Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte (excerpt)
In the following excerpt the narrator, Jane Eyre, describes an interaction with her nursemaid, Bessie.
Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from the library. This
book I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in
fairy tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling
old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods
were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas, Lilliput and Brobdignag being in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface,
doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny
cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women of the
other. Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my hand-when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm
had, till now, never failed to find-all was eerie and dreary, the giants were gaunt goblins, the plgmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most
desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the
untasted tart.
5
Select the correct answer from the drop-down menu.
Read the excerpt. Then complete the paragraph.
The author develops the narrator's character through historical context by portraying the narrator as
. a detail consistent with this historical period.