Chapter 10

People:

• Miss Gryce
• Reverend Mr. Nasmyth
• Mrs. Fairfax

How does Miss Gryce distract Jane?
-Miss Gryce distracts Jane as she wants to read the letter she received from Mrs. Fairfax. Unfortunately, Miss Gryce continues to make conversation with Jane which only results in Jane becoming more eagar to read the letter's contents.

Places:

1. Lowood Institution:  It is a place of agitation for Jane since she spent many years there.  She seldom left the school.  It is a place of stability for her.  However, she wants change so she is restless there.

      2.Post Office:  The post office is her means of escape.  It is also a place of hope.  When she goes
         there she is hopeful that she will receive a letter that will call her away from the school.
       3.Doorway of the Institution:  This is where she says goodbye to Bessie.  The doorways symbolizes
          a new passage in her life.  She is about to leave behind the school and her connection to Bessie.

Summary:

• The chapter opens with Jane narrating eight years later into her life. She then tells the story of her life at Lowood during those eight years. The illnesses that the girls got during the winter had died and was brought to the attention, getting Mr. Brocklehurst fired for this act of cruelty. Miss Temple then becomes the headmistress of Lowood with Mr. Brocklehurst demoted to being the Treasurer. Of those eight years, Jane stays at Lowood as a student for six years and for the remaining two, is a teacher. During this time, Miss Temple gets married to a reverend and leaves Lowood. After Miss Temple leaves, Jane desires to get out of the school for it no longer interests her. Jane makes a plan to leave Lowood and places an ad in the newspaper as a tutor or governess. She goes into town to check up on her ad and recieves one letter. The letter is from Mrs. Fairfax who accepts her ad to become a governess at Thornfield. Before she leaves for Thornfield, Jane recieves a visit from Bessie. She tells Jane that ever since she had leave Gateshead Hall, the Reeds have become a dysfunctional family. She also tells her that she had a visitor at Gateshead who turned out to be her uncle seven years ago.

Personal Reaction:
1.)I really want to know everyone's opinion on this: Do you think that everything that has happened to the Reeds in Jane's abscence, just desserts? Did they deserve less or worse?

• (Ryan): Yes, I do believe it was "just deserts" because they deserve what they got for being such malevolent people to Jane Eyre. They basically got what they deserved. also, they should have gotten worse because none of those Reeds were good people. I think they got off the hook pretty easy.  
• I believe they deserved their situations in life.  I wonder if they realize their own faults without Jane there to be blamed.  I think their fortune should reflect their behavior.  Since they behaved poorly, I think it is acceptable that they were punished for it under the circumstances.(Nicole)

2.)The book quickly skips over the next eight years in this chapter, do you think that the author should have done this, or would you rather of had more explanation on Jane's time at Lowood? Why?

• (Ryan):  I think the author should have at least provided more background on what happened to Jane between those years so we have a better understanding of her upbringing. Now it just leaves us guessing and ambiguous and putting pieces of the puzzle together to figure out Why Jane has turned out the way she is.
• I would have liked to hear about how life was like without Helen.  However, I do find it necessary that she skipped over many years of Jane's life.  I would not want to read a long story with chapters that were irrelevant.  Although I may have a curiosity at the end of reading the book as to what happened in those not described years. (Nicole)

Vocabulary:
"...and costumes, and preferences, and antipathies: such was what i knew of existence."

•  Antipathies: a deep-seated feeling of dislike; aversion.

"I was debarrassed of interruption; my half-effaced thought instantly revived"

•  Debarrassed: exclude or prohibit(someone) officially from doing something.

Can I not get so much of my own will! Is not the thing feasible!"

•  Feasible: possible to do easily or conveniently. 

"it came to an end at last, however, like all sublunary things"

•  Sublunary: belonging to this world as contrasted with a better or more spiritual one.

"that might or might not be awaiting me at the little burgh whither I was bound"

•  Burgh: a borough or chartered town. 

"My ostensible errand on this occasion was to get measured for a pair of shoes"

•  Ostensible: stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily true. 

"the heavy supper she had eaten produced a soporific effect" 

• Soporific: tending to induce drowsiness or sleep. 

"She obligingly consented to act as mediatrix in the matter"

•  Mediatrix: A women who is a mediator.

"And then his uncles wanted him to be a barrister, and study the law"

•  Barrister: a lawyer entitled to practice as an advocate, particularly in the higher courts.

"You are genteel enough: you look like a lady, and it is much as i ever expected of you"

•  Genteel: polite, refined, or respectable, often in an affected or ostentatious way.

Chapter 10

• People: Gloria
• Places: Nicole
• Summary: Monica
• Personal Reaction: Rebecca
• Vocabulary: Ryan