Chapters 1-3: Leader Robert

 p.9: Why did they walk in the morning? Why did Jane describe it as "wandering"? Why did she go if she never liked walks? 

What is Mrs. Reed's relationship to Jane? Why does Bessie chide Jane? Is there a specific reason why she is physically inferior to all three of Eliza, John, and Georgiana? What did Jane do so wrong that she was shunned by Mrs. Reed? How is receiving love a privilege??? 

All Jane did was ask a question (which seemed polite enough) and Mrs. Reed finds it unpleasant/forbidding. Are children asking questions abnormal for the setting?

p.10: Jane seems very curious about the world, from her interest in the book about birds. 

p.11: She is also creative, as she's forming her own ideas based on what she's reading and seeing. Jane loves stories/books; this will probably be important later.

"Madam Mope"...Why does John call her that? Also, did he call her a "bad animal"??

p.12: HE WANTS HER TO CALL HIM MASTER? Why would she have to? Why would he want her to? He seems very pompous; his gesture "that I was to approach and stand before him" seems like something a king would do. His mother is spoiling him and he is going to get diabetes.

Will Jane eventually overcome John's bullying? And how will she do so?

p.13: So she was taken in by the Reeds…why did they even take her in if they were going to treat her like this? Is Mrs. Reed Jane's aunt? Books seem to be a very large part of Jane's life.

p.14: Was Jane fighting back when she "received him in frantic sort"? And Jane is the one who gets punished when her head is bleeding…Also, what is in the red room? Sounds ominous.

p.15: That was her first ever time resisting? How long has she lived with the Reeds? How shocking of her to defend herself against someone beating her up. Is tying her down like that legal?? What were child abuse laws during this time? Nytimes says there were none.

p.16: What exactly did she do that was so underhanded? What is Mrs. Reed's motivation in keeping her instead of sending her to the "poorhouse"? So she has been with the Reeds since the beginning of her memory? She seems to most likely be an orphan. I wonder how she came to be orphaned. "if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away". I feel like similar strategies are used to make children behave nowadays too.

p.17: Why is the largest/stateliest room in the house rarely used? What is the tone Jane uses to describe the room, using imagery like "shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery" and "like a pale throne", and what is the effect of this tone? 

What is the effect and purpose of the special structure of the sentence "This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchens; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered."?

What was Mr. Reed's role in the family before he died?

p.18: What is the meaning of Jane's description in the paragraph that starts "Superstition was with me at that moment…" and ends "...I quailed to the dismal present"?

John has serial killer red flags (birds). Also, his treatment of his mother is horrible. As Jane grows older, I wonder how she will change and adapt to the situation.

p.19: What, then, made Jane so different from the other children? What made her NOT "sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping"?

p.20: Mrs. Reed is her step-aunt, and Mr. Reed is the reason why she took Jane in. "promise…that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children". So much for that promise.

p.21: Does Bessie feel bad for Jane? "'Miss Eyre, are you ill?'...she did not snatch it from me…" Abbot is definitely less sympathetic.

p.22: How do the different tones used by Abbot, Bessie, Jane, and Mrs. Reed throughout this conversation affect the scene and the development of characters?

p.23: It's sad that Jane feels relieved when she sees a stranger in the room and that it takes a stranger for her to be treated "more tenderly than [she] had ever…before". 

p.24: So Bessie DOES feel bad for Jane. What were Sarah and Bessie talking about when they were "whispering together"? What is "dressed in white"? Black dog = church grim? (Googled) I know that three knocks represents the devil because it's in mockery of the Holy Trinity (Buzzfeed Unsolved). Also, the grave. What do these elements, when pieced together, mean?

p. 25-26: Did something happen to Jane while she was asleep that made her this depressed? Or was it just the punishment of being in the room? Does this have any connection with what Bessie/Sarah were whispering about?

p.27: Is the song directed to Jane Eyre? ("poor orphan child"). 

"Bessie answered that I was doing very well." Evidently not…why did Bessie say that to Dr. Lloyd?

p.28: Is Bessie trying to cover the abuse?

p.29: Does Mrs. Reed truly know nothing about the Eyres? Slightly sus.

p.30: Why does Jane have the perspective she does of poor people? 

So Mrs. Reed apparently doesn't know for sure that Jane's family is poor…she just assumes so and thus insults her based on that assumption.

p.31: Oh, that's what happened to her family…Abbot really called her a "little toad". What is going on inside Bessie's head and is she leaning more towards defending Jane or siding with the Reeds? Do you think this will change?