The Importance of Jane's Early Life at Lowood to Shaping Her Character in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

In the novel, ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte, setting is used throughout the novel to illustrate the development in the character. The novel is revolved around five separate locations, ; the Reed family's home at Gateshead, the wretched Lowood School, Rochester's manor, Thornfield, the Rivers family's home at Moor House, and Rochester's rural retreat at Ferndean, these settings all play a very important part in Jane’s life as they all represent the development of Jane’s character and the different period’s of her eventful life.

While Jane goes through a rollercoaster of romantic ideals, Charlotte Bronte reveals that her romanticism more fundamentally affect her own life in the future than even her religious ideals. This is to be expected, as Jane has a very depressing childhood while living with the Reeds and attending Lowood Institute. She makes the transition from Gateshead Hall, to Lowood, to Thornfield Hall, to Moor House, which equate to: Jane’s entrance to the real world (in Gateshead), the rock-bottom of Jane’s life (in Lowood), her encounter with young love (in Thornfield), and where Jane finds what she’s been after: a family (at the Moor House). All of these places come together to form the story of Jane Eyre and how she overcame her hardships to grow up to

Throughout Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre is afflicted with the feud between her moral values, and the way society perceives these notions. Jane ultimately obtains her happy ending, and Brontë’s shrewd denouement of St. John’s fate juxtaposes Jane’s blissful future with St. John’s tragic course of action. When Jane ends up at the Moor House, she is able to discover a nexus of love and family, and by doing so, she no longer feels fettered to Rochester. Moreover, Rochester is no longer Jane’s only form of psychological escape, and thus Jane is in a position to return to him without an aura of discontent. At the end of the novel, Jane is finally able to be irrevocably “blest beyond what language can express” (Brontë 459) because she is “absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh” (459).

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:

A flower stands high in an empty field. It moves with every gust of wind and grows with every sunny day. At a single moment any one of the seven billion people on this Earth could have plucked it from the soil, yet for now, it remains in an upright position. Much like this flower, throughout life people are continuously influenced by those around them. Every person is changed constantly by the people around them, and their future is always altered because of this. In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronté, Jane Eyre is impacted greatly by characters such as Mrs. Reed, Helen Burns, and Mrs. Temple. These characters, just like the flower at mercy its environment, had left a great impact on Jane.

A confidant or a confidante is a supporting character who presents the main character with a sympathetic aid; as writer Henry James wrote, confidants or confidantes can be “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” In the 1847 novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Helen Burns is such the character that provides moral support to the protagonist, Jane Eyre. Through Helen, Brontë presented the protagonist a valuable friendship as well as created a literary foil, or “a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character” (“Foil”). Jane Eyre was orphaned when she was a small child and was taken in by her uncle, who also shortly died as well.

In the early chapters of the novel Jane Eyre, our heroine resides at Gateshead and Lowood school; her character immediately inspires pity from the readers. She is an outcast within her own family, the Reeds, and is considered less than a servant. John Reed bullies her to the extent that she fears him, introducing weakness as one of her character flaws. Jane is somewhat jealous of her cousins’ lack of punishment and condemnation, although she believes they were “not fit to associate with [her]” (Bronte, 35). She feels wrongly accused, leading to a growing bitterness towards those who have treated her so harshly.

Correspondingly, she improves her behaviour by adjusting her approach. Thus, Bronte displays Helen as a Christ-like figure who, while accepting punishment as due diligence for her sins, also inspires Jane to strengthen her spirit against the evils of the world through her mere presence, reminiscent of Christ Himself. Helen has arguably the most significant influence on Jane and her journey at Lowood, as she teaches her to be more accepting and see other ways in which she

I should say I loved you, but I declare I do not love you: I dislike

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, the title character’s journey is full of challenges that shape her development. These are constructed of times spent as four main places; Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, and Ferndean. At Gateshead Jane is too quick-tempered but only to lose her lively spirit at Lowood. At Thornfield she become overly passionate and guided by her emotions but balance is achieved at Ferndean. Jane Eyre becomes as complete character as she learns to find the balance between the intellect and the passions. In doing so, she touches the life of Edward Rochester and in fulling herself helps Rochester humble himself and achieve a perfect balance by example.

While Jane’s time at Gateshead demonstrated her immense sadness, Jane’s time at Thornfield reveals her sadness through depression, as it begins to evolve into anger and an internal struggle. Her correlation with madness and anger begins to appear when she goes into the attic. She states “I climbed the three staircases, raised the trapdoor of the attic, and having reached the leads looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along the dim skyline- that then I longed” (Bronte 114). Jane is trapped inside herself. She longs to escape from her emotions and internal struggles, yet cannot. The attic, the abode of Mr. Rochester’s insane wife, houses Jane’s emotions. She climbs up to the attic and views the world beyond it. She

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is presented in the Victorian Period of England. It is a novel which tells the story of a child's maturation into adulthood. Jane's developing personality has been shaped by her rough childhood. She has been influenced by many people and experiences. As a woman of her time, Jane has had to deal with the strain of physical appearance. This has a great effect on her mental thinking and decision making. Jane Eyre's cognitive and physical attributes have been affected by her environment throughout her life.

All throughout the novel Charlotte Brontë uses her life and what she experienced to influence her novel Jane Eyre. By including similar situations from Brontë’s childhood life and her job as a governess and applying them to Jane Eyre’s life, it gave the novel a more realistic feel. Also by doing this it seems to help Brontë live out some fantasies through Jane that she would have never experienced during her

Discuss Charlotte Bronte’s portrayal of childhood in Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’ was a controversial novel for its time. It traces the heroine from an orphan child to a contented adult woman. Through the trials Jane experiences Brontë highlights many hypocritical aspects of Victorian society, mainly focusing on the religious hypocrisy of the era. Subtitled ‘An Autobiography’, the novel in parts closely resembles Brontë’s own childhood and her evocation of Jane’s experiences of Gateshead and Lowood remain as vivid as ever for the modern reader.

"red room" she is told by Miss Abbot: "No; you are less than a servant