"We tail I believe, all day long."
Jane Eyre 476
"a cult text of feminism"
Gayatri Spivak 244

I. "Speak I Must"

With the childhood declaration, "Speak I must" Jane resolves to narrate her own story (68), to explain and vindicate her life, to exercise her voice and participate in the "joyous conversational murmur" (198). In spite of her extreme youth, her habits of quiescence and submission (resistance was "a new thing for me," she readily admits [44]), her need to be loved and approved, even if only by her oppressors, Jane stands up for herself and for fairness. "I will tell anybody who asks me questions this exact tale," Jane warns Mrs. Reed. "People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful! ... If any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty" (69,68). Jane experiences her first moment of self-narration, in conflict with the......

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Title: Jane Eyre
Approximate Word Count: 11744
Approximate Pages: 47 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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