Characterization+Essay


 * Example of Characterization **

===In the following passage from chapter 1 of //Jane Eyre//, by Charlotte Bronte (1847), notice how the author develops the character of John Reed through the eyes of the narrator, young Jane Eyre. What can we conclude about this boy based upon his physical appearance, his actions, and how others treat him?===

===John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye with flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school, but his mamma had taken him home for a month or two, “on account of his delicate health.” Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother’s heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John’s sallowness was owing to over-application, and, perhaps, to pining after home.=== ===John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me, not two or three times in the week, not once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his infliction; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence; more frequently, however, behind her back.=== ===Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair [when he beckoned me]: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots. I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion on my face, for all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.===

I returned to the window and fetched it thence.
===“You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma’s expense. Now, I’ll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are //mine//; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows.”=== ===I did so, not at first aware of what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, hitting me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp; my terror had passed it climax; other feelings succeeded.===

“What! what!” he cried. “Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won’t I tell mamma? But first –“
===He ran headlong at me: I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder; he had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw in him a tyrant, a murderer. I felt a drop or two of blood on my head trickle down my neck and was sensible of somewhat pungent suffering: these sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort. I don’t very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me “Rat! Rat!” and bellowed out aloud. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs. Reed, who was gone upstairs; she now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid Abbot. We were parted; I heard the words—===

Then Mrs. Reed subjoined: “Take her away to the red-room, and lock her up in there.” Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.

 * Sample response to characterization prompt for //Jane Eyre// excerpt **** : **

In this excerpt from chapter one of //Jane Eyre//, by Charlotte Bronte, the narrator, Jane, remembers her cousin John Reed as her violent and spiteful childhood tormentor. At 14, John was pale and overweight, with a “dim and bleared eye,” suggesting laziness and dullness of mind. In this passage, John has been brought back home from boarding school, but the narrator suggests this has more to do with John’s overindulgent mother than with any real lack of capability on John’s part. Even the master, Mr. Miles, is said to have believed John would’ve done fine if not for his mother’s constant care packages of sweet treats. Jane recalls being truly terrified by this brute who would beat her mercilessly, even in the presence of his mother and the servants. Her being four years younger and much smaller than John does nothing to win their protection, so powerful is his position as his mother’s favorite. Ridiculously immature and self-centered, John is shown sticking his tongue out at Jane “as far as he could without damaging the roots,” and then striking her on the head so hard she nearly falls down. Her habit of reading John’s books and her mental superiority easily send him into a rage. This is seen by his passionate act of throwing a history book at Jane and causing her to fall and cut open her head, ironically upholding her accusation that he is like the tyrannical Roman emperors described within the book’s pages. Though he has many years to wait before he is the actual owner of his mother’s house, John Reed acts as overlord and treats his poor, orphaned cousin Jane as his slave and undeserving punching bag.