Jane does experience humiliation and deep sorrow at Lowood, when Mr Brocklehurst stands her on a stool because she broke her writing slate, and when her friend Helen Burns dies. I still think she is considerably happier here than at Gateshead. Although, by the age of 18, Jane feels she must break
free of Lowood, and this brings her to Thornfield hall.
There are many cases of imprisonment in Thornfield hall, such as the imprisonment experienced by Adele, Grace Poole, and Bertha Mason. Jane herself experiences a sense of no freedom when she is at Thornfield and Mr Rochester has guests. When Blanche Ingram is being snobbish towards her Jane is under strict orders from Mr Rochester to remain in her presence.
I think that if Jane had felt imprisoned and wanted to leave Thornfield, she would have stayed, because of Adele and Mr Rochester.
Adele is Mr Rochester’s ward, and she doesn’t have the choice to come and go as she pleases either. She has been in Thornfield for as long as she can remember, similar to Jane, only Adele is treated much better.
Grace Poole looks after Bertha Mason, and must keep her under a watchful eye at all times. If she takes a break the consequence is an escaped and dangerous lunatic. It is hard on her to constantly keep and eye on Bertha; she isn’t much company and can be quite aggressive. Grace Poole is a prisoner from the outside, normal world, and must be locked in an attic, although it is her own will.
Jane is not only imprisoned in the places she stays in, but in the era of time in which she lives. The fact that she is a woman imprisons her. "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags" (Chapter 12). Jane thinks this as she looks out of the third story at the view from Thornfield, wishing she could see and interact with more of the world.
Bertha Mason is both physically and mentally imprisoned. She is kept on a secluded 3rd floor of Thornfield Hall, and is never allowed free. She cannot be let loose for her and others safety. In Victorian times, the views on insanity were taken lightly. The likes of Bertha Mason, an upper class lunatic, would have the option to be looked after in a house such as Thornfield, or be sent to a home for the mental. She is given no psychiatric help, and so has no hope. Even Bertha’s living quarters are like a prison, 'two rows of small black doors, all shut, like a corridor in some Bluebeard's castle' (chap. 11)
Once Jane leaves Thornfield after the tragic almost-marriage, she finds herself in the company of St. John Rivers. St. John Rivers is imprisoned in a situation. He wants to be in a foreign country as a missionary. He lives with his two sisters, and is quite unhappy living his boring life. His sisters are his only close company which can also make him feel imprisoned.
Jane experiences imprisonment while staying with St. John. She is unhappy and has a longing for Mr Rochester, although, she can leave St. John Rivers if she pleases. She conceals her unhappiness from him, which could make her feel even more imprisoned.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rochester has tragically turned blind. He is now a prisoner in his own state of appearance, which holds him back from doing lots of things, e.g. seeing the world as he‘d planned, or seeing, at all. This imprisons him in the house, and he can’t move very far without assistance. He is also deeply saddened on the inside, and without Jane, he feels trapped.
Also, Adele had been sent to a boarding school and was feeling unhappy and trapped, as these weren’t her surroundings. She might feel imprisoned as Jane did in Lowood.
All in all, Imprisonment plays a very frequent role in the book. Almost every main character experiences it, but none as much as Jane Eyre herself.
