Read the excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
When Mrs. Fairfax had bidden me a kind good-night, and I had fastened my door, gazed leisurely round, and in some measure effaced the eerie impression made by that wide hall, that dark and spacious staircase, and that long, cold gallery, by the livelier aspect of my little room, I remembered that, after a day of bodily fatigue and mental anxiety, I was now at last in safe haven. . . . My couch had no thorns in it that night; my solitary room no fears. At once weary and content, I slept soon and soundly: when I awoke it was broad day.
What moral message does Brontë convey through the symbolism of the house outside and inside of Jane’s room?
One often experiences difficulties in new surroundings.
It is important to know one’s rightful place in the world.
It is important to have a safe space amid the uncertainty of the world.
There is a difference between being treated with kindness and being neglected.
