Sylvia_scj

^^^^ I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say. I was conscious that a moment's mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.
      "Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she's like a mad cat."
      "For shame, for shame!" cried the lady's maid. "What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress's son! Your young master."
      "Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?"
      "No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness."
      They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.
      "If you don't sit still, you must be tied down," said Bessie. "Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break mine directly."
      Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature. This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.
      "Don't take them off," I cried; "I will not stir."
      In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.
      "Mind you don't ," said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.
mutiny:  反抗
benefactress: 女施主, 女恩人
garters: 袜带
divest: 脱去，脱掉
ligature: 带子
ignominy: 耻辱, 羞耻
subside: 平静下来

DZ

这些词汇都不常见哦

Sylvia_scj

Yes, I think that's the characteristic of literature.

Sylvia_scj

"She never did so before," at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.
      "But it was always in her." was the reply. "I've told misses often my opinion about the child, and misses agreed with me. She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover."
      Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said:
      "You ought to be aware, miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off you would have to go to the poorhouse."
      I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague singsong in my ear; very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in:
      "And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."
      "What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no harsh voice: "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, missis will send you away, I am sure."
      "Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: he might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away."
      They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.
abigail: (贵妇人的贴身)使女
underhand: 阴险的, 狡猾的，不诚实的
ere long: 不久
singsong: 平板的声调
tantrum: 一阵坏脾气
repent:  忏悔, 悔悟

DZ

tantrum [ 'tæntrəm ] : 一阵坏脾气

Sylvia_scj

The red-room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in: I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre, the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour, with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs, were of darkly-polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it, and looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.
influx:  A mass arrival or incoming: 汇集：大量到来或大量抵达：
      an influx of visitors to the city 大量涌入这个城市的游客
      large influxes of refugees  大量涌入的难民
stately: 庄严的, 堂皇的
mahogany: [植]桃花心木
damask: 锦锻
tabernacle: 帐篷
shroud: 遮蔽, 隐藏
festoon: 花彩装饰物
crimson: 深红色的
fawn: 浅黄褐色
counterpane: 床单, 床罩

yoyo530521

support

Sylvia_scj

Thank you a lot.

Sylvia_scj

This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchens; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered. The housemaid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe from the mirrors and the furniture a week's quiet dust; and Mrs. Reed herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last words lies the secret of the red-room -- the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur.
divers: 种种的
parchment: 羊皮纸

Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker's men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion.
undertaker's 殡葬所
consecration: 供献, 奉献, 献祭仪式

My seat, to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left me riveted, was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece; the bed rose before me; to my right hand there was the high, dark wardrobe, with subdued, broken reflections varying the gloss of its panels; to my left were the muffled windows; a great looking-glass between them repeated the vacant majesty of the bed and room. I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and, when I dared move, I got up and went to see. Alas, yes! no jail was ever more secure. Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real fairy, half imp, Bessie's evening stories represented as coming out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to my stool.
rivet: 使固定，使牢固
ottoman: （无靠背、无扶手的）长软椅
chimney piece: 壁炉架
subdued: 柔和的
looking-glass: 镜子
speck: 用斑点标记
imp: 小鬼
ferny: 蕨类的
dell: (两边有树的)小谷, 小溪谷, 幽谷
belated: 天已暗了的, (旅客等)天色已晚仍在赶路的
        The belated travellers lost their way in the forest.
                天色已晚尚在赶路的旅行者们在森林中迷了路。

Sylvia_scj

Superstition was with me at that moment: but it was not yet her hour for complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present.
All John Reed's violent tyrannies, all his sisters' proud indifference, all his mother's aversion, all the servant's partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned?
Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one's favour? Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks, and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. John no one thwarted, much less punished, though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little peachicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory; he called his mother "old girl", too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not infrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still "her own darling." I dared commit no fault; I strove to fulfil every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.
quail: 感到恐惧, 畏缩
turbid: 混浊的, 脏的 turbid water: 混浊的水
browbeat: 威胁，恐吓
headstrong:  顽固的, 刚愎的, 任性的
captious: 吹毛求疵的, 挑剔的
insolent: 傲慢无礼的, 蛮横的, 粗野的; 目空一切的
carriage: 体态, 姿态, 举止, 风度 She has a graceful carriage. 她举止优雅。
indemnity:  补偿
thwart: 反对; 阻挠
peachick: 孔雀的雏鸟
conservatory: 温室
revile: 谩骂，辱骂
attire: 服装
term: 把…称为, 叫做

DZ

term也有"把…称为, 叫做"的意思啊

Sylvia_scj

Yes, exactly.

XKC81579859

oh

Sylvia_scj

My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received; no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert further irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium.
wantonly: 放纵地, 肆无忌惮地
opprobrium: 非难; 诽谤

"Unjust! --unjust!" said my reason, forced by the agonizing stimulus into precocious though transitory power; and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression --as running away, or if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.
precocious: 早熟的
transitory: 短暂的
get wrought up 激动起来, 被激怒
instigate: 鼓动]
expedient: 权宜之计，应急手段
insupportable: 不能忍受的；不能容忍的

What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question--why I thus suffered; now, at the distance of --I will not say how many years--I see it clearly.
consternation: 惊惶失措
tumult: 混乱
insurrection: 起义, 叛乱, 造反

I was a discord in Gatehead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage. If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathize with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest, or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of indignation at their treatment, of contempt of their judgement. I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child--though equally dependent and friendless--Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery.
heterogeneous: 异类的：完全不同的；不一致的
propensity: 倾向，特性
romping: 嬉戏喧闹的, 乱蹦乱闹的
cordiality: 诚实, 诚恳
be less prone to: 不致老是...
scapegoat: 替罪羊

Sylvia_scj

Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o'clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so: what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him, but I knew that he was my own uncle -- my mother's brother -- that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her: but how could she really like an interloper, not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband's death, by any tie? It must have been most irksome to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien permanently intruded on her own family group.
grove: 小树林
by degrees: 逐渐地
forlorn: 孤独凄凉的
ember: 灰烬, 余烬
ire: 忿怒
vault: 墓穴，墓室
chancel: 教堂高坛
bourne: 目的地
interloper: 闯入者
irksome: 令人厌恶的, 讨厌的, 令人厌烦的
uncongenial: 志趣不相投的

Sylvia_scj

A singular notion dawned upon me. I doubeted not -- never doubted -- that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I sat looking at the white bed and over-shadowed walls -- occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaming mirror -- I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed's spirit, harassed by the wrongs of his siter's child, might quit its abode -- whether in the church vault or in the unknown world of the departed -- and rise before me in this chamber. I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity. This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be terrible if realized: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it -- I endeavored to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room; at this moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head. I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn; but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the outer passage; the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.
perjured: 发假誓的, 作伪证的
harass: 折磨; 使烦恼
abode: 住所, 住处
the departed:  死者
hush: 使平静；抚慰
preternatural: 超自然的; 奇异的, 不可思议的
elicit: 诱出，引出
halo: 使有晕轮, 围以光环
stifle: 阻止或抑制；压制]
aperture: 孔, 穴, 缝隙
conjecture: .推测, 猜想
suffocate: 使窒息, 噎住

Sylvia_scj

"Miss Eyre, are you ill?" said Bessie.
"What a dreadful noise! It went quite through me!" exclaimed Abbot.
"Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!" was my cry.
"What for? Are you hurt? Have you seen something?" again demanded Bessie.
"Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come. " I had now got hold of Bessie's hand, and she did not snatch it from me.
"She has screamed out on purpose," declared Abbot, in some disgust. "And what a scream! If she had been in great pain one would have excused it, but she only wanted to bring us all here; I know her naughty tricks."
"What is all this?" demanded another voice peremptorily; and Mrs. Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling stormily. "Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be left in the red-room till I came to her myself."
"Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma'am," pleaded Bessie.
"Let her go," was the only answer. "Loose Bessie's hands, child: you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer; you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then."
"Oh, aunt! Have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it -- let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if -- "
"Silence! This violence is almost repulsive";  and so, no doubt, she felt it. I was a precocious actress in her eyes: she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.
Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without further parley. I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene.
peremptorily: 紧急地, 不容分说地, 专横地
artifice: 诡计
precocious: 早熟的
duplicity: 不诚实, 表里不一
parley: (尤指与敌方)会谈, 谈判
fit:  痉挛

This is the end of chapter 2.

Sylvia_scj

The next thing I remember is waking up with a feeling as if I had had a frightful nightmare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed with thick black bars. I heard voices, too, speaking with a hollow sound, and as if muffled by a rush of wind or water: agitation, uncertainty, and an all-predominating sense of terror confused my faculties. Ere long, I became aware that some one was handling me; lifting me up and supporting me in a sittting posture, and that more tenderly than I had ever been raised or upheld before. I rested my head against a pillow or an arm, and felt easy.
In five minutes more the cloud of bewilderment dissolved: I knew quite well that I was in my own bed, and that the red glare was the nursery fire. It was night: a candle burnt on the table: Bessie stood at the bed-foot with a basin in her hand, and a gentleman sat in a chair near my pillow, leaning over me.
I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing conviction of protection and security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, an individual not belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed. Turning from Bessie (though her presence was far less obnoxious to me than that of Abbot, for instance, would have been), I scrutinized the face of the gentleman: I knew him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed when the servants were ailing: for herself and the children she employed a physician.
obnoxious: 不愉快的, 讨厌的
scrutinize: 细看，仔细检查
apothecary: 药剂师

"Well, who am I ?" he asked.
I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: he took it, smiling and saying, "We shall do very well by and by." Then he laid me down, and addressing Bessie, charged her to be very careful that I was not disturbed during the night. Having given some further directions, and intimated that he should call again the next day, he departed, to my grief: I felt so sheltered and befriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and as he closed the door after him, all the room darkened and my heart again sank: inexpressible sadness weighed it down.
"Do you feel as if you should sleep, miss?" asked Bessie, rather softly.
Scarcely dared I answer her; for I feared the next sentence might be rough. "I will try."
"Would you like to drink, or could you eat anything?"
"No, thank you, Bessie."
"Then I think I shall go to bed, for it is past twelve o'clock; but you may call me if you want anything in the night."
Wonderful civility this! It emboldened me to ask a question.
"Bessie, what is the matter with me? Am I ill?"
"You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you'll be better soon, no doubt."
embolden: 使大胆, 使有胆量, 使勇敢

Bessie went into the housemaid's apartment which was near. I heard her say,--
"Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I daren't for my life be alone with that poor child tonight; she might die; it's such a stange thing she should have that fit: I wonder if she saw anything. Missis was rather too hard."
Sarah came back with her; they both went to bed; they were whispering together for half an hour before they fell asleep. I caught scraps of their conversation, from which I was able only too distinctly to infer the main subject discussed.
"Something passed her, all dressed in white, and vanished" -- "A great black dog behind him" -- "Three loud raps on the chamber door" -- "A light in the churchyard just over his grave" -- &c., &c.

[ 本帖最后由 Sylvia_scj 于 2008-3-1 12:05 PM 编辑 ]

Sylvia_scj

At last both slept: the fire and the candle went out. For me, the watches of that long night passed in ghastly wakefulness; ear, eye, and mind were alike strained by dread, such dread as children only can feel.
No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, on which I feel the reverberation to this day. Yes, Mrs. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad propensities.
Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed, and sat wrapped in a shawl by the nursery hearth. I felt physically weak and broken down: but my worst ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind: a wretchedness which kept drawing from me silent tears. No sooner had I wiped one salt drop from my cheek than another followed. Yet I thought I ought to have been happy, for none of the Reeds were there -- they were all gone out in the carriage with their mamma. Abbot, too, was sewing in another room, and Bessie, as she moved hither and thither, putting away toys and arranging drawers, addressed to me every now and then a word of unwonted kindness. This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

Sylvia_scj

Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her a tart on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird of paradise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had been wont to stir in me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; and which plate I had often petitioned to be allowed to take in my hand in order to examine it more closely, but had always hitherto been deemed unworthy of such a privilege. This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it. Vain favour! coming, like most other favours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could not eat the tart: and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded! I put both plate and tart away. 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 wallnooks, 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 Brobdingnag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth's surface, I 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 cornfields 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 hands -- when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find -- all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies 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.
tart: 果馅饼, 小烘饼
bird of paradise: 极乐鸟
petition: 请求, 恳求
cordially: 诚挚地
deferred: 延缓的
plumage: 鸟类羽毛, 翅膀
peruse: 细读
foxglove: [植]毛地黄
bell: 花冠
ivy: [植]常春藤
mantle: 覆盖
wallnook: 墙的角落
Lilliput: 小人国（英国作家Jonathan Swift所著小说《格列佛游记》[1726年]中的假想国, 其居民身高仅6英寸左右）
Brobdingnag: (格列佛游记中的)大人国
diminutive: 小的
mastiff: 獒犬，大驯犬
eerie: 怪诞的, 可怕的, 不安的, 奇异的
gaunt: 憔悴的
goblin: 妖怪
pigmy: 矮人, 侏儒