OCR AS and a Level English Language and Literature Learner Resource 6 - Voice and Style

Lesson Element

Learner resource 6: Voice and style

Read the following extracts, where Bronte describes:

A)the scene in a school hall

B)her feelings on hearing she may not see Rochester for a year

C)her impressions of the people she works with

Each scene could be summarised in a much simpler sentence. Note how much more detail Bronte provides in the voice of Jane Eyre, a highly observant and articulate narrator.

Choose another extract and print it on a card. Write your simple summary on another card.

Circulate the cards for other students to match up and see how much more detail Bronte has provided.

A. The schoolgirls sat quietly in their uniform.

p. 64 Discipline prevailed: in five minutes the confused throng was resolved into order, and comparative silence quelled the Babel clamour of tongues. The upper teachers now punctually resumed their posts: but still, all seemed to wait. Ranged on benches down the sides of the room, the eighty girls sat motionless and erect: a quaint assemblage they appeared, all with plain locks combed from their faces, not a curl visible; in brown dresses, made high and surrounded by a narrow tucker about the throat, with little pockets of Holland (shaped something like a Highlander’s purse) tied in front of their frocks, and designed to serve the purpose of a work bag: all too wearing woollen stockings and country-made shoes, fastened with brass buckles.

B. I started to feel really disappointed, but quickly controlled myself.

p. 190 When I heard this [That Rochester might not come to Thornfield for a year] I was beginning to feel a strange chill and failing at the heart. I was actually permitting myself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment: but rallying my wits, and recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order; and it was wonderful how I got over the temporary blunder – how I cleared up the mistake of supposing Mr Rochester’s movements a matter in which I had any cause to take a vital interest. Not that I humbled myself by a slavish notion of inferiority: on the contrary, I just said - … ‘don’t make him the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth…’

C. Work wasn’t difficult, as Mrs Fairfax and Adele were both fine.

p. 132 The promise of a smooth career, which my first calm introduction to Thornfield Hall seemed to pledge, was not belied on a longer acquaintance with the place and its inmates. Mrs Fairfax turned out to be what she appeared, a placid-tempered, kind-natured woman, of competent education and average intelligence. My pupil was a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward; but as she was committed entirely to my care, and no injudicious interference from any quarter ever thwarted my plans for her improvement, she soon forgot her little freaks, and became obedient and teachable.