How do the young heroine's experiences at Gatesheadand Lowood prepare the reader for what follows in the novel

Kalpesh Magudia

How do the young heroine’s experiences at Gateshead and Lowood prepare the reader for what follows in the novel “Jane Eyre”?

Jane Eyre was written in 1847 by Charlotte Brontë. Clearly the context in which an author writes will have a profound effect on the portrayal of society. Jane Eyre was written to reflect a contemporary view of the way young women’s lives could be affected, if they were unfortunate enough to be born without money. Middle-class women without income had very few options open to them.

At the beginning of the novel at Gateshead, Jane Eyre is an orphan who lives with her aunt, Mrs Reed and cousins, Eliza, John and Georgiana. Her aunt and cousins constantly abuse Jane mentally and physically while she is living there. At Lowood, she puts up with physical hardship, and lives in tough conditions, including poor clothing, poor nutrition and more mental abuse. Jane loses people whom she loves and the abuse she suffers at a young age develops her character, this prepares her for the difficulties in life.

Jane’s relationship with her aunt and her cousins is terrible. Her aunt and cousins abuse her mentally and physically: “…without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly.” Here Brontë explains that John Reed has thrown a book at Jane because she was reading one of his books. Jane is not accepted as part of the family: “you ought to beg,” says John. This shows that Mrs Reed and Jane’s cousins treated Jane with no respect and not as a member of their family. They treated her as a servant who was not worthy of looking after. She found that she was not loved as Mrs Reed’s own children and is treated as an outcast or outsider. In the 19th century society women had little power in the class system. For example, Jane is put into the feared red room and left there even though she begs to be let out. In her imagination she hopes that Mr Reed will take revenge on her aunt. The atmosphere was spooky, “glared white” and the setting was petrifying for Jane. She takes revenge on her aunt and rebels because she is treated unjustly, blamed for everything and her aunt favours her children over her. She does take revenge as far as her position enabled her to: “I’m glad you’re no relation of mine, I never call you aunt again…” The language used here is simple when Jane speaks so passionately. We see that Jane cannot control her feelings about her aunt and she is capable of saying what she thinks about her. By saying what she thinks, Jane demonstrates her own passionate character and she has developed a very sensitive awareness of justice and fairness.

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Jane leaves Gateshead and she arrives at Lowood School on a dark, rainy and windy day. She is very tired and so over excited that she is unable to eat any supper that night. As she arrives there is a: “…Wild wind rushing amongst trees,” frequently we are told that Jane likes the wild side of nature, perhaps it suggests passion to her and she likes the dark gothic looks too. Here Brontë draws on the popular genre of gothic writing a very dramatic and sinister style which is an early form of horror. The difficulties that were faced at Lowood included a lack of nutrition in their food on her first breakfast “countenances expressed displeasure,” when they were served repulsive burnt porridge. The conditions that Jane had to live in were harsh because Lowood, an orphanage for poor girls was saving on heat and light. Also the problems they faced in Lowood that the girls were lonely and the lessons by today’s standards were hard: “repetitions in history and grammar.” As in that time the young ladies couldn’t prepare for a career at school, they had to marry well later but were unlikely to be married to rich people because they were from an orphanage. The positions of the middle class women were not able to work at manual jobs because they were restricted by society’s conventions.

Jane has to put up with very difficult living conditions at Lowood which help build her strength of character: “…Toughed up,” to solve her own problems. The harsh conditions were cold, little food to eat, walking to church on Sundays, rough clothes, and humiliation from Mr Brocklehurst. On occasional visits hair had to kept very short because Mr Brocklehurst wanted the children to feel pessimistic. Even worse is that Jane was afraid of failure. From Lowood Jane learns to keep her self-control, which helps her in the way she learns to react to people. She escapes into her imagination by reading and learning, which enables her to put up with the harshness. She controls herself by receiving support from the other girls. When she is forced to stand on the stool in front of the whole school as a punishment, the way a girl looked at her made her feel strong: “What an extraordinary sensation that ray sent through me! How the new feeling bore me up.” Jane needs love and affection and here we see that Lowood can provide this a little.

She learns from Helen not to take revenge and to be patient: “the bible bids us return good for evil,” that Jane has to learn and is a valuable lesson to take from Lowood. She seeks refuge in her belief in God by following the example from Helen as a Christian and in her belief she finds the strength to do what is morally right, later in the novel.

Leaving Lowood shows Jane’s independence, as she tries to find her identity by going into the world and taking a job. She has to move on with her life, and she now more able to leave things in the past: showing a “desire to excel in all.” She has survived the harsh conditions and suffering from Lowood and has learnt to control her emotions and feelings about people: “I had gone under a transforming process.” Jane works at Lowood as a teacher to earn her keep and when she is a little older, and then at eighteen she wants a change. Here we are reminded that Jane is an independent spirit or an unconventional quality from the 19th century woman with no money. Jane searches for her identity at Thornfield, where she eventually finds happiness with Mr Rochester.

When Jane finds out that Mr Rochester is already married, she believes it is wrong to live with him like a mistress. Jane would lose her independence, lose her self-respect in her character if she were to live with Mr Rochester and “…transgress a mere human law.” Jane acts entirely according to what she has learnt from Lowood by fleeing from Thornfield in order to regain some self-control. Her education has taught her to control her actions and if she had lived with Mr Rochester she would have been a social outcast as well as acting immorally by committing bigamy. Only through her decision and strength of her character to do the right thing, can we see that Jane will be truly happy and she cannot live a lie.

Overall, at Gateshead and at Lowood Jane has experienced abuse and physical hardships. She has suffered from the poor nutritional food, poor clothing and mental humiliation. Jane’s character strengthened over the years because she had to be able to deal with this and with the loss of her loved ones. At Thornfield Jane was able to control her emotions and feelings because she has learned to believe in her religion and accepted that she must sometimes control her emotions. However, Brontë suggests that Jane’s passionate and independent character is something to admire. Even now that she has learned to use her strengths for good, she teaches Mr Rochester about humility and treating others with respect. Jane shows self-confidence and we admire Jane for what she has been through and what she earned.