The slacker's prologue

I looked at the screen, thinking what to do

I had thought aloud: What, tomorrow, was due?

Spanish, Math Sl, and even ToK

So much to do on this lazy Sunday

Then from my pocket my phone vibrated

From Mrs. G: "blog post due" is what it stated

i mumbled some words, too soft to be heard:

To have this much work was very absurd.

Then I remembered the favor Mrs. G had gifted

One word typed and this weight would be lifted!

"Freebie" is what I wrote on my blog

and back to work I went, to continue to slog

5. Reread the following passages and complete the task that follows:

“And, ma’am,” he continued, “the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rules limit them to one.”

“Julia Severn, ma’am! And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly—here in an evangelical, charitable establishment—as to wear her hair one mass of curls?”

“Naturally! Yes, but we are not to conform to nature; I wish these girls to be the children of Grace: and why that abundance? I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow.”

“(T)hree other visitors, ladies, now entered the room. They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs. The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses, elaborately curled; the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls.”

Analyze the author’s use of irony in describing Mr. Brocklehurst’s family in the second passage. How does the author contrast this description with Mr. Brocklehurst’s lecture to Miss Temple to provide social commentary on perceptions of class during this time? 

     In the passage the contrast between the values Mr. Brocklehurst tries to imprint upon the girls and what his family seems to value. Mr. Brocklehurst lectures the girls and Miss Temple about the values they should hold to become "children of grace". He's so stringent in enforcing these values that he sends a child to get their head shaved because her hair is naturally curly. On the other hand his family embodies the opposite of these traits. They walk into the room with their curly hair and elaborate clothing, and act rude to the staff. This is ironic given the fact that Mr. Brocklehurst is giving them a lecture on how they cannot advance in society if they don't act like modest little angles, but here are these rich girls and women walking doing the very things that Mr.Brocklehurst warned them about. 

    The author, Charlotte Brontë, wants to address the discrepancy between what higher class tells the lower what is values to uphold, and what values they actually hold. In layman's terms: Charlotte is telling us that the upper class are a bunch of hypocrites, and that they don't behave much differently than the lower class. By forcing these young girls to adhere to values that they do not even follow Mr. Brocklehurst seems to be misleading them, or at the very least unnecessarily punishing them.