No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day. Yes, Ms. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad propensities.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 3. Jane muses on the day she was disciplined as a child by Mrs. Reed who had her locked in the red room. Though it left her with pangs of mental suffering to the present day, she feels she ought to forgive Mrs. Reed. Her aunt didn’t know what she was doing and was just trying to fix her bad inclinations and make her a morally better child, she says.