Life at Gateshead

Charlotte Brontë by JH Thompson

 We're told Mrs Reed had a "chosen vassalage" -- chosen to fit in with her expectations and preferences. The only one who'd been thrust upon her was Jane Eyre.

 
I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage . . .  a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest . . .

Or maybe she refused to see that her designated role was scapegoat.

What if things had gone just a little differently? What if Dr. Buchmann had interfered once more?