You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back – roughly and violently thrust me back – into the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day; though I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, “Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!” And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck me – knocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions, this exact tale. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Jane confronts her aunt over her cruelty, hypocrisy and deceitfulness. She rejects the good woman image that Mrs. Reed portrays to other people. Instead Jane brands her as wicked and unloving. Jane rails against her aunt’s callousness in imprisoning her in the red room as punishment when John Reed struck her and knocked her down without cause. She labels her aunt a liar.