Jane Eyre Foil Essay

Jane Eyre’s second home at Lowood spans a period of eight years during the beginning of which she continues to face an inner battle between passion and reason. Still a young girl, Jane is unable to comprehend the lack for insubordination. This perpetuates when Mr. Brocklehurst denounces her in front of the school:

leaving her into the care of her Aunt, Mrs Reed. Mrs Reed is a widow

In the novel, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre has the option of either marrying Rochester or St. John Rivers. Rochester and St. John Rivers are foils, however they do share some characteristics. Both Rochester and St. John Rivers have many strengths and weaknesses that influence Jane Eyre’s choice of whom she shall marry.

Helen Burns is Jane’s best friend at Lowood Institute. Helen is extremely patient, forgiving and wise, but her most important aspect is her devout religious faith. Even when Helen is being chastised and physically beaten in school, Helen accepts her punishment with the grace of a martyr. At Lowood when Mr. Brocklehurst orders Jane to stand on a stool while he tells the school that she is a liar, Jane was there ashamed, embarrassed and in massive anger. Five o’clock stuck; school was dismissed and all were gone into the refectory to drink tea.

Chapter seven sees Jane slightly more experienced to the ways of Lowood School. She has come to accept the poor conditions laid down by Mr. Brocklehurst, however has not yet learnt to ignore them and Bronte describes Jane suffering a lot in this chapter. This lack of food and appalling living conditions are down to the head of the school, Mr. Brocklehurst. This man uses his apparent strong beliefs in Christianity as an excuse to provide the children of Lowood with the absolute bare minimum. Brocklehurst claims his “mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh”, presenting the idea that perhaps Brocklehurst is simply a man that has a immensely firm grasp of his

While Brocklehurst is too severe, Helen Burns’ submissive and patient mode of Christianity, on the other hand, is too passive for Jane to adopt as her own, although she loves and admires Helen for

Jane Eyre Jane Eyre is a young woman in her late teens and early 20s. She is described as plain, with brown hair that she usually keeps pulled back in a bun, and green eyes. She is very petite, with an “elfin” look. She dresses very plainly, in black and grey dresses with no decoration.

Reed did not want to take care of her anymore. However, Jane was happy that she could leave her aunt and hoped that she would start a better life from now on. Jane hoped that maybe she would able to find freedom in Lowood. Little did she know, she would not have a good time there because Lowood is just like another prison under the control of Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane was destined to be misjudged at Lowood. Mr. Brocklehurst told everyone that, “for it becomes my duty to warn you, that this girl, who might be one of God's own lambs, is a little castaway: not a member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien. You must be on your guard against her; you must shun her example; if necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports, and shut her out from your converse” (64). Lowood Institute was just as dark and gloomy as Gateshead. After eight years in Lowood, six years as a student and two years as a teacher, Jane built defense for the inequality around her. Jane is constrained throughout this experience through the way she has to act, look, and speak. Lowood helped intensify Jane's yearning for the ability to control her own life, and not to be restricted by the rules of society. Jane does not let Mr. Brocklehurst take her desire of learning and pursuing a new life for herself, which makes Jane successful on pushing out of the imprisonment of

has a soft spot for Helen Burns and appears to be one of the strongest

When Jane is sent to Lowood (an all girl's school), she finds the first true love shown by an adult. Miss Temple, the school's superintendent) treats all of the girls with extreme kindness and gentleness. When the girl's breakfast is burned, she arranges for them to have the luxury of white bread and cheese to make up for it. Also, even while some of the other teachers like Miss Scatcherd and even the school's headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst, are mean to the girls, she is always there for them with a hug and a smile. When Helen falls deathly ill, Jane sees how motherly and unfaltering Miss Temple is towards Helen. Another character who shows Jane love at Lowood is Helen herself. She is the first person Jane's age who is nice to her. Jane grew up with the Reed children's spiteful actions and attitudes toward her and never experienced a peer's kindness until she met Helen.

Jane Eyre had a troubled childhood, wrought with hunger, cold, and everything the opposite of love. Living with her uncle’s wife, an unkind woman who disliked her very much, Jane was not happy. The children there were cruel, and punishments were severe. When, as a ten-year old, she was transferred to lowwood school, she was glad to go. It turned out to be just as miserable, or worse, than her life before.

The idea of governess extended until the nineteenth century. The Victorian women, especially the Bronte sisters, Charlotte and Anne, experienced the occupation of a governess. Their impressions were negative because of the poor condition, bad treatment, and low wage of a governess during the Victorian era. According to Gilbert, Anne endured in the governess’s job for six years while Charlotte shortened it to two years. Charlotte wrote in a letter to her sister Emily, “I can now see more clearly than I have ever done before that a private governess has no existence, is not considered as a living and rational being, except as connected with the wearisome duties she has to fulfill”(qtd. in Heyck, 203). Charlotte transfers her negative views of the governess’s status in English society through her literary work Jane Eyre. She portrays the poor conditions and bad treatments of the private school that Jane attends. In Lowood School, Jane spends eight years before she accepts an offer of becoming a governess and starting her financial dependence. Mr. Brocklehurst who is the headmaster of Lowood School keeps the girls hungry and cold. Also, he treats the girls very badly by punishing them. One of the problems that children from working and middle class face in schools, rather than the social distinction, is the physical punishment. In “Aspects of Neglect: The Strange Case of Victorian Popular Education,” Harold Silver investigates about the “corporal punishment” that is used in

During the scenes at Lowood Academy, Brontë compares Jane's strong personality to the reserved and submissive Helen Burns.  The teachers often punish Helen excessively, yet she never once objects or even questions their discipline.  When Jane asks her about this self-discipline, Helen simply explains that it is her "duty" to bear the punishment submissively (58).  Although Helen's "proper" female behavior does not entirely

The major criticisms of the novel in question to be the melodrama used by the author and the wickedness of character shown in Jane and Mr. Rochester. While most critics admired the style of writing and truth of character portrayal, they did not admire the improbability of circumstances or the characters portrayed.

One could look through the enticing piece of literature that is Jane Eyre through a variety of lenses, two significant lenses being mythological and autobiographical. Charlotte Bronte creates an imaginative plot line that encaptures her readers and contributes to the essence of her work as a whole. Bronte combines the lenses of mythology and autobiography not only to appeal to her readers but to balance out the fairy-tale like events with realistic and real-life issues.