Chapter 2 The red room

1 I resisted all the way. This was a new thing for me, and an act that greatly strengthened the bad opinion that Bessie and Abbot tended to hold concerning me.

2 'Hold her arms. She's like a mad cat.'

3 'For shame! For shame!' cried the lady's maid. 'What terrible behaviour, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your guardian's son—your young master!'

4 'Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?'

5 'No, you are less than a servant, because you do nothing to support yourself. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness.'

6 They had got me by this time into the room named by Mrs Reed, and had pushed me on to a chair. I began to rise from it like a spring. Their two pairs of hands prevented me instantly.

7 'If you don't sit still, you must be tied down,' said Bessie. 'Miss Abbot, lend me your belt. She would break mine at once.'

8 'Don't do that,' I cried. 'I will not move.'

9 'Take care that you don't,' said Bessie, and when she had made sure that I really was becoming quieter, she loosened her hold on me. She and Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully at my face.

10 'She never did this before,' said Bessie at last, turning to the lady's maid.

11 'But it was always in her,' was the reply. 'I've often told Missis my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She's a deceitful little thing.'

12 Bessie did not answer, but, before long, she addressed me and said:

13 'You ought to know, Miss, that you should be grateful to Mrs Reed. She supports you. If she were to send you away, who would look after you?'

14 I had nothing to say to these words. They were not new to me. I had heard many suggestions of the same kind before, very painful and wounding to my pride, but only half understood. Abbot joined in:

15 'And you ought not to think yourself equal to the two Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none. It is your duty to be humble, and to try to make yourself pleasant to them.'

16 'What we tell you is for your good,' added Bessie in a milder voice. 'You should try to be useful and to please them. Then, perhaps, you will have a home here. But if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure.'

17 'Besides,' said Abbot, 'God will punish you. He might strike you dead in the middle of your fury. Come, Bessie, we will leave her. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, because if you are not sorry for your wickedness, something bad might come down the chimney and take you away.'

18 They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.

19 The red room was a square room, furnished in dark wood, with a heavy red carpet, and a huge bed and red curtains always drawn across the windows. This room was cold, because it rarely had a fire; silent, because it was far from the nursery and the kitchen; solemn, because it was seldom entered. It was here that Mr Reed had died nine years before.

20 I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door, and when I dared move, I got up and went to see. Ah, yes! No prison was ever more firmly fastened.

21 My head still ached and bled from the blow and the fall that I had received. No one had blamed John for striking me without cause. 'Unjust! Unjust!' I thought. I began to plan some escape, such as running away, or never eating or drinking any more, and letting myself die.

22 Daylight began to leave the red room. It was past four o'clock, and the cloudy afternoon was followed by a gloomy twilight. I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind crying in the trees behind the house. Gradually I became cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. All said that I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so.

23 My thoughts turned to my uncle. I could not remember him, but I knew that he was my mother's brother, that he had taken me as a parentless child to his house, and that before he died he had received a promise from his wife, Mrs Reed, that she would look after me as one of her own children.

24 A strange idea entered my head. I never doubted that if Mr Reed had been alive, he would have treated me kindly, and now, in the growing darkness, I began to remember stories of dead men, troubled in their graves by disregard of their last wishes, revisiting the earth. Perhaps Mr Reed's ghost might rise before me. This idea, instead of comforting me, filled me with terror. At this moment, a ray of light shone on the wall. Probably it was from a lamp carried outside across the lawn, but to my shaken nerves, prepared for horror, it appeared like a sign of someone coming from another world. My heart beat fast, my head became hot. A sound filled my ears, which seemed like the rushing of wings. I ran in despair to the door and shook the lock. Footsteps came hurrying along the outer passage, the key was turned, and Bessie and Abbot entered.

25 'Miss Eyre, are you ill?' said Bessie.

26 'What a terrible noise! It went right through me!' exclaimed Abbot.

27 'Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!' was my cry.

28 'What for? Are you hurt? Have you seen something?' Bessie demanded again.

29 'Oh, I saw a light, and I thought a ghost had come.' I had now got hold of Bessie's hand, and she did not take it from me.

30 'She has screamed out on purpose,' declared Abbot in disgust. 'And what a scream! If she had been in great pain, there would have been some excuse for it, but she only wanted to bring us all here. I know her wicked tricks.'

31 'What is all this?' demanded another voice sharply. Mrs Reed came along the passage. 'Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be left in the red room till I came to her myself.'

32 'Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am,' replied Bessie.

33 'Let her go,' was the only answer. 'Loose Bessie's hand, child; you cannot succeed in getting out by these means. I hate tricks, especially in children. It is my duty to show you that they will not succeed. You will stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect obedience and quiet that I shall let you out then.'

34 'Oh, Aunt! Have pity! Forgive me! I cannot bear it! Let me be punished in some other way!'

35 'Silence! This violence is most disgusting.' She did not believe me. She thought that I was pretending.

36 Bessie and Abbot having gone away, Mrs Reed, impatient of my wild cries, roughly pushed me back and locked me in without further speech. I heard her go away, and soon after she had left, my head seemed to go round and round, and I fell to the ground in a faint.