The first two chapters of the novel illustrate Jane's troubled beginnings as a young girl trapped in Gateshead with Mrs Reed-her uncle's widow, and her three children - Eliza, Georgiana and John. Charlotte Bronte, the author of the novel, uses a wide choice of language features to create sympathy for Jane right from the beginning of the novel.
From the start her sense of loneliness and isolation is evident in the way she hides herself behind thick curtains in a deserted room ostracised by her aunt and cousins. Her feelings are emphasised by descriptions of weather outside, which is cold, wet and miserable: " near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast." Later on in chapter two, when Jane is locked in the Red Room, she can still hear " rain beating continuously" and the wind "howling in the grove behind the wall." There is pathetic fallacy in the reflection of Jane's situation in the miserable weather. The bleak view from the window reinforces the idea of little Jane's unhappiness. This sprawling house is almost her whole world. Despite the fact that Jane lives in a very luxurious and noble house, it is not much of a home to her; she is constantly being reminded by John Reed about merely being a dependent there.
Jane muses on her relief that the weather is too inclement for any possibility of a walk, and spends her time studying a book, Bewick's History of British Birds, whose gloomy pictures both fascinate her and mirror her thoughts and feelings: "Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting." As she reads the book, she makes pictures of birds into stories, which highlights her vivid and vibrant imagination. She is captivated by the book and is very anxious of an interruption: " I feared nothing but an interruption and that came too soon.
