Can't bury these tales: Canterbury Tales & Jane Eyre

2. How would you best describe the central idea of this chapter? Which phrase from the chapter best helps develop the central idea? 

In Chapter 7 of Jane Eyre, the author portrayed Jane in Lowood, which was a Christian boarding school. The girls were having a hard time while living in Lowood, as they were mistreated by the supervisor of the boarding school for the orphaned girls, Mr. Brocklehurst, who was depicted as an antagonist and a hypocrite by Charlotte Bronte. The author often showed that Mr. Brocklehurst tried to manipulate the girls and the ladies who run the orphanage by using the influence of Christianity. Through it, we can see that the reference to Christianity was just a reason for Mr. Brocklehurst to be able to practice his ideas/beliefs (or in fact, his lies) on the girls, who were in no positions to oppose him. Despite knowing the conditions that the girls had to go through hardships (such as not having enough food to eat that caused malnutrition, not having enough proper clothes for the cold weather, and most important is that they did not have basic necessities provided), Mr.Brocklehurst wanted them to sacrifice as of God's sake, and as if them being suffered is really important to Christianity. 

The central idea of this chapter is to emphasize how the religious belief was taught wrongly  and how it was used as a tool to manipulate the people, but not essentially a belief. We could see that Mr. Brocklehurst took advantage on the girls who had learned that God sacrificed himself for them, therefore they would also need to sacrifice themselves for God. We also learned about  his shameless hypocrisy as he told the school that Jane was a liar, meanwhile he was the biggest liar of all. The phrase that best helps develop the central idea was: "A brief address on those occasions would not be mistimed, wherein a judicious instructor would take the opportunity of referring to the sufferings of the primitive Christians; to the torments of martyrs; to the exhortations of our blessed Lord Himself, calling upon His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him; to His warnings that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God; to His divine consolations, "If ye suffer hunger or thirst for My sake, happy are ye."" This quote portrayed the lecture of Mr.Broklehurst as he was saying that the girls' suffering was not at all suffering, but more like sacrificing for God, and that wasconsidered as something they should be honored about. The girls were being controlled like puppets by Mr. Broklehurst as they believed they were following God's words, in fact they were controlled by Mr. Broklehurst, who considered himself as a person that taught God's words. Through these details, the author revealed to us that Mr. Broklehurst was just using Christianity as a device to cover up his lies.