John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrunk when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence – more frequently, however, behind her back.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 1. The author creates a lot of sympathy for unwanted orphan Jane in the descriptions of bullying and abuse she is subjected to by cousin John Reed. She is meant to be in the care of her aunt Mrs. Reed who promised her dying husband that she would bring her up like one of her own children. But Aunt Reed doesn’t intervene to stop the abuse.