首页>> 文学论坛>> 外国经典>> 夏洛蒂·勃朗特 Charlotte Bronte   英国 United Kingdom   汉诺威王朝   (1816年4月21日1855年3月31日)
简·爱 Jane Eyre
  《简·爱》是英国十九世纪著名的女作家夏洛蒂·勃朗特的代表作,人们普遍认为《简·爱》是夏洛蒂·勃朗特“诗意的生平”的写照,是一部具有自传色彩的作品。夏洛蒂·勃朗特、艾米莉·勃朗特、安妮·勃朗特和勃朗宁夫人构成那个时代英国妇女最高荣誉的完美的三位一体。
  
  《简·爱》是一部带有自传色彩的长篇小说,它阐释了这样一个主题:人的价值=尊严+爱。《简·爱》刚出版时,作者夏洛蒂勃朗特用的笔名是柯勒贝尔。以至于之后她的姐妹们出的书都被误认为是她写的。好在她之后亲自在《简·爱》再版时澄清事实。
  
  《简·爱》的作者夏洛蒂·勃朗特和《呼啸山庄》的作者艾米莉是姐妹。虽然两人生活在同一社会,家庭环境中,性格却大不相同,夏洛蒂.勃朗特显得更加的温柔,更加的清纯,更加的喜欢追求一些美好的东西,尽管她家境贫穷,从小失去了母爱,父爱也很少,再加上她身材矮小,容貌不美,但也许就是这样一种灵魂深处的很深的自卑,反映在她的性格上就是一种非常敏感的自尊,以自尊作为她内心深处的自卑的补偿。她描写的简。爱也是一个不美的,矮小的女人,但是她有着极其强烈的自尊心。她坚定不移地去追求一种光明的,圣洁的,美好的生活。
  《简·爱》-故事梗概
  
  简·爱的父亲是个穷牧师,当她还在幼年时,父母就染病双双去世。简·爱被送到盖茨海德庄园的舅母里德太太家抚养,里德先生临死前曾嘱咐妻子好好照顾简·爱。简·爱在里德太太家的地位,连使女都不如,受尽了表兄表姊妹的欺侮。一天表兄又打她了,她回手反抗,却被舅母关进红房子里,她的舅舅里德先生就死在这间屋子里。她被幻想中的鬼魂吓昏了过去。重病一场,过了很久才慢慢恢复健康。
  
  她再也不想呆在里德太太家了,里德太太就把她送进达罗沃德孤儿院。孤儿院院长是个冷酷的伪君子,他用种种办法从精神和肉体上摧残孤儿。简与孤儿海伦结成好友,教师潭泊尔小姐很关心她。在孤儿院里一场传染性的伤寒,夺走了许多降儿的生命,海伦就在这场伤寒中死去,这对简·爱 打击很大。
  
  简毕业后留校当了两年教师,她受不了那里的孤寂、冷漠,登广告找到了一个家庭教师的工作,于是她来到了桑费尔德庄园。在桑费尔德庄园只有庄园主罗彻斯特和他的私生女阿戴尔·瓦伦斯,而罗彻斯特经常到国外旅行,所以简到桑费尔德好几天,也没见到罗彻斯特。
  
  一天黄昏,简外出散步,惊了刚刚从外面回来的罗彻斯特的马,罗彻斯特从马上摔了下来,简急忙上前去扶他,回到家后简才知道他便是庄园主罗彻斯特。罗彻斯特是个性格阴郁而又喜怒无常的人,他和简经常为某种思想新辩论不休。
  
  在桑费尔德庄园不断发生奇怪的事情。有一天夜里,简被一阵奇怪的笑声惊醒,发现罗彻斯特的房门开着,床上着了火,她叫醒罗彻斯特并扑灭火。罗彻斯特告诉简三楼住着一个女栽缝格雷斯·普尔,她神精错乱,时常发出令人毛骨悚然的狂笑声,并要她对此事严守秘密。
  
  罗彻斯特经常参加舞会,一天他把客人请到家里来玩,人们都以为在这场舞会上罗彻斯特会向布兰奇小姐求婚。在宴会上罗彻斯特坚持要简也到客厅里去,客人们对简的太度十分轻慢,罗彻却邀请简跳舞,简感觉到自己对罗彻斯特发生感情。
  
  一天,罗彻斯特外出,家里来了一个蒙着盖头的吉卜赛人。当轮到给简算命时,简发现这个神秘的吉卜赛人就是罗彻斯特,他想借此试探简对他的感情。这时庄园里又来了个名梅森的陌生人,当晚他被三楼的神秘女人咬伤了,简帮罗彻斯特把他秘密送走。
  
  不久,里德太太派人来找简,说她病危要见简一面。回到舅母家中,里德太太给她一封信,这封信是三年前简的叔父寄来的,向她打听侄女的消息,并把自己的遗产交给简。里德太太谎称简在孤儿院病死了,直到临终前才良心发现把真相告诉简。
  
  简又回到桑费尔德庄园感觉像回到家一样。回来后,罗彻斯特向她未婚,简答应了,并高兴地准备婚礼。婚礼前夜,简从梦中惊醒,看到一个身材高大、面目可憎的女人正在戴她的婚纱,然后把婚纱撕成碎片。罗彻斯特告诉她那不过是一个梦,第二天当简醒来时发现婚纱真的成了碎片。
  
  婚礼如期举行,一位不速之客闯进了教堂,声称婚礼不能进行,他说罗彻斯特15 年前娶梅森先生的妹妹伯莎·梅森为妻。罗彻斯特承认了这一事实,并领人们看被关在三楼的疯女人,那就是他的合法妻子。她有遗传性精神病史,就是她在罗彻斯特的房间放火,也是她撕碎简的婚纱。
  
  简悲痛欲绝地离开了桑费尔德庄园。她的仅有的积蓄花光了,沿途乞讨,最后晕倒在牧师圣约翰家门前,被圣约翰和他的两个妹妹救了。简住了下来,圣约翰为她谋了一个乡村教师的职位。
  
  不久,圣约翰接到家庭律师的通知,说他的舅舅约翰简去世了,留给简二万英镑,要圣约翰帮助寻找简。圣约翰发现简是他的表妹,简执意要与他们分享遗产。圣约翰准备去印度传教,临行前向简求婚,但他坦率地告诉她,他要娶她并不是因为爱她,而是他需要一个很有教养的助手。简觉得应该报答他的恩情,但迟迟不肯答应他。当夜,圣约翰在荒原上等待简的答复,就在简要作出决定的时候,她仿佛听到罗彻斯特在遥远的地方呼喊她的名字“简,回来吧!简,回来吧!”她决定回到罗彻斯特身边。
  
  当简回到桑费尔德庄园时,整个庄园变成一片废墟。原来几个月前,在一个风雨交加的夜晚,疯女人伯莎放火烧毁了整个庄园,罗彻斯特为了救她,被烧瞎了双眼,孤独地生活在几英里外的一个农场里。简赶到家场,向他吐露自己的爱情,他们终于结婚了。 两年之后,治好了罗彻斯特的一只眼睛,他看到了简为他生的第一个孩子。
  《简·爱》-小说评价
  
  《简·爱》是一本具有多年历史的文学著作。至今已152年的历史了,它成功地塑造了英国文学史中第一个对爱情、生活、社会以及宗教都采取了独立自主的积极进取态度和敢于斗争、敢于争取自由平等地位的女性形象。
  
  《简·爱》是一部带有自转色彩的长篇小说,是英国十九世纪著名三姐妹作家之一的夏洛蒂·勃朗特所著。这是一本用自己的心与强烈的精神追求铸炼成的一本书,含着作者无限的情感和个性魅力,为女性赢得了一片灿烂的天空。
  
  简. 爱生存在一个父母双亡,寄人篱下的环境,从小就承受着与同龄人不一样的待遇,姨妈的嫌弃,表姐的蔑视,表哥的侮辱和毒打。这是对一个孩子的尊严的无情践踏,然而幸运的是在极其刻薄的寄宿学校的生活中,简·爱遇到了一个可爱的朋友:海伦·彭斯,海伦温顺、聪颖和无比宽容的性格一直影响着简.爱,使之以后面对种种困难都不再屈服抱怨,懂得了爱和忠诚。
  
  在罗切斯特的面前,她从不因为自己是一个地位低贱的家庭教师而感到自卑,反而认为他们是平等的。不应该因为她是仆人,而不能受到别人的尊重。也正因为她的正直,高尚,纯洁,心灵没有受到世俗社会的污染,使得罗切斯特为之震撼,并把她看做了一个可以和自己在精神上平等交谈的人,并且慢慢地深深爱上了她。这是简·爱 告诉罗切斯特她必须离开的理由,但是从内心讲,更深一层的东西是简·爱意识到自己受到了欺骗,她的自尊心受到了戏弄,因为她深爱着罗切斯特,试问哪个女人能够承受得住被自己最信任,最亲密的人所欺骗呢?这样一种非常强大的爱情力量包围之下,在美好,富裕的生活诱惑之下,她依然要坚持自己作为个人的尊严,这是简·爱最具有精神魅力的地方。
  
  小说设计了一个很光明的结尾--虽然罗切斯特的庄园毁了,他自己也成了一个残废,但我们看到,正是这样一个条件,使简·爱 不再在尊严与爱之间矛盾,而同时获得满足--她在和罗切斯特结婚的时候是有尊严的,同时也是有爱的。任何文学作品都是作者体验生活的结晶,从书中多少可看出作者的影子。《简·爱》也是如此,大量的细节可以在作者的生活中得到印证。当然 《简·爱》并不是一本自传,作者只是把自己丰富的生活经历融进了一部充满想象力的文章里。人们知道《简·爱》是作者生活中的写照,但又有多少人知道作者是在怎样的情况下写下《简·爱》的呢。
  
  小说告诉我们,人的最美好的生活是人的尊严加爱,小说的结局给女主人公安排的就是这样一种生活。虽然我觉得这样的结局过于完美,甚至这种圆满本身标志着浮浅,但是我依然尊重作者对这种美好生活的理想--就是尊严加爱,毕竟在当今社会,要将人的价值=尊严+爱这道公式付之实现常常离不开金钱的帮助。人们都疯狂地似乎为了金钱和地位而淹没爱情。在穷与富之间选择富,在爱与不爱之间选择不爱。很少有人会像简这样为爱情为人格抛弃所有,而且义无反顾。《简·爱》所展现给我们的正是一种化繁为简,是一种返朴归真,是一种追求全心付出的感觉,是一种不计得失的简化的感情,它犹如一杯冰水,净化每一个读者的心灵,同时引起读者,特别是女性读者的共鸣。


  Jane Eyre (pronounced /ˌdʒeɪn ˈɛər/) is a famous and influential novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell". The American edition came out the following year published by Harper & Brothers of New York.
  
  Plot introduction
  
  Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the title character. The novel goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester. Partly autobiographical, the novel abounds with social criticism. It is a novel considered ahead of its time. In spite of the dark, brooding elements, it has a strong sense of right and wrong, of morality at its core.
  
  Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on certain copies are liable to take up another 100). The original was published in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 26, and 27 to 38.
  
  Brontë dedicated the novel's second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray.
  Plot summary
  Chapters 1-4: Jane's childhood at Gateshead
  Young Jane argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead. Illustration by F. H. Townsend.
  
  A ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre lives with her uncle's family, the Reeds. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her intensely. When her uncle dies, her aunt and the three Reed children become abusive. When bullied by her cousin John, Jane retaliates but is punished for the ensuing fight and is locked in the room where Mr. Reed died. As night falls, Jane's panicked screams rouse the house, but Mrs. Reed won't let her out. Jane faints and Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, is summoned. He talks with Jane and sympathetically suggests that she should go away to school.
  Chapters 5-10: Jane's education at Lowood School
  
  Mrs. Reed sends Jane to Lowood Institution, a charity school, and warns them that Jane is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and Mr. Brocklehurst, the self-righteous clergyman who runs the school, brands her as a liar and shames her before the entire assembly.
  
  Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring teacher, facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr. Lloyd whose reply agrees with Jane's. Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusations.
  Jane tries to catch Mr. Rochester's horse.
  
  While the Brocklehurst family lives in luxury, the eighty pupils are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms.
  
  When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are laid bare, several benefactors erect a new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically.
  Chapters 11-26: Jane's time as governess at Thornfield Hall
  
  Eight years later, Jane is a teacher employed by Alice Fairfax (the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall) as governess for Adèle Varens, a young French girl. Out walking one day, Jane encounters and helps a horseman who has sprained his ankle. On her return to Thornfield, she discovers that the horseman is Edward Rochester, Master of Thornfield Hall. Rochester is a moody, self-willed man nearly twenty years older than Jane. Adèle is his ward, belonging to a French "opera dancer" with whom he had a romantic relationship in the past. Adèle, however, is not his daughter, but is brought up by him after her mother abandons her.
  
  Jane saves Mr. Rochester from a fire.
  
  
  Miss Blanche Ingram looking in a book.
  
  
  Mr. Rochester disguised as a Gypsy woman.
  
  
  Bertha Mason rips Jane's wedding veil.
  
  Mr. Rochester seems quite taken with Jane, and she enjoys his company. However, odd things begin to happen: a strange laugh is heard in the halls, a near-fatal fire mysteriously breaks out, and a guest named Mason is attacked.
  
  Jane receives word that Mrs. Reed has suffered a stroke and is asking for her. Returning to Gateshead, she remains for over a month while her aunt lies dying. Mrs. Reed rejects Jane's efforts at reconciliation, but does give her a letter previously withheld out of spite. The letter is from John Eyre, Jane's uncle, notifying her that he wanted her to live with him in Madeira.
  
  After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants.
  
  During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr. Mason's sister. Mr. Rochester bitterly admits the truth, explaining that his wife is a violent madwoman whom he keeps locked in the attic, in the care of Grace Poole. When Grace occasionally drinks too much, it gives his wife a chance to escape, and she is the true cause of Thornfield's strange events.
  
  Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.
  Chapters 27-35: Jane's time with the Rivers family
  
  Jane leaves Thornfield and sleeps outside.
  
  
  Jane begs for food.
  
  
  St. John Rivers admits Jane to Moor House.
  
  Jane travels to the north of England. After mislaying her funds, she sleeps on the moor and begs for food, but is turned away as a beggar, a thief, or worse. Exhausted, she is saved by St. John Rivers, a young clergyman, who brings her to the home of his sisters, Diana and Mary. As she regains her health, St. John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes warm friends with Mary and Diana, but St. John is too reserved for her to relate to, despite his efforts on her behalf. Jane sees that the brother and sisters have money-related worries, but does not enquire further.
  
  Rosamond Oliver shows an interest in St. John.
  
  
  St. John tells Jane she has inherited £20,000.
  
  
  Jane considering St. John's proposal.
  
  When the sisters leave for governess jobs in London, St. John becomes more comfortable around Jane, evidencing his own conflicts of the heart, which involve the beautiful and wealthy Rosamond Oliver. When Jane confronts him about his feelings for Miss Oliver, he confesses that he has turned away from them, because he feels called to be a missionary, and he knows that Miss Oliver would not accept such a life.
  
  St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John has died and left her his entire fortune of £20,000, equivalent to £1,560,000 in today's pounds. When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins.
  
  St. John asks Jane to accompany him to India as his wife. He asks solely because he wishes a good missionary's wife, a role in which he believes Jane will excel. She agrees to go, but refuses marriage, believing his reserve and reason incompatible with her warmth and passion. But, his powers of persuasion eventually begin to convince her to change her mind.
  
  However, at that very moment, she suddenly seems to hear Mr. Rochester calling her name. The next morning, she leaves for Thornfield to ascertain Mr. Rochester's well-being before departing forever for India.
  Chapters 36-38: Jane's reunion with Mr. Rochester
  
  Thornfield burned to the ground by Bertha.
  
  
  Jane and Mr. Rochester reunited.
  
  
  Mr. Rochester's sight improving.
  
  Jane arrives at Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.
  Characters
  
   * Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes governess at Thornfield Hall. Although she falls in love with her wealthy employer, Edward Rochester, her strong sense of conscience does not permit her to become his mistress, and she does not return to him until his insane wife is dead and she herself has come into an inheritance.
   * Mr. Reed: Jane's maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her parents die. Before his own death, he makes his wife promise to care for Jane.
   * Mrs. Sarah Reed: Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane but neglects and abuses her. Her dislike of Jane continues to her death.
   * John Reed: Jane's cousin, who bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in his mother's presence. He ruins himself as an adult and is believed to die by suicide.
   * Eliza Reed: Jane's cousin. Bitter because she is not as attractive as her sister, she devotes herself self-righteously to religion.
   * Georgiana Reed: Jane's cousin. Though spiteful and insolent, she is also beautiful and indulged. Her sister Eliza foils her marriage to a wealthy Lord.
   * Bessie Lee: The plain-spoken nursemaid at Gateshead. She sometimes treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs. Later she marries Robert Leaven.
   * Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead, who brings Jane the news of John Reed's death, which brought on Mrs. Reed's stroke.
   * Mr. Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clearing Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.
   * Mr. Brocklehurst: The clergyman headmaster and treasurer of Lowood School, whose mistreatment of the students is eventually exposed.
   * Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats Jane and Helen (and others) with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr. Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit.
   * Miss Scatcherd: A sour and vicious teacher at Lowood.
   * Helen Burns: A fellow-student and best friend of Jane's at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusting in God and turning the other cheek. She dies of consumption in Jane's arms. Some speculate that the book's author based Helen Burns on her elder sister Maria Brontë , who showed signs of dyspraxia.
   * Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Manor. A Byronic hero, he makes an unfortunate first marriage before he meets Jane.
   * Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester.
   * Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She is Mr Rochester's ward and possibly his daughter. However Mr. Rochester denies this because her mother had been seeing another man behind his back.
   * Mrs. Alice Fairfax: An elderly widow and housekeeper of Thornfield Manor. She treats Jane kindly and respectfully, but disapproves of her engagement to Mr Rochester.
   * Blanche Ingram: A socialite whom Mr. Rochester appears to court in order to make Jane jealous. She is described as having great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious intent.
   * Richard Mason: An Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is Mr. Rochester's first wife. His appearance at Thornfield heralds the eventual revelation of Bertha Mason.
   * Grace Poole: Bertha Mason's keeper. Jane is told that it is Grace Poole who causes the mysterious things to happen at Thornfield Hall.
   * St. John Eyre Rivers: A clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. He is Jane Eyre's cousin on her father's side. He is a devout Christian of Calvinistic leanings. By nature he is very reserved and single-minded.
   * Diana and Mary Rivers: St. John's sisters and (as it turns out) Jane's cousins.
   * Rosamond Oliver: A wealthy young woman who patronizes the village school where Jane teaches, and who is attracted to the Rev. St. John.
   * John Eyre: Jane's paternal uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune. He never appears as a character.
  
  Themes
  
  Morality
  
  Jane refuses to become Mr Rochester's paramour because of her "impassioned self-respect and moral conviction." She rejects St. John Rivers' Puritanism as much as the libertine aspects of Mr Rochester's character. Instead, she works out a morality expressed in love, independence, and forgiveness.
  Religion
  
  Throughout the novel, Jane endeavours to attain an equilibrium between moral duty and earthly happiness. She despises the hypocritical puritanism of Mr. Brocklehurst, and rejects St. John Rivers' cold devotion to his Christian duty, but neither can she bring herself to emulate Helen Burns' turning the other cheek, although she admires Helen for it. Ultimately, she rejects these three extremes and finds a middle ground in which religion serves to curb her immoderate passions but does not repress her true self.
  Social class
  
  Jane's ambiguous social position—a penniless yet moderately educated orphan from a good family—leads her to criticise discrimination based on class. Although she is educated, well-mannered, and relatively sophisticated, she is still a governess, a paid servant of low social standing, and therefore powerless. Nevertheless, Brontë possesses certain class prejudices herself, as is made clear when Jane has to remind herself that her unsophisticated village pupils at Morton "are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy."
  Gender relations
  
  A particularly important theme in the novel is the depiction of a patriarchal society. Jane attempts to assert her own identity within male-dominated society. Three of the main male characters, Brocklehurst, Mr Rochester and St. John, try to keep Jane in a subordinate position and prevent her from expressing her own thoughts and feelings. Jane escapes Brocklehurst and rejects St. John, and she only marries Mr Rochester once she is sure that their marriage is one between equals. Through Jane, Brontë opposes Victorian stereotypes about women, articulating her own feminist philosophy:
  
  
   Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex. (Chapter XII)
  
  Love and Passion
  
  One of the secrets to the success of Jane Eyre lies in the way that it touches on a number of important themes while telling a compelling story. Indeed, so lively and dramatic is the story that the reader might not be fully conscious of all the thematic strands that weave through this work. Critics have argued about what comprises the main theme of Jane Eyre. There can be little doubt, however, that love and passion together form a major thematic element of the novel.
  
  On its most simple and obvious level, Jane Eyre is a love story. The love between the orphaned and initially impoverished Jane and the wealthy but tormented Rochester is at its heart. The obstacles to the fulfillment of this love provide the main dramatic conflict in the work. However, the novel explores other types of love as well. Helen Burns, for example, exemplifies the selfless love of a friend. We also see some of the consequences of the absence of love, as in the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed, in the selfish relations among the Reed children, and in the mocking marriage of Rochester and Bertha. Jane realizes that the absence of love between herself and St. John Rivers would make their marriage a living death, too.
  
  Throughout the work, Brontë suggests that a life that is not lived passionately is not lived fully. Jane undoubtedly is the central passionate character; her nature is shot through with passion. Early on, she refuses to live by Mrs. Reed's rules, which would restrict all passion. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first, but by no means her last, passionate act. Her passion for Rochester is all consuming. Significantly, however, it is not the only force that governs her life. She leaves Rochester because her moral reason tells her that it would be wrong to live with him as his mistress: "Laws and principles are not for the time when there is no temptation," she tells Rochester; "they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise against their rigor."
  
  Blanche Ingram feels no passion for Rochester; she is only attracted to the landowner because of his wealth and social position. St. John Rivers is a more intelligent character than Blanche, but like her he also lacks the necessary passion that would allow him to live fully. His marriage proposal to Jane has no passion behind it; rather, he regards marriage as a business arrangement, with Jane as his potential junior partner in his missionary work. His lack of passion contrasts sharply with Rochester, who positively seethes with passion. His injury in the fire at Thornfield may be seen as a chastisement for his past passionate indiscretions and as a symbolic taming of his passionate excesses.
  Independence
  
  Jane Eyre is not only a love story; it is also a plea for the recognition of the individual's worth. Throughout the book, Jane demands to be treated as an independent human being, a person with her own needs and talents. Early on, she is unjustly punished, precisely for being herself — first by Mrs. Reed and John Reed, and subsequently by Mr. Brocklehurst. Her defiance of Mrs. Reed is her first active declaration of independence in the novel, but not her last. Helen Burns and Miss Temple are the first characters to acknowledge her as an individual; they love her for herself, in spite of her obscurity. Rochester too loves her for herself; the fact that she is a governess and therefore his servant does not negatively affect his perception of her. Rochester confesses that his ideal woman is intellectual, faithful, and loving — qualities that Jane embodies. Rochester's acceptance of Jane as an independent person is contrasted by Blanche and Lady Ingram's attitude toward her: they see her merely as a servant. Lady Ingram speaks disparagingly of Jane in front of her face as though Jane isn't there. To her, Jane is an inferior barely worthy of notice, and certainly not worthy of respect. And even though she is his cousin, St. John Rivers does not regard Jane as a full, independent person. Rather, he sees her as an instrument, an accessory that would help him to further his own plans. Jane acknowledges that his cause (missionary work) may be worthy, but she knows that to marry simply for the sake of expedience would be a fatal mistake. Her marriage to Mr. Rochester, by contrast, is the marriage of two independent beings. It is because of their independence, Brontë suggests, that they acknowledge their dependence on each other and are able to live happily ever after.
  God and Religion
  
  In her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, Brontë made clear her belief that "conventionality is not morality" and "self-righteousness is not religion." She declared that "narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ." Throughout the novel, Brontë presents contrasts between characters who believe in and practice what she considers a true Christianity and those who pervert religion to further their own ends. Mr. Brocklehurst, who oversees Lowood Institution, is a hypocritical Christian. He professes charity but uses religion as a justification for punishment. For example, he cites the biblical passage "man shall not live by bread alone" to rebuke Miss Temple for having fed the girls an extra meal to compensate for their inedible breakfast of burnt porridge. He tells Miss Temple that she "may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!" Helen Burns is a complete contrast to Brocklehurst; she follows the Christian creed of turning the other cheek and loving those who hate her. On her deathbed, Helen tells Jane that she is "going home to God, who loves her."
  
  Jane herself cannot quite profess Helen's absolute, selfless faith. Jane does not seem to follow a particular doctrine, but she is sincerely religious in a nondoctrinaire way. (It is Jane, after all, who places the stone with the word "Resurgam" on Helen's grave, some fifteen years after her friend's death.) Jane frequently prays and calls on God to assist her, particularly in her trouble with Rochester. She prays too that Rochester is safe. When the Rivers's housekeeper, Hannah, tries to turn the begging Jane away, Jane tells her that "if you are a Christian, you ought not consider poverty a crime." The young evangelical clergyman St. John Rivers is a more conventionally religious figure. However, Brontë portrays his religious aspect ambiguously. Jane calls him "a very good man," yet she finds him cold and forbidding. In his determination to do good deeds (in the form of missionary work in India), Rivers courts martyrdom. Moreover, he is unable to see Jane as a whole person, but views her as a helpmate in his proposed missionary work. Rochester is far less a perfect Christian. He is, indeed, a sinner: He attempts to enter into a bigamous marriage with Jane and, when that fails, tries to persuade her to become his mistress. He also confesses that he has had three previous mistresses. In the end, however, he repents his sinfulness, thanks God for returning Jane to him, and begs God to give him the strength to lead a purer life.
  
  Atonement and Forgiveness
  
  Much of the religious concern in Jane Eyre has to do with atonement and forgiveness. Rochester is tormented by his awareness of his past sins and misdeeds. He frequently confesses that he has led a life of vice, and many of his actions in the course of the novel are less than commendable. Readers may accuse him of behaving sadistically in deceiving Jane about the nature of his relationship (or rather, non-relationship) with Blanche Ingram in order to provoke Jane's jealousy. His confinement of Bertha may bespeak mixed motives. He is certainly aware that in the eyes of both religious and civil authorities, his marriage to Jane before Bertha's death would be bigamous. Yet, at the same time, he makes genuine efforts to atone for his behavior. For example, although he does not believe that he is Adèle's natural father, he adopts her as his ward and sees that she is well cared for. This adoption may well be an act of atonement for the sins he has committed. He expresses his self-disgust at having tried to console himself by having three different mistresses during his travels in Europe and begs Jane to forgive him for these past transgressions. However, Rochester can only atone completely — and be forgiven completely — after Jane has refused to be his mistress and left him. The destruction of Thornfield by fire finally removes the stain of his past sins; the loss of his right hand and of his eyesight is the price he must pay to atone completely for his sins. Only after this purgation can he be redeemed by Jane's love.
  
  Search for Home and Family
  
  Without any living family that she is aware of (until well into the story), throughout the course of the novel Jane searches for a place that she can call home. Significantly, houses play a prominent part in the story. (In keeping with a long English tradition, all the houses in the book have names.) The novel's opening finds Jane living at Gateshead Hall, but this is hardly a home. Mrs. Reed and her children refuse to acknowledge her as a relation, treating her instead as an unwanted intruder and an inferior.
  
  Shunted off to Lowood Institution, a boarding school for orphans and destitute children, Jane finds a home of sorts, although her place here is ambiguous and temporary. The school's manager, Mr. Brocklehurst, treats it more as a business than as school in loco parentis (in place of the parent). His emphasis on discipline and on spartan conditions at the expense of the girls' health make it the antithesis of the ideal home.
  
  Jane subsequently believes she has found a home at Thornfield Hall. Anticipating the worst when she arrives, she is relieved when she is made to feel welcome by Mrs. Fairfax. She feels genuine affection for Adèle (who in a way is also an orphan) and is happy to serve as her governess. As her love for Rochester grows, she believes that she has found her ideal husband in spite of his eccentric manner and that they will make a home together at Thornfield. The revelation — as they are literally on the verge of marriage — that he is already legally married — brings her dream of home crashing down. Fleeing Thornfield, she literally becomes homeless and is reduced to begging for food and shelter. The opportunity of having a home presents itself when she enters Moor House, where the Rivers sisters and their brother, the Reverend St. John Rivers, are mourning the death of their father. (When the housekeeper at first shuts the door in her face, Jane has a dreadful feeling that "that anchor of home was gone.") She soon speaks of Diana and Mary Rivers as her own sisters, and is overjoyed when she learns that they are indeed her cousins. She tells St. John Rivers that learning that she has living relations is far more important than inheriting twenty thousand pounds. (She mourns the uncle she never knew. Earlier she was disheartened on learning that Mrs. Reed told her uncle that Jane had died and sent him away.) However, St. John Rivers' offer of marriage cannot sever her emotional attachment to Rochester. In an almost visionary episode, she hears Rochester's voice calling her to return to him. The last chapter begins with the famous simple declarative sentence, "Reader, I married him," and after a long series of travails Jane's search for home and family ends in a union with her ideal mate.
  Context
  
  The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding school, are derived from the author's own experiences. Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters Elizabeth and Maria, who died of the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall, Lancashire. Mr. Brocklehurst is based on Rev. William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school, and Helen Burns is likely modelled on Charlotte's sister Maria. Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death. Finally, like Jane, Charlotte becomes a governess. These facts were revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Charlotte's friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.
  
  The Gothic manor of Thornfield was probably inspired by North Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District. This was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the summer of 1845 and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22 July 1845. It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded second floor room.
  Literary motifs and allusions
  
  Jane Eyre uses many motifs from Gothic fiction, such as the Gothic manor (Thornfield), the Byronic hero (Mr Rochester and Jane herself) and The Madwoman in the Attic (Bertha), whom Jane perceives as resembling "the foul German spectre—the Vampyre" (Chapter XXV) and who attacks her own brother in a distinctly vampiric way: "She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart" (Chapter XX). Also, besides gothicism, Jane Eyre displays romanticism to create a unique Victorian novel.
  
  Literary allusions from the Bible, fairy tales, The Pilgrim's Progress, Paradise Lost, and the novels and poetry of Sir Walter Scott are also much in evidence. The novel deliberately avoids some conventions of Victorian fiction, not contriving a deathbed reconciliation between Aunt Reed and Jane Eyre and avoiding the portrayal of a "fallen woman".
  Adaptations
  Mr. Reed torments young Jane Eyre in Suffolk Youth Theatre's 2008 production of Jane Eyre.
  
  Jane Eyre has engendered numerous adaptations and related works inspired by the novel. The best known are the 1944 version starring Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane, the BBC television adaptation with Timothy Dalton as Rochester and Zelah Clarke as Jane, and the 1996 version directed by Franco Zeffirelli with William Hurt as Rochester and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane.
  Radio show versions
  
   * 1943: Extremely loose adaptation (primarily chapters 11–26) on The Weird Circle, premiering on 11 November.
  
  Silent film versions
  
   * Several silent film adaptations entitled Jane Eyre were released; one in 1910, two in 1914, plus:
   * 1915: Jane Eyre starring Louise Vale.
   * 1915: A version was released called The Castle of Thornfield.
   * 1918: A version was released called Woman and Wife, directed by Edward José, adapted by Paul West, starring Alice Brady as Jane.
   * 1921: Jane Eyre starring Mabel Ballin and directed by Hugo Ballin.
   * 1926: A version was made in Germany called Orphan of Lowood.
  
  Motion picture versions
  
   * 1934: Jane Eyre, starring Colin Clive and Virginia Bruce.
   * 1940: Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and based upon the novel of the same name which was influenced by Jane Eyre. Joan Fontaine, who starred in this film, would also be cast in the 1944 version of Jane Eyre to reinforce the connection.
   * 1943: I Walked with a Zombie is a horror movie loosely based upon Jane Eyre.
   * 1944: Jane Eyre, with a screenplay by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley. It features Orson Welles as Mr Rochester, Joan Fontaine as Jane, Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Reed, Margaret O'Brien as Adele and Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns.
   * 1956: A version was made in Hong Kong called The Orphan Girl.
   * 1963: A version was released in Mexico called El Secreto (English: "The Secret").
   * 1970: Jane Eyre, starring George C. Scott as Mr Rochester and Susannah York as Jane.
   * 1972: An Indian adaptation in Telugu, Shanti Nilayam, directed by C. Vaikuntarama Sastry, starring Anjali Devi.
   * 1978: A version was released in Mexico called Ardiente Secreto (English: "Ardent Secret").
   * 1996: Jane Eyre, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring William Hurt as Mr Rochester, Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane, Elle Macpherson as Blanche Ingram, Joan Plowright as Mrs. Fairfax, Anna Paquin as the young Jane, Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Reed and Geraldine Chaplin as Miss Scatcherd.
   * 2006: Jane Eyre, Directed by Susanna White, starring Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester and Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre.
   * 2011: Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga, starring Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Rochester.
  
  Musical versions
  
   * A two-act ballet of Jane Eyre was created for the first time by the London Children's Ballet in 1994, with an original score by composer Julia Gomelskaya and choreography by Polyanna Buckingham. The run was a sell-out success.
   * A musical version with a book by John Caird and music and lyrics by Paul Gordon, with Marla Schaffel as Jane and James Stacy Barbour as Mr Rochester, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on 10 December 2000. It closed on 10 June 2001.
   * Jane Eyre, opera in three acts, Op. 134 was composed by John Joubert in 1987–1997 to a libretto by Kenneth Birkin after the novel.
   * An opera based on the novel was written in 2000 by English composer Michael Berkeley, with a libretto by David Malouf. It was given its premiere by Music Theatre Wales at the Cheltenham Festival.
   * Jane Eyre was played for the first time in Europe in Beveren, Belgium. It was given its premiere at the cultural centre.
   * The ballet "Jane," based on the book was created in 2007, a Bullard/Tye production with music by Max Reger. Its world premiere was scheduled at the Civic Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, June 29 and 30, performed by the Kalamazoo Ballet Company, Therese Bullard, Director.
   * A musical production directed by Debby Race, book by Jana Smith and Wayne R. Scott, with a musical score by Jana Smith and Brad Roseborough, premiered in 2008 at the Lifehouse Theatre in Redlands, California
   * A symphony (7th) by Michel Bosc premiered in Bandol (France), 11 October 2009.
  
  Television versions
  
   * 1952: This was a live television production presented by "Westinghouse Studio One (Summer Theatre)".
   * Adaptations appeared on British and American television in 1956 and 1961.
   * 1963:Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Richard Leech as Mr Rochester and Ann Bell as Jane.
   * 1973: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Sorcha Cusack as Jane, Michael Jayston as Mr Rochester, Juliet Waley as the child Jane, and Tina Heath as Helen Burns.
   * 1978: Telenovela El Ardiente Secreto (English The impassioned secret) was an adaptation of this novel.
   * 1982: BBC Classics Presents: Jane Eyrehead. A parody movie by SCTV starred Andrea Martin as Jane Eyrehead, Joe Flaherty as Mr Rochester, also starting John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Martin Short in supporting roles.
   * 1983: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Zelah Clarke as Jane, Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester, Sian Pattenden as the child Jane, and Colette Barker as Helen Burns.
   * 1997: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the A&E Network and starred Ciaran Hinds as Mr Rochester and Samantha Morton as Jane.
   * 2006: Jane Eyre. It was produced by the BBC and starred Toby Stephens as Mr Rochester, Ruth Wilson as Jane, and Georgie Henley as Young Jane.
  
  Literature
  
   * 1938: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier was partially inspired by Jane Eyre.
   * 1961: The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart adapts many of the motifs of Jane Eyre to 1950s northern England. The main character, Annabel, falls in love with her older neighbor who is married to a mentally ill woman. Like Jane, Annabel runs away to try to get over her love. The novel begins when she returns from her eight-year exile.
   * 1966: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The character Bertha Mason serves as the main protagonist for this novel which acts as a "prequel" to Jane Eyre. It describes the meeting and marriage of Antoinette (later renamed Bertha by Mr Rochester) and Mr Rochester. In its reshaping of events related to Jane Eyre, the novel suggests that Bertha's madness is the result of Mr Rochester's rejection of her and her Creole heritage. It was also adapted into film twice.
   * 1997: Mrs Rochester: A Sequel to Jane Eyre by Hilary Bailey
   * 2000: Adele: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant
   * 2000: Jane Rochester by Kimberly A. Bennett, content explores the first years of the Rochesters' marriage with gothic and explicit content. A fan favorite.
   * 2001 novel The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde revolves around the plot of Jane Eyre. It portrays the book as originally largely free of literary contrivance: Jane and Mr Rochester's first meeting is a simple conversation without the dramatic horse accident, and Jane does not hear his voice calling for her and ends up starting a new life in India. The protagonist's efforts mostly accidentally change it to the real version.
   * 2002: Jenna Starborn by Sharon Shinn, a science fiction novel based upon Jane Eyre
   * 2006: The French Dancer's Bastard: The Story of Adele From Jane Eyre by Emma Tennant. This is a slightly modified version of Tennant's 2000 novel.
   * 2007: Thornfield Hall: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story by Emma Tennant. This is another version of Jane Eyre.
   * 2010: Rochester: A Novel Inspired by Jane Eyre by J.L. Niemann. Jane Eyre told from the first person-perspective of Edward Rochester.
   * The novelist Angela Carter was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre at the time of her death in 1992. This was to have been the story of Jane's stepdaughter Adèle Varens and her mother Céline. Only a synopsis survives.
第一章
  那天,出去散步是不可能了。其实,早上我们还在光秃秃的灌木林中溜达了一个小时, 但从午饭时起(无客造访时,里德太太很早就用午饭)便刮起了冬日凛冽的寒风,随后阴云 密布,大雨滂沱,室外的活动也就只能作罢了。
   我倒是求之不得。我向来不喜欢远距离散步,尤其在冷飕飕的下午。试想,阴冷的薄暮 时分回得家来,手脚都冻僵了,还要受到保姆贝茵的数落,又自觉体格不如伊丽莎、约翰和 乔治亚娜,心里既难过又惭愧,那情形委实可怕。
   此时此刻,刚才提到的伊丽莎、约翰和乔治亚娜都在客厅里,簇拥着他们的妈妈。她则 斜倚在炉边的沙发上,身旁坐着自己的小宝贝们(眼下既未争吵也未哭叫),一副安享天伦 之乐的神态。而我呢,她恩准我不必同他们坐在一起了,说是她很遗憾,不得不让我独个儿 在一旁呆着。要是没有亲耳从贝茜那儿听到,并且亲眼看到,我确实在尽力养成一种比较单 纯随和的习性,活泼可爱的举止,也就是更开朗、更率直、更自然些,那她当真不让我享受 那些只配给予快乐知足的孩子们的特权了。
   “贝茵说我干了什么啦?”我问。
   “简,我不喜欢吹毛求疵或者刨根究底的人,更何况小孩子家这么跟大人顶嘴实在让人 讨厌。找个地方去坐着,不会和气说话就别张嘴。”
   客厅的隔壁是一间小小的餐室,我溜了进去。里面有一个书架。不一会儿,我从上面拿 下一本书来,特意挑插图多的,爬上窗台,缩起双脚,像土耳其人那样盘腿坐下,将红色的 波纹窗帘几乎完全拉拢,把自己加倍隐蔽了起来。
   在我右侧,绯红色窗幔的皱褶档住了我的视线;左侧,明亮的玻璃窗庇护着我,使我既 免受十一月阴沉天气的侵害,又不与外面的世界隔绝,在翻书的间隙,我抬头细看冬日下午 的景色。只见远方白茫茫一片云雾,近处湿漉漉一块草地和受风雨袭击的灌木。一阵持久而 凄厉的狂风,驱赶着如注的暴雨,横空归过。
   我重又低头看书,那是本比尤伊克的《英国鸟类史》。文字部份我一般不感兴趣,但有 几页导言,虽说我是孩子,却不愿当作空页随手翻过。内中写到了海鸟生息之地;写到了只 有海鸟栖居的“孤零零的岩石和海岬”;写到了自南端林纳斯尼斯,或纳斯,至北角都遍布 小岛的挪威海岸:
   那里,北冰洋掀起的巨大漩涡,咆哮在极地光秃凄凉约小岛四周。而大西洋的汹涌波 涛,泻入了狂暴的赫布里底群岛。
   还有些地方我也不能看都不看,一翻而过,那就是书中提到的拉普兰、西伯利亚、斯匹 次卑尔根群岛、新地岛、冰岛和格陵兰荒凉的海岸。“广袤无垠的北极地带和那些阴凄凄的 不毛之地,宛若冰雪的储存库。千万个寒冬所积聚成的坚冰,像阿尔卑斯山的层层高峰,光 滑晶莹,包围着地极,把与日俱增的严寒汇集于一处。”我对这些死白色的地域,已有一定 之见,但一时难以捉摸,仿佛孩子们某些似懂非懂的念头,朦朦胧胧浮现在脑际,却出奇地 生动,导言中的这几页文字,与后面的插图相配,使兀立波涛中的孤岩,搁浅在荒凉 海岸上的破船,以及透过云带俯视着沉船的幽幽月光,更加含义隽永了。
   我说不清一种什么样的情调弥漫在孤寂的墓地:刻有铭文的墓碑、一扇大门、两棵树、 低低的地平线、破败的围墙。一弯初升的新月,表明时候正是黄昏。
   两艘轮船停泊在水波不兴的海面上,我以为它们是海上的鬼怪。
   魔鬼从身后按住窃贼的背包,那模样实在可怕,我赶紧翻了过去。
   一样可怕的是,那个头上长角的黑色怪物,独踞于岩石之上,远眺着一大群人围着绞 架。
   每幅画都是一个故事、由于我理解力不足,欣赏水平有限,它们往往显得神秘莫测,但 无不趣味盎然,就像某些冬夜,贝茜碰巧心情不错时讲述的故事一样。遇到这种时候,贝茵 会把烫衣桌搬到保育室的壁炉旁边,让我们围着它坐好。她一面熨里德太太的网眼饰边,把 睡帽的边沿烫出褶裥来,一面让我们迫不及待地倾听她一段段爱情和冒险故事,这些片段取 自于古老的神话传说和更古老的歌谣,或者如我后来所发现,来自《帕美拉》和《莫兰伯爵 亨利》。
   当时,我膝头摊着比尤伊克的书,心里乐滋滋的,至少是自得其乐,就怕别人来打扰。 但打扰来得很快,餐室的门开了。
   “嘘!苦恼小姐!”约翰·里德叫唤着,随后又打住了,显然发觉房间里空无一人。
   “见鬼,上哪儿去了呀?”他接着说。“丽茜!乔琪!”(喊着他的姐妹)“琼不在这 儿呐,告诉妈妈她窜到雨地里去了,这个坏畜牲!”
   “幸亏我拉好了窗帘,”我想。我真希望他发现不了我的藏身之地。约翰·里德自己是 发现不了的,他眼睛不尖,头脑不灵。可惜伊丽莎从门外一探进头来,就说:
   “她在窗台上,准没错,杰克。”
   我立即走了出来,因为一想到要被这个杰克硬拖出去,身子便直打哆嗦。
   什么事呀?”我问,既尴尬又不安。
   “该说,什么事呀,里德‘少爷?’”便是我得到的回答。“我要你到这里来,”他在 扶手椅上坐下,打了个手势,示意我走过去站到他面前。
   约翰·里德是个十四岁的小学生,比我大四岁,因为我才十岁。论年龄,他长得又大又 胖,但肤色灰暗,一付病态。脸盘阔,五官粗,四肢肥,手膨大。还喜欢暴饮暴食,落得个 肝火很旺,目光迟钝,两颊松弛。这阵子,他本该呆在学校里,可是他妈把他领了回来,住 上—、两个月,说是因为“身体虚弱”。但他老师迈尔斯先生却断言,要是家里少送些糕点 糖果去,他会什么都很好的,做母亲的心里却讨厌这么刻薄的话,而倾向于一种更随和的想 法,认为约翰是过于用功,或许还因为想家,才弄得那么面色蜡黄的。
   约翰对母亲和姐妹们没有多少感情,而对我则很厌恶。他欺侮我,我,不是一周三 两次,也不是一天一两回,而是经常如此。弄得我每根神经都怕他,他一走运,我身子骨上 的每块肌肉都会收缩起来。有时我会被他吓得手足无措,因为面对他的恐吓和欺侮,我无处 哭诉。佣人们不愿站在我一边去得罪他们的少爷,而里德太太则装聋作哑,儿子打我骂我, 她熟视无睹,尽管他动不动当着她的面这样做,而背着她的时候不用说就更多了。
   我对约翰已惯于逆来顺受,因此便走到他椅子跟前。他费了大约三分钟,拼命向我伸出 舌头,就差没有绷断舌根。我明白他会马上下手,一面担心挨打,一面凝视着这个就要动手 的人那付令人厌恶的丑态。我不知道他看出了我的心思没有,反正他二话没说,猛然间狠命 揍我。我一个踉跄,从他椅子前倒退了一两步才站稳身子。
   “这是对你的教训,谁叫你刚才那么无礼跟妈妈顶嘴,”他说,“谁叫你鬼鬼祟祟躲到 窗帘后面,谁叫你两分钟之前眼光里露出那付鬼样子,你这耗子!”
   我已经习惯于约翰·里德的谩骂,从来不愿去理睬,一心只想着加何去忍受辱骂以后必 然接踪而来的殴打。
   “你躲在窗帘后面干什么?”他问。
   “在看书。”
   “把书拿来。”
   我走回窗前把书取来。
   “你没有资格动我们的书。妈妈说的,你靠别人养活你,你没有钱,你爸爸什么也没留 给你,你应当去讨饭,而不该同像我们这样体面人家的孩子一起过日子,不该同我们吃一样 的饭,穿妈妈掏钱给买的衣服。现在我要教训你,让你知道翻我们书架的好处。这些书都是 我的,连整座房子都是,要不过几年就归我了。滚,站到门边去,离镜子和窗子远些。”
   我照他的话做了,起初并不知道他的用意。但是他把书举起,拿稳当了,立起身来摆出 要扔过来的架势时,我一声惊叫,本能地往旁边一闪,可是晚了、那本书己经扔过来,正好 打中了我,我应声倒下,脑袋撞在门上,碰出了血来,疼痛难忍。我的恐惧心理已经越过了 极限,被其他情感所代替。
   “你是个恶毒残暴的孩子!”我说。“你像个杀人犯——你是个奴隶监工——你像罗马 皇帝!”
   我读过哥尔斯密的《罗马史》,时尼禄、卡利古拉等人物已有自己的看法,并暗暗作过 类比,但决没有想到会如此大声地说出口来。
   “什么!什么!”他大叫大嚷。“那是她说的吗?伊丽莎、乔治亚娜,你们可听见她说 了?我会不去告诉妈妈吗?不过我得先——”
   他向我直冲过来,我只觉得他抓住了我的头发和肩膀,他跟一个拼老命的家伙扭打在一 起了。我发现他真是个暴君,是个杀人犯。我觉得一两滴血从头上顺着脖子淌下来,感到一 阵热辣辣的剧痛。这些感觉一时占了上风,我不再畏惧,而发疯似地同他对打起来。我不太 清楚自己的双手到底干了什么,只听得他骂我“耗子!耗子!”一面杀猪似地嚎叫着。他的 帮手近在咫尺,伊丽莎和乔治亚娜早已跑出去讨救兵,里德太太上了楼梯,来到现场,后面 跟随着贝茜和女佣艾博特。她们我们拉开了,我只听见她们说:
   “哎呀!哎呀!这么大的气出在约翰少爷身上:”
   “谁见过那么火冒三丈的!”
   随后里德太太补充说:
   “带她到红房子里去,关起来。”于是马上就有两双手按住了我,把我推上楼去。


  There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
   I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
   The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, "She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation, that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner -- something lighter, franker, more natural, as it were -- she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children. "
   "What does Bessie say I have done?" I asked.
   "Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent. "
   A breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room, I slipped in there. It contained a bookcase: I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.
   Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.
   I returned to my book -- Bewick's History of British Birds: the letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of "the solitary rocks and promontories" by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape -
   "Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides. "
   Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with "the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space, -- that reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigours of extreme cold. " Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children's brains, but strangely impressive. The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.
   I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.
   The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.
   The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.
   So was the black horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
   Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and other ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of Moreland.
   With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room door opened.
   "Boh! Madam Mope!" cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he found the room apparently empty.
   "Where the dickens is she!" he continued. "Lizzy! Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Joan is not here: tell mama she is run out into the rain -- bad animal!"
   "It is well I drew the curtain, " thought I; and I wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once -
   "She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack. "
   And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.
   "What do you want?" I asked, with awkward diffidence.
   "Say, 'What do you want, Master Reed?'" was the answer. "I want you to come here;" and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before 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 and flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama 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, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh in 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 inflictions; 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: 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 in 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.
   "That is for your impudence in answering mama awhile since, " said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"
   Accustomed to John Reed's abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it; my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.
   "What were you doing behind the curtain?" he asked.
   "I was reading. "
   "Show the book. "
   I returned to the window and fetched it thence.
   "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama 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 mama'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 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, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
   "Wicked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer -- you are like a slave-driver -- you are like the Roman emperors!"
   I had read Goldsmith's History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, &c. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aloud.
   "What! what!" he cried. "Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won't I tell mama? 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 from 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 -
   "Dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!"
   "Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion!"
   Then Mrs. Reed subjoined -
   "Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there. " Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.
第二章
  我一路反抗,在我,这还是破天荒第一次。于是大大加深了贝茜和艾博特小姐对我的恶 感。我确实有点儿难以自制,或者如法国人所说,失常了。我意识到,因为一时的反抗,会 不得不遭受古怪离奇的惩罚。于是,像其他造反的奴隶一样,我横下一条心,决计不顾一切 了。
   “抓住她的胳膊,艾博特小姐,她像一只发了疯的猫。”
   “真丢脸!真丢脸!”这位女主人的侍女叫道,“多可怕的举动,爱小姐,居然打起小 少爷来了,他是你恩人的儿子:你的小主人!”
   “主人,他怎么会是我主人,难道我是仆人不成?”
   “不,你连仆人都不如。你不干事,吃白食。喂,坐下来,好好想一想你有多坏。”
   这时候她们已把我拖进了里德太太所指的房间,推操到一条矮凳上,我不由自主地像弹 簧一样跳起来,但立刻被两双手按住了。
   “要是你不安安稳稳坐着,我们可得绑住你了,”贝茜说,“艾博特小姐,把你的袜带 借给我,我那付会被她一下子绷断的。”
   艾博特小姐转而从她粗壮的腿上,解下那条必不可少的带子。捆绑前的准备工作以及由 此而额外蒙受的耻辱,略微消解了我的激动情绪。
   “别解啦,”我叫道,“我不动就是了。”
   作为保证,我让双手紧挨着凳子。
   “记住别动,”贝茜说,知道我确实已经平静下去,便松了手。随后她和艾博特小姐抱 臂而立,沉着脸,满腹狐疑地瞪着我,不相信我的神经还是正常似的。
   “她以前从来没有这样过,”末了,贝茜转身对那位艾比盖尔说。
   “不过她生性如此,”对方回答,“我经常跟太太说起我对这孩子的看法,太太也同 意。这小东西真狡猾,从来没见过像她这样年纪的小姑娘,有那么多鬼心眼的。”
   贝茜没有搭腔,但不一会便对我说:
   “小姐,你该明白,你受了里德太太的恩惠,是她养着你的。要是她把你赶走,你就得 进贫民院了。”
   对她们这番活,我无话可说,因为听起来并不新鲜。我生活的最早记忆中就包含着类似 的暗示,这些责备我赖别人过活的话,己成了意义含糊的老调,叫人痛苦,让人难受,但又 不太好懂。艾博特小姐答话了:
   “你不能因为太太好心把你同里德小姐和少爷一块抚养大,就以为自己与他们平等了。 他们将来会有很多很多钱,而你却一个子儿也不会有。你得学谦恭些,尽量顺着他们,这才 是你的本份。”
   “我们同你说的全是为了你好,”贝茜补充道,口气倒并不严厉,“你做事要巴结些, 学得乖一点,那样也许可以把这当个家住下去,要是你意气用事,粗暴无礼,我敢肯定,太 太会把你撵走。”
   “另外,”艾博特小姐说,“上帝会惩罚她,也许会在她耍啤气时,把她处死,死后她 能上哪儿呢,来,贝茜,咱们走吧,随她去。反正我是无论如何打动不了她啦。爱小姐,你 独个儿呆着的时候,祈祷吧。要是你不忏悔,说不定有个坏家伙会从烟囱进来,把你带 走。”
   她们走了,关了门,随手上了锁。
   红房子是间空余的卧房,难得有人在里面过夜。其实也许可以说,从来没有。除非盖茨 黑德府上偶而拥进一大群客人时,才有必要动用全部房间。但府里的卧室,数它最宽敞、最 堂皇了。—张红木床赫然立于房间正中,粗大的床柱上,罩着深红色锦缎帐幔,活像一个帐 篷。两扇终日窗帘紧闭的大窗,半掩在清一色织物制成的流苏之中。地毯是红的,床脚边的 桌子上铺着深红色的台布,墙呈柔和的黄褐色,略带粉红。大橱、梳妆台和椅子都是乌黑发 亮的红木做的。床上高高地叠着褥垫和枕头,上面铺着雪白的马赛布床罩,在周围深色调陈 设的映衬下,白得眩目。几乎同样显眼的是床头边一把铺着坐垫的大安乐椅,一样的白色, 前面还放着一只脚凳,在我看来,它像一个苍白的宝座。
   房子里难得生火,所以很冷;因为远离保育室和厨房,所以很静;又因为谁都知道很少 有人进去,所以显得庄严肃穆。只有女佣每逢星期六上这里来,把一周内静悄悄落在镜子上 和家具上的灰尘抹去。还有里德太太本人,隔好久才来一次,查看大橱里某个秘密抽屉里的 东西。这里存放着各类羊皮文件,她的首饰盒,以及她已故丈夫的肖像。上面提到的最后几 句话,给红房子带来了一种神秘感,一种魔力,因而它虽然富丽堂皇,却显得分外凄清。
   里德先生死去已经九年了,他就是在这间房子里咽气的,他的遗体在这里让人瞻仰,他 的棺材由殡葬工人从这里抬走。从此之后,这里便始终弥漫着一种阴森森的祭奠氛围,所以 不常有人闯进来。
   里德先生死去已经九年了,他就是在这间房子里咽气的,他的遗体在这里让人瞻仰,他 的棺材由殡葬工人从这里抬走。从此之后,这里便始终弥漫着一种阴森森的祭奠氛围,所以 不常有人闯进来。
   贝茜和刻薄的艾博特小姐让我一动不动坐着的,是一条软垫矮凳,摆在靠近大理石壁炉 的地方。我面前是高耸的床,我右面是黑漆漆的大橱,橱上柔和、斑驳的反光,使镶板的光 泽摇曳变幻。我左面是关得严严实实的窗子,两扇窗子中间有一面大镜子,映照出床和房间 的空旷和肃穆。我吃不准他们锁了门没有,等到敢于走动时,便起来看个究竟。哎呀,不 错,比牢房锁得还紧呐。返回原地时,我必须经过大镜子跟前。我的目光被吸引住了,禁不 住探究起镜中的世界来。在虚幻的映像中,一切都显得比现实中更冷落、更阴沉。那个陌生 的小家伙瞅着我,白白的脸上和胳膊上都蒙上了斑驳的阴影,在—切都凝滞时,唯有那双明 亮恐惧的眼睛在闪动,看上去真像是一个幽灵。我觉得她像那种半仙半人的小精灵,恰如贝 茵在夜晚的故事中所描绘的那样,从沼泽地带山蕨丛生的荒谷中冒出来,现身于迟归的旅行 者眼前。我回到丁我的矮凳上。
   这时候我相信起迷信来了,但并没有到了完全听凭摆布的程度,我依然热血沸腾,反叛 的奴隶那种苦涩情绪依然激励着我。往事如潮、在我脑海中奔涌,如果我不加以遏制,我就 不会对阴暗的现实屈服。
   约翰·里德的专横霸道、他姐妹的高傲冷漠、他母亲的厌恶、仆人们的偏心,像一口混 沌的水井中黑色的沉淀物,一古脑儿泛起在我烦恼不安的心头。
   为什么我总是受苦,总是遭人白眼,总是让人告状,永远受到责备呢?为什么我永远不 能讨人喜欢?为什么我尽力博取欢心,却依然无济于事呢?伊丽莎自私任性,却受到尊敬; 乔治亚娜好使性子,心肠又毒,而且强词夺理目空一切,偏偏得到所有人的纵容。她的美 貌,她红润的面颊,金色的卷发,使得她人见人爱,一俊便可遮百丑。至于约翰,没有人同 他顶撞,更不用说教训他了,虽然他什么坏事都干:捻断鸽子的头颈,弄死小孔雀,放狗去 咬羊,采摘温室中的葡萄,掐断暖房上等花木的嫩芽。有时还叫他母亲“老姑娘”,又因为 她皮肤黝黑像他自己而破口大骂。他蛮横地与母亲作对,经常撕毁她的丝绸服装,而他却依 然是“她的宝贝蛋”。而我不敢有丝毫闪失,干什么都全力以赴,人家还是骂我淘气鬼,讨 厌坯,骂我阴丝丝,贼溜溜,从早上骂到下午,从下午骂到晚上。
   我因为挨了打、跌了交,头依然疼痛,依然流着血。约翰肆无忌惮地打我,却不受责 备,而我不过为了免遭进一步无理殴打,反抗了一下,便成了众矢之的。
   “不公呵,不公!”我的理智呼喊着。在痛苦的刺激下我的理智变得早熟,化作了一种 短暂的力量。决心也同样鼓动起来,激发我去采取某种奇怪的手段,来摆脱难以忍受的压 迫,譬如逃跑,要是不能奏效,那就不吃不喝,活活饿死。
   那个阴沉的下午,我心里多么惶恐不安!我的整个脑袋如一团乱麻,我的整颗心在反 抗:然而那场内心斗争又显得多么茫然,多么无知啊!我无法回答心底那永无休止的问题— —为什么我要如此受苦。此刻,在相隔——我不说多少年以后,我看清楚了。
   我在盖茨黑德府上格格不入。在那里我跟谁都不像。同里德太太、她的孩子、她看中的 家仆,都不融洽。他们不爱我,说实在我也一样不爱他们。他们没有必要热情对待一个与自 已合不来的家伙,一个无论是个性、地位,还是嗜好都同他们泾渭分明的异己;一个既不能 为他们效劳,也不能给他们增添欢乐的废物;一个对自己的境界心存不满而又蔑视他们想法 的讨厌家伙。我明白,如果我是一个聪明开朗、漂亮顽皮、不好侍候的孩子,即使同样是寄 人篱下,同样是无亲无故,里德太太也会对我的处境更加宽容忍让;她的孩子们也会对我亲 切热情些;佣人们也不会一再把我当作保育室的替罪羊了。
   红房子里白昼将尽。时候已是四点过后,暗沉沉的下午正转为凄凉的黄昏。我听见雨点 仍不停地敲打着楼梯的窗户,狂风在门厅后面的树丛中怒号。我渐渐地冷得像块石头,勇气 也烟消云 散。往常那种屈辱感,那种缺乏自信、孤独沮丧的情绪,浇灭了我将消未消的怒 火,谁都说我坏,也许我确实如此吧。我不是一心谋划着让自己饿死吗?这当然是一种罪 过。而且我该不该死呢?或者,盖茨黑德教堂圣坛底下的墓穴是个令人向往的归宿吗?听说 里德先生就长眠在这样的墓穴里。这一念头重又勾起了我对他的回忆,而越往下细想,就越 害怕起来。我已经不记得他了,只知道他是我舅父——我母亲的哥哥——他收养了我这个襁 褓中的孤儿,而且在弥留之际,要里德太太答应,把我当作她自己的孩子来抚养。里德太太 也许认为自己是信守诺言的。而我想就她本性而论,也确是实践了当初的许诺。可是她怎么 能真心喜欢一个不属于她家的外姓、一个在丈夫死后同她已了却一切干系的人呢?她发现自 己受这勉为其难的保证的约束,充当一个自己所无法喜爱的陌生孩子的母亲,眼睁睁看着一 位不相投合的外人永远硬挤在自己的家人中间。对她来说,这想必是件最恼人的事情了。
   红房子里白昼将尽。时候已是四点过后,暗沉沉的下午正转为凄凉的黄昏。我听见雨点 仍不停地敲打着楼梯的窗户,狂风在门厅后面的树丛中怒号。我渐渐地冷得像块石头,勇气 也烟消云 散。往常那种屈辱感,那种缺乏自信、孤独沮丧的情绪,浇灭了我将消未消的怒 火,谁都说我坏,也许我确实如此吧。我不是一心谋划着让自己饿死吗?这当然是一种罪 过。而且我该不该死呢?或者,盖茨黑德教堂圣坛底下的墓穴是个令人向往的归宿吗?听说 里德先生就长眠在这样的墓穴里。这一念头重又勾起了我对他的回忆,而越往下细想,就越 害怕起来。我已经不记得他了,只知道他是我舅父——我母亲的哥哥——他收养了我这个襁 褓中的孤儿,而且在弥留之际,要里德太太答应,把我当作她自己的孩子来抚养。里德太太 也许认为自己是信守诺言的。而我想就她本性而论,也确是实践了当初的许诺。可是她怎么 能真心喜欢一个不属于她家的外姓、一个在丈夫死后同她已了却一切干系的人呢?她发现自 己受这勉为其难的保证的约束,充当一个自己所无法喜爱的陌生孩子的母亲,眼睁睁看着一 位不相投合的外人永远硬挤在自己的家人中间。对她来说,这想必是件最恼人的事情了。
   我忽然闪过一个古怪的念头。我不怀疑—一也从来没有怀疑过——里德先生要是在世, 一定会待我很好。此刻,我坐着,一面打量着白白的床和影影绰绰的墙,不时还用经不住诱 惑的目光,瞟一眼泛着微光的镜子,不由得忆起了关于死人的种种传闻。据说由于人们违背 了他们临终的嘱托,他们在坟墓里非常不安,于是便重访人间,严惩发假誓的人,并为受压 者报仇。我思忖,里德先生的幽灵为外甥女的冤屈所动,会走出居所,不管那是教堂的墓 穴,还是死者无人知晓的世界,来到这间房子,站在我面前。我抹去眼泪,忍住哭泣,担心 嚎啕大哭会惊动什么不可知的声音来抚慰我,或者在昏暗中召来某些带光环的面孔,露出奇 异怜悯的神色,俯身对着我。这念头听起来很令人欣慰,不过要是真的做起来,想必会非常 可怕。我使劲不去想它,抬起头来,大着胆子环顾了一下暗洞洞的房间。就在这时,墙上闪 过一道亮光。我问自己,会不会是一缕月光,透过百叶窗的缝隙照了进来?不,月光是静止 的,而这透光却是流动的。停晴一看,这光线滑到了天花板上,在我头顶上抖动起来。现在 我会很自然地联想到,那很可能是有人提着灯笼穿过草地时射进来的光。但那会儿,我脑子 里尽往恐怖处去想,我的神经也由于激动而非常紧张,我认为那道飞快掠过的光,是某个幽 灵从另一个世界到来的先兆。我的心怦怦乱跳,头脑又热又胀,耳朵里呼呼作响,以为那是 翅膀拍击声,好像什么东西已经逼近我了。我感到压抑,感到窒息,我的忍耐力崩溃了,禁 不住发疯似地大叫了一声,冲向大门,拼命摇着门锁。外面们廊上响起了飞跑而来的脚步 声,钥匙转动了,贝茜和艾博特走进房间。
   “啊!我看到了一道光,想必是鬼来了。”这时,我拉住了贝茜的手,而她并没有抽回 去。
   “她是故意乱叫乱嚷的,”艾博特厌烦地当着我的面说,“而且叫得那么凶!要是真痛 得厉害,倒还可以原谅,可她只不过要把我们骗到这里来,我知道她的诡计。”
   “到底是怎么回事?”一个咄咄逼人的声音问道。随后,里德太太从走廊里走过来,帽 子飘忽着被风鼓得大大的,睡袍悉悉簌簌响个不停。“艾博特,贝茜,我想我吩咐过,让 简·爱呆在红房子里,由我亲自来过问。”
   “简小姐叫得那么响,夫人,”贝茵恳求着。
   “放开她,”这是唯一的回答。“松开贝茵的手,孩子。你尽可放心,靠这些办法,是 出不去的,我讨厌耍花招,尤其是小孩子,我有责任让你知道,鬼把戏不管用。现在你要在 这里多呆一个小时,而且只有服服贴贴,一动不动,才放你出来。”
   “啊,舅妈,可怜可怜我吧:饶恕我吧!我实在受不了啦,用别的办法惩罚我吧!我会 憋死的,要是——”
   “住嘴!这么闹闹嚷嚷讨厌透了。”她无疑就是这么感觉的。在她眼里我是个早熟的演 员,她打心底里认为,我是个本性恶毒、灵魂卑劣、为人阴险的货色。
   贝茜和艾博特退了出去。里德太太对我疯也似的痛苦嚎叫很不耐烦,无意再往下谈了, 蓦地把我往后一推,锁上了门。我听见她堂而皇之地走了。她走后不久,我猜想我便一阵痉 挛,昏了过去,结束了这场吵闹。


  I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather OUT of myself, as the French would say: I was conscious that a moment's mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.
   "Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she's like a mad cat. "
   "For shame! for shame!" cried the lady's-maid. "What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress's son! Your young master. "
   "Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?"
   "No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness. "
   They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.
   "If you don't sit still, you must be tied down, " said Bessie. "Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break mine directly. "
   Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature. This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.
   "Don't take them off, " I cried; "I will not stir. "
   In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.
   "Mind you don't, " said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.
   "She never did so before, " at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.
   "But it was always in her, " was the reply. "I've told Missis often my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover. "
   Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said -- "You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poorhouse. "
   I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague sing-song in my ear: very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in -
   "And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the 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 place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them. "
   "What we tell you is for your good, " added Bessie, in no harsh voice, "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure. "
   "Besides, " said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: He might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away. "
   They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.
   The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre; the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it; and looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.
   This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchen; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered. The house-maid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe from the mirrors and the furniture a week's quiet dust: and Mrs. Reed herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last words lies the secret of the red-room -- the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur.
   Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion.
   My seat, to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left me riveted, was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece; the bed rose before me; to my right hand there was the high, dark wardrobe, with subdued, broken reflections varying the gloss of its panels; to my left were the muffled windows; a great looking-glass between them repeated the vacant majesty of the bed and room. I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and when I dared move, I got up and went to see. Alas! yes: no jail was ever more secure. Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie's evening stories represented as coming out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to my stool.
   Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour for complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present.
   All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proud indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servants' partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one's favour? Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. John no one thwarted, much less punished; though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory: he called his mother "old girl, " too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not unfrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still "her own darling. " I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfil every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.
   My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium.
   "Unjust! -- unjust!" said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression -- as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.
   What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question -- WHY I thus suffered; now, at the distance of -- I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.
   I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage. If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest, or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of indignation at their treatment, of contempt of their judgment. I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child -- though equally dependent and friendless -- Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery.
   Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o'clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle -- my mother's brother -- that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her; but how could she really like an interloper not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband's death, by any tie? It must have been most irksome to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien permanently intruded on her own family group.
   A singular notion dawned upon me. I doubted not -- never doubted -- that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls -- occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaning mirror -- I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed's spirit, harassed by the wrongs of his sister's child, might quit its abode -- whether in the church vault or in the unknown world of the departed -- and rise before me in this chamber. I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity. This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it -- I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head. I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the outer passage; the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.
   "Miss Eyre, are you ill?" said Bessie.
   "What a dreadful noise! it went quite through me!" exclaimed Abbot.
   "Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!" was my cry.
   "What for? Are you hurt? Have you seen something?" again demanded Bessie.
   "Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come. " I had now got hold of Bessie's hand, and she did not snatch it from me.
   "She has screamed out on purpose, " declared Abbot, in some disgust. "And what a scream! If she had been in great pain one would have excused it, but she only wanted to bring us all here: I know her naughty tricks. "
   "What is all this?" demanded another voice peremptorily; and Mrs. Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling stormily. "Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be left in the red-room till I came to her myself. "
   "Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am, " pleaded Bessie.
   "Let her go, " was the only answer. "Loose Bessie's hand, child: you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then. "
   "O aunt! have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it -- let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if -- "
   "Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:" and so, no doubt, she felt it. I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.
   Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without farther parley. I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene.
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