Lowood was a boarding school for young ladies. She was sent there by Mrs Reed with the influence of Mr Brocklehurst, who Jane feared from the first meeting and dreaded meeting again. The name ‘Lowood’ has quite a lot of significance to it as ‘Lo’ symbolises Jane’s feelings throughout her stay there. She felt undermined, and was restricted in the sense of happiness. ‘Wood’ symbolises the basics of her development. Also relates to Trees, as they take years of experience to develop as Jane will continue to do throughout Lowood and years afterwards. There is also another example of pathetic fallacy. ‘Rain, wind and darkness filled the air’ this example is used to foresee the coming events, as the first few events at Lowood dishearten Jane just as the weather is doing so. At Lowood Jane met Miss Temple who became her motherly figure, who was also religious, and possessed Great Spirit and strength. Miss Temple’s name symbolises her character. As she is not only religious, and spiritual she is also like the Holy mother, this is indicated by her first name ‘Maria’ which is transformed from ‘Mary’. Who is known to be the holy mother and filled with great compassion. Jane sees Miss temple as her role model, she also encouraged Jane to develop her intellectuality.
‘…she had stood by me in the stead of a mother, governess and latterly, companion’.
Jane also meets Helen Burns who also is a role model to Jane. She first notices her, when witnessing her resistance when being unfairly shouted at. Jane finds this highly strange, as even she knew that Helen was treated unjustly. Jane is automatically drawn to this extraordinary girl. In their early conversation, Helen tells Jane that she is going by the teachings of Jesus Christ and advises her to read the New Testament. And adapt the way of Christ.
‘…Observe what Christ says, and how he acts; make his word your rule and his conduct your example’.
It then becomes clear to Jane how Helen resists the constant verbal abuse. Jane finds a comforting friend in Helen, as she does Jane they grow to love and support each other in any situation. Jane also meets Mr Brocklehurst, who managed to humiliate her, and brand her the ‘devils child’. In their meeting, He preaches a doctrine on vanity, and how Christianity’s teaches girls to be brought up with ‘shame-facedness and sobriety’. This shows that he is a social hypocrite as soon after the lecture, the ladies of his family enter the class in expensive silks and velvets and each ones hair elaborately curled.
Jane’s developed further as a person when she went to Lowood. She learned to love; both to give and receive through Helen Burns and she also gained a mother figure in Miss temple. Jane found that there can many different sides of religion, and how people use it. Mr Brocklehurst preached religion, as if it was merely a test which would be passed only if you starved your soul of happiness, and contentment. Jane also learnt that he was a social hypocrite, which was reflected in how he displayed religion to be. Miss temple was compassionate, and believed religion was a guideline to how life was to be lived. Jane not only left Lowood as an intellectual, but left with respect of the two years spent teaching as well as learning for six. On her departure, Jane evaluated her own self as content.
‘…I was quiet, I believed I was content; to the eyes of others, usually even to my own, I appeared a disciplined and subdued character’.
In the opening of the next chapter, Charlotte Bronte describes a new chapter being like a new scene of a play. This gives the reader the impression that the next destination will be a whole knew twist in Jane’s life. Jane travels to Thornfield, as a governess to Adele Varens. The name ‘Thornfield’ has significance to it, as beneath the surface appearances, it is a field of thorns. Jane is surprised with the hospitality she is received with when she meets Mrs Fairfax; the manager and house keeper. As most governesses in them days were treated almost as servants, due to the importance of social class in the eighteenth century, social class is also one of the many themes throughout the book. Jane is told that her employer is not Mrs Fairfax but Mr Edward Rochester. She is not told much about him by Mrs Fairfax and is left wondering. Mrs Fairfax is a kind, hospitable and quite reserved in the sense that she is not one to elaborate on events, matters or people and is particularly solemn. Jane soon becomes comfortable with her and her pupil Adele Varens; Mr Rochester’s ward. Jane describes Adele to have been a little quiet at first but soon warmed up to her. She enjoys teaching her as she feels Adele’s eager to please trait inspiring and they both enjoy each others company. Mr Rochester soon visits Thornfield Hall and Jane evaluates him to be a ‘changeful and abrupt’ man. Her opinion of him soon changes as she begins to fall in love with him. One of the events that trigger their feelings for each other is the fire, in which during the night Jane saved his life. It was then where she became drawn to him and him to her. As their meetings became frequent, they grow to love each other unknowingly. The mood of the book begins to change and it is reflected in the weather ‘…skies so pure, suns so radiant’. When Jane begins to receive love from Rochester she feels so much happiness she feels as if she does not deserve it, as if it was a kind of fairytale.
‘I was not burn for a different destiny to the rest of my species; to imagine such a lot befalling me is a fairy tale-a day dream’.
Although this soon changed, on the day of the marriage Jane discovers of Bertha Rochester: his wife who still lived in the attic of Thornfield Hall. Jane is taken to the attic by Mr Rochester who asks the two men who revealed of Bertha to compare Jane and Bertha.
‘Compare these clear eyes (Jane) with the red balls yonder (Bertha), this face with that mask, this form with that bulk’.
After this incident everyone left and Jane retreated to her room, she neither cried nor felt the need to mourn, she simply changed out of her clothing and replaces it with her black stuff dress. Although Jane did question herself of what she was to do, where was she supposed to go? Before she leaves, she speaks to Rochester, and tells him of her plans to leave Thornfield. He agrees to leave with her, but she refuses and declares she must leave on her own. Jane leaves early the next morning taking the little amount of money with her, and taking along her memories and her unrequited love for Rochester with her.
Jane faced many different events at Thornfield, some good, some not. Jane had never felt as content as she did in Hopfield. She gained true love and happiness in form of Rochester although it did turn out as she wanted it to. She never thought Rochester would have felt the same way as she did, and was thrilled that he was. Mr Rochester was a great development to Jane’s character, he taught her to love, and changed her outlook on life. She began to realise that life has its peaks and it has its puddles. Although Jane never got round to marrying him then, she still loved him just as much when she left. Jane left Thornfield as she felt she had become a slave to her own feelings and her love for Rochester.
Jane did not know where to go after leaving Thornfield. She went as far as her money could take her, which in this case was Whitcross. Jane spent many days wandering the streets, finding different places to sleep at night, whether it was in someone’s barn or under a tree somewhere. Jane soon reached her last morsel of strength and collapsed on the doorstep of the Rivers after being refused to be let in. St. John Rivers soon arrives at the door and orders the maid; Hannah to let her in, Jane informs them that her name is Jane Elliot and that she is far too famished to answer any more questions. St. John River’s name symbolises his ambition to put out the fires of peoples passion, as he considers it to be a sin. Jane recovers after 3 days of sleep, and realises that the Rivers will have many questions waiting to be answered. Jane answers their many questions and informs Mary and Diana Rivers of her real name. They soon become friends, and St. John offers Jane a job as a teacher in a charity school. Jane unhesitantly agrees and is also given a cottage by the wealthy heiress Rosamund Oliver. Over some time Jane begins to find her work unrewarding disappointing but continues working there anyway. Jane also begins to suffer from insomnia, because of the recurring nightmares she keeps having about Rochester, which usually disturbs the day ahead of her. But, still meanwhile Jane begins to feel more accustomed to St. John and surprisingly the school as well. As time progresses Jane’s students become to be more endeared to her which instantly raises Jane’s morale to work. Just as Jane starts to settle, she is informed by St. John Rivers that she has inherited a sum of twenty thousand pounds by her uncle John Eyre and also finds out the River family are her cousins and is overwhelmed by the thought that the people who brought her off the street were her relations. This fills Jane with an element of contentment, but is soon rather alarmed by St. Johns distance towards her, and is puzzled of his attitude towards her. Although this does not stop him ordering her around, this becomes increasingly frequent much to Jane’s discomfort. She gradually comes to feel perpetually sad and empty due to his ordering around of her. Soon afterwards, St. John asked Jane to marry him to carry out missionary work in India.
‘Jane, come with me to India: Come as my helpmeet and fellow-labourer’.
He also tells her he is not marrying her for his pleasure but for his ‘sovereign’s service’. Jane tells him that she cannot, and she is not fit for it. He questions her faith and asks if she is willing to sacrifice her happiness for God.
Moorhouse was a strange and different scene for Jane. There, she found contentment, along with the sadness. At first she saw Moorhouse as an escape, as her own personal sanctuary. This was later crumbled by the misjudged demands from St. John. Jane always wanted to please him; this resulted in her obeying his every demand. Even though she was sad and felt exploited, she continued to fulfil his wishes. Except when it came to him asking her to marry him in order for her to go India with him. Jane realised that he was asking her to marry him for all the wrong reasons. For her to accept his proposal would mean she was being untrue to her own beliefs. Jane realised what a dangerous influence St. John is on her. His demands of her sacrificing her beliefs for moral and religious reasons is contradictory to her own, let alone the ones of religion. St. Johns ideas of religion were different to Helen Burns forbearing approach or Mr Brocklehurst's hypocrisy. St John ideology of religion was selfless but still ambitious. He felt his existence was for the sole purpose of serving God even if it conflicted with his or his surrounding friends and family’s beliefs. Which made is idea of religion like Mr Brocklehurst’s but not in the sense of how he sees it, but it proved just as destructive. At Moorhouse, Jane discovered relations she never had, which caused her more contentment than inheriting a large sum of money. Jane also realised that the grief caused in her life in the past was due to her being untrue to her beliefs and not following her heart as well as her mind.
In total conclusion, all of the settings Jane Eyre was accustomed to throughout the book, were an addition to her development. In each place she learnt something about herself. From Gateshead to Moorhouse, it was only at Ferndean where she put into account who she was, in order to live a peaceful, undisturbed life with the man she loved. After leaving Moorhouse, Jane returned to Thornfield having heard Rochester call out to her, she returned only to find Thornfield hall in ruins. Not only did it kill Bertha Mason, but also the memories locked up inside the hall. Jane felt that now Bertha being gone symbolised her past to be forgotten. The memories that were burnt down left Jane with the experience of learning about herself. The end of the book, is Jane telling the reader that you do not as a woman have to sacrifice what you believe in, in order to be happy with a man who should respect your beliefs even if they aren’t his.
