The pupils at Lowood are presented as one big unit much like an army regiment run by Mr Brocklehurst, as they are very uniform and regimented in what they do rather like it has been beaten into them from the moment they got there. They all have to wear the same plain dresses or uniform reinforcing my point about them being a small regiment of the army, but unlike the army the girls aren’t allowed to have their own individuality because if they do they just get beaten like Helen Burns does. Helen Burns is a very wise character in Jane Eyre and has very adult views for a girl of such a young age, she tries to keep every ounce of her independence but she still wants the chance to be educated but conforms to the rules at the same time. By trying to keep her personality she gets beaten by Miss Scatcherd the most horrible teacher at Lowood.
Miss Scatcherd is much like Mr Brocklehurst’s second in command at distributing cruelty, she adds the most harshest of pain to her punishments, and makes them extra cruel. An example of this is on page 56 is when she beats Helen Burns with wooden rods and to add insult to injury she makes Helen fetch them for her and take them away, but Helen makes no deal of it and puts on a brave face for instance “not a feature of her pensive face altered its ordinary expression” (JE:56)
Charlotte Brontë uses juxtaposition to enforce characters different personalities such as Mr Brocklehurst and Miss Temple; she uses it to show the differences between the good cop and the bad cop. When using her juxtaposition to expose characters she uses a lot of irony, for instance with Mr Brocklehurst she says, “Mr Brocklehurst paused again- perhaps overcome by his feelings” (JE:65). With Mr Brocklehurst she uses more irony than with any other character to make the reader more judgemental of him and feel even more sympathy for Jane Eyre. There is a point in the book which is very ironic as Mr Brocklehurst is lecturing Miss Temple about how the girls’ hair should be and his wife and daughters walk in:
“They ought to have come a little sooner to have heard his lecture
on dress for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk and furs”
(JE:67)
“The elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with
ermine and she wore a false front of French curls”
(JE:67)
Through using this irony of Mr Brocklehurst she directly juxtaposes Miss Temple, who is placed on a podium for all to see as the perfect teacher, this maybe a way in which Charlotte wanted to enforce her views on the reader as she is never ironic about Miss Temple but complimentary. She says she is in fashion with her clothing and hair, “was clustered in round curls, according to the fashion of the times” (JE:49) and “her dress, also in the mode of the day” (JE:49). In doing this she reinforces how good and brilliant she is against Mr Brocklehurst, like putting a small person at the feet of a really tall person. Unlike Mr Brocklehurst she sees the good in people like the part in the book when Jane drops her slate and it breaks Miss Temple says “Don’t be afraid, Jane, I saw it was an accident; you shall not be punished”(JE:67). Miss Temple is described as leading by her example something you would never catch Mr Brocklehurst anywhere near, for example “and encouraging us, by precept and example” (JE:63) “March forward” (JE:63) she uses military orders and examples to try and encourage such as the word march is a mainly military command one would give to a private, she then goes on to say “Like stalwart soldiers” (JE:63). Her name is very soothing and religious, “Miss Temple”, and has very angelic features; may there be a link between the two characteristics?
Miss Temple is the only teacher to keep up moral among the girls and is conscious of the regime yet she never questions it. she has to inspire and endure the girls at the same time; she is the epitaph of a good teacher from Brontë’s
Miss Miller is very ordinary in appearance and is always running around with different tasks maybe how Charlotte Brontë was when she was a teacher. Miss Miller isn’t really a teacher and not a student by the way she is treated by the teachers and the students, Miss Miller is handed all the bad tasks from the teachers and the students don’t listen to her she repeatedly exclaims “Silence” and “Order” (JE:47). She may have not been very bright at school but may have gone to Lowood, and Mr Brocklehurst gave her a job as he believed she may have never amounted to anything. Miss Miller is sympathised by Charlotte quite a bit for example she calls her a “poor thing…weather beaten and over worked.”(JE:49).
Mr Brocklehurst is a very hypocritical, pompous man of the clergy who doesn’t act as if he is a man of god towards the girls. It is plainly obvious that he doesn’t have any feelings for these girls as he calls them “Vile” and other horrible names. Unfortunately for the girls he is the only thing that will do anything for them. The name Brocklehurst when translated means “Badgerwood” in old English, I believe Charlotte Brontë used this consciously to shape Mr Brocklehurst’s character and personality as he is always badgering Miss Temple in how to raise the girls and teach them but never does any dirty work, (rolling up his sleeves and teaches). Mr Brocklehurst is described as “Marble” (JE:68) reinforcing his persona and reputation of having no feelings and being very cold-hearted. In the book it seems that Mr Brocklehurst’s favourite past time is trying to humiliate people to his best ability, as he is always trying to humiliate Miss Temple with the passage about “Bread and Cheese” and making Jane stand on a chair in front of the whole school after her first day. She makes the reader feel like he is a horrible, pathetic little man who has too much time on his hands. I believe he may be a stereotype of 19th century men and the character of St.John Rivers is a model of what Charlotte’s perfect man would be, as he only thinks about other people.
When Charlotte Bronte is describing Lowood she is always using dreary pathetic fallacy such as the storm on Jane’s first night, there are no candles to light the place up or lighting making it feel very gloomy and a horrible place for a child to be in. Instantly creating sympathy for Jane, making her predicaments seemingly more painful. “wind rave in furious gusts, and the rain fell in torrents” (JE:47). Using pathetic fallacy makes the reader feel as if there is no way out of her problems and emotions and its all made seemingly worse by the weather its much like a gothic novel in composition and description.
Charlotte Brontë uses very confusing language for a many people of today to understand but she had educated and formalise her language and description to make it look as if a man of the time had wrote it. She beautifully narrates through Jane adding her own opinions as Jane’s reinforcing her views again and again into the readers head, making the school seem unbearable.
Charlotte managed to force her arguments into the book and making men question what was happening in schools and changing it for the welfare of the children. I believe that Charlotte didn’t believe that children were treated fairly and with respect in schools and weren’t able to experience their full potential at school. She wanted to draw attention to this as she had experienced it first hand and wanted it to change it. The only way she could change it was to voice her affairs publicly to a largely upper-class-male-audience, the people who could change all of this and make schools a better place for all.
