Quote by ''Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre''
''If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from your guilt, you would not be without friends.''

What does the expression ''believed you wicked'' mean in this case?
Is this some kind of grammar construction? (I mean, ''to believe (someone) + an adjective)

Thanks in advance.

Question

Quote by ''Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre''
''If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from your guilt, you would not be without friends.''

What does the expression ''believed you wicked'' mean in this case?
Is this some kind of grammar construction? (I mean, ''to believe (someone) + an adjective)

Thanks in advance.

Answer

"Believed (that) you (were) wicked" - this is how we understand it.

This is not a modern structure for the verb "believe", but we still use this pattern for "consider". We can make a very clear connection.

Answer

Thank you very much, Eric! You really helped me a lot here!

Answer

Like the Gent beneath me, you could substitute really anything there and it would mean that the individual is believed, suspected, perceived... etc. to be that thing.
They believed (perceived as) me (to be) wicked.
The people of the town believed her beneficent.

it all sounds funny though.
That whole passage sounds funny to me, the ending in particular

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