" 'Oh aunt, have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it--let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if--'...impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, [Mrs. Reed] abruptly thrust me back and locked me in...I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene" (17).
Jane is being punished in the red room for striking her cousin John who in truth is constantly abusive to her and provoked her to blows. The red room is the room at Gateshead (The Reed Family's Manor) in which Mr. Reed, Jane's uncle, died. The room is believed by the servants to be haunted and they avoid the room whenever possible; Mrs. Reed uses solitary confinement in the room as a punishment for Jane. Jane is terrified of the room and in this instance she believes she saw a ghost and begins hysterically wailing and pounding on the door to be let out. Mrs. Reed believes Jane to be a wicked deceiver for carrying on so and shoves her back in, causing Jane to have some form of fainting spell or seizure. Mrs. Reed, Jane's aunt and John's mother, is held to her husband's dying wish that she care for Jane as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed feels as if Jane had been forced upon her and alienates her from the family. As Mrs. Reed feels forced to care for Jane, she does not treat her kindly or lovingly, she cares for the bare minimum, at best, to keep Jane in good physical health. The red room is an extremely traumatic event for Jane and follows her the rest of her life; the room symbolizes Jane's unjust childhood and shapes her fear of solitude.