CENTURY LITERATURE A Dissertation by JUNG SUN ... - Repository

She feels oppressive forces of the “breakfast, dining and drawing-rooms” that are “awful
regions” for her (38). Jane descends the stair and stands “in the empty hall” facing the
breakfast-room door that is led to the drawing-room (38). As if trapped in the in-between
space, Jane “fears to return to the nursery, and fears to go forward to the parlour” (38).
As the narrator Jane recognizes it, Jane’s fear tends to be realized. At this time, Jane is
accused for a deceitful character in front of her future authority. When she is alone with
Mrs. Reed in the drawing-room, Jane accuses Mrs. Reed for her cruelty in incarcerating
a little girl in the red-room and for her unkindness that is blind to her son’s abusive
behavior (44). It is her first act of defending herself, an act toward which Jane feels a
sense of regret. From the episode, Jane’s relation to the drawing-room reveals that Jane
cannot be placed in the space of the center and be comfortable with it.
Also, as much as her dispossession of the drawing-room is desired, Jane’s
possession of the drawing-room is at the heart of her desire. After the red-room incident,
Jane recognizes a “more marked line of separation” between her cousins in the drawingroom
and her in the closet (33). In the holiday seasons, the drawing-room opens to the
family’s guests, inviting her cousins who are nicely attired (35). Throughout the days of
festivities, the drawing-room doors open and close constantly but do not ask Jane to
come in. Jane can only watch the family enjoyment from a distance, traveling from the
“solitary and silent nursery” to the stair-head (35). Similar to the moment that Jane is
excluded from the drawing-room but tries to find comfort taking a window-seat, she,
restricted to the nursery, consoles herself by caring a doll, feeling a sense of pleasure
(35). The narrator Jane’s descriptions implies that little Jane acknowledges the drawing-
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