Setting

• Lowood itself is based off a real school Bronte attended with her sisters, one where her sister Maria caught tuberculosis and died.

• This school was Cowan Bridge school, and Mr Brocklehurst directly based on it’s headmaster.

• This school was founded during the charity school movement, which began in the late 17th century.

• Education was intended to instil religious values in children, and was mainly funded through philanthropists and reformers.

• These schools followed similar curriculum, which were based on gender, girls usually only learning reading, needlework and singing. Although some schools did offer writing and arithmetic, this was based on the founder’s principles.

• This teaching may have been done in institutions similar to Lowood, but also Sunday schools, orphanages or village schools (such as the one that Jane runs later in the book).

Themes

Abuse

While abuse in Lowood is not physical as Jane faced in Gateshead, it is equally damaging.

• ‘silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear‘ - Helen believes you should endure suffering instead of causing more fuss. She also states that suffering is fate, and therefore cannot be avoided. This is due to her religious beliefs that God only allows people to suffer as much as they can bare.

• ‘I must resist those who punish me unjustly‘ - Jane believes you must act out and rebel against those who treat her badly, something Helen disagrees with. This shows her passion against injustice, and how she represents fire while Helen represents cold.

• ‘she dislikes your cast of character‘ - Helen gives justification for Mrs Reed’s abuse, showing that this is her defense mechanism for the abuse she endures. It also shows how mature Helen is, that she does not leap to agree with Jane.

Fire and ice/ pathetic fallacy

Fire and ice is mainly used to highlight the differences between Jane and other characters. In this part, Helen is representative of ice and Jane of fire. Helen effectively cools Jane down from her passion of rebelling. Pathetic fallacy is also used throughout the novel.

• ‘Rain, wind and darkness filled the air‘ - this is the weather that Jane is greeted by upon entering, foreshadowing what she is about to experience in Lowood. This can represent the abuse she and Helen faced and the illness that kills Helen and many other girls.

• ‘burning glasses against my scorched skin' - her scorched skin is representative of the fury Jane has inside her, and how it has burnt her. Burning glasses shows the pain she feels at others glares, as they are reflections of herself.

• 'left in my natural element' - Jane's natural disposition is fire/ anger, and she will revert to it without help from others, such as Miss Temple and Helen. This shows them as ice, as they are colling influences on her life.

Supernatural

• ‘a kind fairy‘ - Jane believes her ideas can only come from some higher power or intervention. Describes herself as supernatural, same as Rochester.

Social class/inferiority

Most inferiority in this section is the comparisons of Brocklehurst and his family to the workers and children in Lowood.

• ‘pronounced sentence‘ - he is the judge of the school who gives sentences, in charge. This is a role only God should fufill, therefore he sees himself on this level.

Gender roles/sexism

Most sexism in this section links to religion and its view of how women should behave

• ‘almost worthy of such a wife‘ - this line was considered controversial, as men could not be less worthy than women.

Bird/gothic imagery

• ‘I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer’ - Jane is like a bird, she desires freedom from routine and an escape from her normal life.

Religion

Helen is a representative of kind Christianity, while Brocklehurst represents evangelical Christianity.

• ‘do good to them that hate you‘ - Helen believes you should people with kindness no matter what, as that is what Jesus said in the Bible. This is why Jane forgives those who harm her later in life, such as Mrs Reed and John Rivers. It is also the reason she forgives Rochester’s sins.

• ‘you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls‘ - allowing the children to be well-fed and cared for makes them evil and likely to go to hell as they become selfish if fufilled.

• ‘Where is God? What is God?‘ - Jane is able to understand God as she cannot see his influence, and has only ever experienced bad religion. The loss of her closest friend makes God even harder to comprehend.

• ‘count the hours till that eventful one arrives which hall restore me to Him‘ - She says this on her deathed with Jane. Helen is waiting for death, and excited to see God.

Motherhood/family

Miss Temple presents as a mother figure for Jane, and Helen as a sister.

• ‘God bless you, my children‘ - views Jane and Helen as her children due to her love for them.

• ‘the stead of mother, governess, and, latterly, companion.‘ - Jane acknowledges Miss Temple’s role in her life, and shows that she is her inspiration for becoming a governess. It also shows Jane’s lack of a mother figure and other friends.

Characters

Brocklehurst

• ‘pronounced sentence‘ - he is the judge of the school who gives sentences, in charge. This is a role only God should fufill, therefore he sees himself on this level.

• ‘you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls‘ - Brocklehurst believes children should suffer in order to go to heaven. Allowing the children to be well-fed and cared for makes them evil and likely to go to hell as they become selfish if fufilled.

Helen Burns

• ‘silly to say you cannot bear it is your fate to be required to bear‘ - She also states that suffering is fate, and therefore cannot be avoided. This is due to her religious beliefs that God only allows people to suffer as much as they can bare.

• ‘she dislikes your cast of character‘ - Helen gives justification for Mrs Reed’s abuse, showing that this is her defense mechanism for the abuse she endures. It also shows how mature Helen is, that she does not leap to agree with Jane.

• ‘do good to them that hate you‘ - Helen believes you should people with kindness no matter what, as that is what Jesus said in the Bible. This is why Jane forgives those who harm her later in life, such as Mrs Reed and John Rivers. It is also the reason she forgives Rochester’s sins.

Jane Eyre

• ‘I must resist those who punish me unjustly‘ - Jane believes you must act out and rebel against those who treat her badly, something Helen disagrees with. This shows her passion against injustice, and how she represents fire while Helen represents cold.

• ‘Where is God? What is God?‘ - Jane is able to understand God as she cannot see his influence, and has only ever experienced bad religion. The loss of her closest friend makes God even harder to comprehend.

• ‘I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer’ - Jane is like a bird, she desires freedom from routine and an escape from her normal life.

• ‘a kind fairy‘ - Jane believes her ideas can only come from some higher power or intervention. Describes herself as supernatural, same as Rochester.

• ‘burning glasses against my scorched skin' - her scorched skin is representative of the fury Jane has inside her, and how it has burnt her. Burning glasses shows the pain she feels at others glares, as they are reflections of herself.

• 'left in my natural element' - Jane's natural disposition is fire - anger, and she will revert to it without help from others, such as Miss Temple and Helen.

Miss Temple

• ‘God bless you, my children‘ - Miss Temple views Jane and Helen as her children due to her love for them.

• ‘the stead of mother, governess, and, latterly, companion.‘ - Jane acknowledges Miss Temple’s role in her life, and shows that she is her inspiration for becoming a governess. It also shows Jane’s lack of a mother figure and other friends.