The only reason as to why Jane never claimed that Bessie was one of her "homes" was because Jane was young and not aware of the home and its connotation.
Rae G.
2/28/2013 09:54:14 am
Jane loves both Thornfield and the Moor House because she finds love there. With Mr.Rochester and later with her cousins she loves them not the actual buildings. She never loved Gateshead because she never loved the people who lived there and they never really loved her.
Nicholette U
2/28/2013 11:36:20 am
As hard as I looked for a point to dispute against the common answer, I must also agree. I have noticed though, that the house itself is almost always her enemy (with the exception of the Moor House). Even the halls of Thornfield, home to people very dear to her, host the ghosts of Jane's psyche. Her refuge is indeed rooted in companionship. She is always experiences her most horrific experiences when she is alone. Her boarding school even acted as a prison, depriving her of basic necessities, but she was at home there because of the friends she had.
Callie T.
2/28/2013 12:46:48 pm
I agree. A home isn't solely a place where you live, but is somewhere that gives you a sense of security and belonging. It's not necessarily the place itself, but moreover the people and relationships you have there. For instance, when Jane is at Lowood, she doesn't want to leave because of the friendships she's developed. Although Lowood is a strict school, the love she recieves from Miss Temple and Helen makes her feel more at home.
Caitlin F
2/28/2013 10:13:13 pm
"Home is where the heart is" works for almost anyone. Gateshead was never a home to jane because of the physical and mental abuse she suffered, along with some of her sanity in the red room. Lowood School slowly became Jane's home because she was doing something she loved (learning) and made a great friend and found people to look up to (Helen and Miss Temple). She also has a relationship with books which take her away from a place she doesn't like and she enjoys herself. Thornfield became a home to jane because of her relationship with Adele and eventually Mr Rochester. She even says that he is her home. But jane has also run away from Thornfield because she felt she was going insane ftom all the drama
Morgan S
2/28/2013 11:44:15 pm
For Jane, who was essentially an orphan, there isn’t one place in particular that feels like home. She relies on interpersonal relationships heavily to feel a sense of comfort. Bessie at Gateshead, Ms. Temple and Helen at Lowood, and Rochester at Thornsfield. In fact, in chapter 22, Jane says to Mr. Rochester “wherever you are is my home-my only home,” proving that her home is whoever she feels most comfortable with at the present time in her life.
Victoria B.
3/1/2013 06:03:14 am
I agree because in Chapter 27 Jane leaves Rochester after finding out about Bertha. Even though Rochester tries to convince her that Bertha is an "untouchable" and isn't a threat to them getting married, Jane doesn't find it acceptable to get rid of Bertha just for her benefit. Jane becomes homeless because she finds it more acceptable to be homeless instead of living with someone (Rochester) willing to hurt others.
Ashton T
3/1/2013 06:15:32 am
Agreed. Jane finds her home with the company she enjoys. She loves nature because of its beauty and Thornfield because of the relationships made. If Thornfield had been filled with the Reeds, then it wouldn't be a home. In Chapter 8 Jane quotes Solomon by saying, "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." (pg 81)
Caleb Janssen
3/1/2013 06:18:53 am
I agree, I think in chapters 28-29 jane leaves Mr. Rochester because she fells usafe with his crazy wife living there, but later on she narrates that she doesn't feel at home with out the love that Rochester had for her and she has left a piece of her behind at Thornfield.
Graham G.
3/1/2013 08:07:50 am
This view is evidenced by Jane's encounter with the Marsh End house. Exhausted by her trek from Whitcross, and closer to the release of death than the suffering of life, Jane catches sight of a guiding light that leads to the impressive structure. But, for someone in her position, Jane is uncharacteristically uninterested in the state or furnishings of her potential shelter. She "notice[s] these objects cursorily only" and immediately spots the pair of sisters, Diana and Mary. The two become yet another part of Jane's emotional fulfillment through close, tightly-knit relationships. I like to think of the house as not only her literal saving grace, but as a symbol of the warmth and acceptance she discovers in its residents.
Addi B
3/1/2013 09:23:11 am
In Jane's life her "home" is an emotional place created by interpersonal relationships. On after Jane and Rochester get married and she is going back and talking about their life she says that she is "blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine." She then proceeds to say "to be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude." The way she describes their relationships shows that she has found her true home. It does not matter where they are or even what condition they are in but since they are emotionally committed then she is at home with Rochester.
Addi
3/1/2013 09:24:05 am
Sorry those quotes are on page 523.
Karis P
3/1/2013 12:16:45 pm
Because of the many places Jane calls "home" throughout the novel, she is almost forced to not settle into a physical environment being her home. We see from the very beginning when Jane is hiding from John that she finds her comfort where she is in her mind at the moment and not at Gateshead. She didn't have a great past at home, therefore she is more likely to not settle.
M. Woodard
3/1/2013 12:17:53 pm
Agree. When Jane arrives back to Thornfield after visiting Gateshead she finds that most of her coworkers are actually happy to see her back. For most of Jane's life she has never had this type of affection at any of her previous "homes," and I feel that this new welcome feeling is quite shocking to her. She finally feels like she belongs somewhere and is part of the household's entirety
Kristen S.
3/1/2013 01:24:03 pm
Although she had Bessie at Gateshead, Jane didn’t consider it as a home because she associated it with Mrs. Reed and her cousins and the negative memories that went along with them. Then as a child at Lowood, Jane considers it to be a home, because of her relationship with Miss Temple and Helen; “to her instruction I owed the best part of my acquirements; her friendship and society had been my continual solace.” (p. 92). After Helen dies and Miss Temple moves away, she associates Lowood not with the happy memories from those relationships, but she focuses on the dreariness it has without them, becoming merely a physical shelter from which she must again escape.
Amanda C
3/1/2013 01:59:16 pm
I agree. Multiple times Jane finds home through an emotional connection. Starting with Lowood, after Ms. Temple leaves it not the same to Jane anymore. Latter Jane finds her home in Mr. Rochester as, "wherever you are is my home."
Tyler E.
3/2/2013 07:24:02 am
A home is not just made up of four walls and keeps bad weather outside. It is a place of love, a place you can feel and call your home. It's the people that live their that makes it a home and more than just nails and wood. Leave a Reply. | Online DiscussionTry on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil's advocate. Respond to the statements, with textual support, that either agrees/disagrees, proves/disproves, or responds to a classmate's post. Sentences and ideas gathered from www.shmoop.com. ArchivesCategories |
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