Jane lives with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her bratty cousins: Elizabeth, John, and Georgiana. Mrs. Reed strongly dislikes Jane and always finds things wrong with her, reasons to blame her, and so on. Being prevented from joining the other children out of her aunt's malice, Jane gets a book and settles herself into a window seat to read quietly to herself. John comes to look for her, and she shows herself quickly so as not to risk being "'dragged'" out from behind the curtain. He first orders her to address him as "'Master,'" and he then strikes her, bullying and insulting her. Next, he throws her book at her, knocking her down and causing her to bleed from the head. She calls him a slave-driver, he attacks her, and she manages to fight him off, though she does not "very well know what [she] did with [her] hands." He screams out as though he is the victim. Just then, she is discovered by Mrs. Reed and the maid, and Jane is blamed for the fray. Jane's aunt orders her to be taken to the red room as punishment for her behavior. Because Jane was doing absolutely nothing wrong and because her cousin is such an entitled, violent, and malevolent boy, I don't think she deserves this treatment at all!
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