In the critical novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë uses Jane's alienation to highlight the fact that society's values ​​are superficial. Society turns its back on Jane Eyre many times and in many ways. As a young orphan growing up with her extended family, the Reeds, Jane is treated as a burden, as “less than a servant” (7). Her aunt goes so far as to tell Jane's cousins ​​"not to go near her: she is not worthy of notice" (23). Jane is alone, physically separated from the only family she knows simply because she is an addict. Without money of her own, she depends on the charity; his cousin John accuses him of doing nothing to earn a living, “you have no money; your father didn't leave you any; you should beg and not live here, children of gentlemen like us, and eat the same meals as we, and wear clothes at our mother's expense" (5). John presents a direct correlation between his lack of wealth and his contempt It is through these interactions with the Reeds that Jane first learns that poverty is "synonymous with degradation" (20). This lesson is later reiterated when Jane runs away from Thronfield, where she worked as a governess. , and loses the little money she had earned. In a neighboring town, Jane has to resort.