John Reed

St. John Rivers Mrs. Reed is Mrs. Reed's only son, a young man of privilege and property who nevertheless squanders his advantages through weakness of character and dissolution of conduct. In his youth at Gateshead, he is indulged by his mother and allowed to tyrannize over Jane Eyre with impunity. As he matures into adulthood, his weaknesses become increasingly apparent—he falls into debt, becomes entangled with disreputable companions, and descends into habits of excess and moral degradation. His death, which comes under shameful circumstances that his mother only hints at obliquely, represents the tragic waste of privilege and opportunity, and it brings profound distress to Mrs. Reed in her final years.