Lowood is a charity boarding school for girls. The school curriculum emphasises attitudes towards education of girls, which, then were quite different to todays. It centred around the Bible and the lessons were on things that were suitable for ladies of “their position” to know. It didn’t take much to be considered a lady, as Bessie points out to Jane, just before Jane leaves for Thornfield. Jane can play the piano well, speak French, paint and draw and “work on muslin and canvass”, all of which classify her as “quite a lady”.
In the beginning at the insitution, the food is quite unedible: with burnt porridge in the morning and a meagre fair for dinner, the girls are always hungry. But Mr Brocklehurst means them not to be encouraged in “habits of luxury and indulgence”. His views are extreme, contrasting with Miss Temple’s.
Arriving at Lowood, she is shown to Miss Temple, the superintendent of the institution. Miss Temple is pretty in Jane’s eyes and she makes Jane welcome. Miss Temple, the superintendent, is a kind and fair teacher, who treats the girls at Lowood with respect and justice. She has a soft spot for Helen Burns and appears to be one of the strongest influences and role models for Jane during her stay at Lowood. Through Miss Temple’s friendship and example, Jane is re-educated and her character re-shaped. She instils a deep pride in Jane, which affects her later when Rochester asks her to marry him. Her pride wont let her become dependant on him. She wants to be self-sufficient and to stay as a governess earning her wages and wants nothing more from Rochester than to love and be loved by him. She makes this very clear to Rochester.
To begin with, Jane does nothing but observe at Lowood, shown through her detailed descriptions of things, but as she is used to loneliness she seems not to mind. Here, at Lowood, Gateshead and Jane’s past seemed as though they “floated away to an immeasurable distance”. But it has left a deep imprint upon her mind and she can never forget it entirely.
Then Jane meets Helen Burns, her first true friend. When introduced, Helen is reading “Rasselas”, a serious book that suggests that the best way to endure life is through patience and acceptance of one’s fate. This is particularly fitting as it is like Helen’s character; Helen has consumption, a fate which the reader feels she has long accepted. Helen patiently puts up with Jane’s questions, until the last one “Are you happy here?” She avoids the answer, saying she would like to read.
Like Jane, Helen is an orphan who longs for a home, but Helen believes that she will find this home in Heaven rather than Northern England. And while Helen is not oblivious to the injustices the girls suffer at Lowood, she believes that justice will be found in God's ultimate judgment—God will reward the good and punish the evil. Jane, on the other hand, is unable have such blind faith. Her quest is for love and happiness in this world.
At one point Helen, dismissed in disgrace, is sent to stand in the middle of the room. When in the middle of the room, she “neither wept nor blushed”, surprising Jane, who is sure that she herself would “wish the earth to open and swallow” her. She is convinced that she would react differently, but when the time comes, she reacts in the same way, led by Helen’s example and under her influence.
There is a great contrast between Helen and Jane; Helen’s attitude to punishment contradicts everything that Jane believes in. Jane’s views are based upon her instinctive reaction to injustice, whilst Helen’s is on careful consideration of things. Jane believes Miss Scatcherd is cruel, whereas Helen believes that she just “dislikes her faults”. Through Helen, Jane sees what she wants aspire to become, even though they are very different. Each of them look at life differently, Helen sees it as a period of time before she enters heaven, whereas Jane sees it as an entity in its own right.
Helen’s views on religion are very different to Mr Brocklehurst’s. Mr Brocklehurst embodies an evangelical form of religion that seeks to strip others of their excessive pride or of their ability to take pleasure in worldly things, whereas Helen represents a mode of Christianity that stresses tolerance and acceptance. Mr Brocklehurst uses religion to gain power and to control others; Helen gravely trusts her own faith and turns the other cheek to Lowood's harsh policies.
Mr Brocklehurst is not liked in the school and publicly humiliates Jane after three weeks of her having been there. She bears it stoically with Helen’s help and influence, and when Miss Temple helps clear Jane’s name, Jane is touched and does not lose the power of forgiveness (she is ready to forgive Mrs Reed). A hypocrite, Mr Brocklehurst imposes harsh discipline upon the school, ordering all the girls to have their “topknots” cut off. The children freeze and starve because he thinks it is good for their souls.
He represents the 19th century attitude towards unloved, penniless orphans. Running a school for them paid for by rich families to give them a feeling of righteousness, not to look after the children.
When Jane leaves Lowood she is a highly moral woman of limited ambition. She wishes to be nothing but a governess and is quite content when she achieves such a position. She has a need to be independent.
Jane is now a lady with principles, who is governed by the Bible and her feelings. She knows her station, but it ails her still to know that she is plain not beautiful. Nevertheless, when Mrs Fairfax points out that “gentlemen in his station [Rochester] are not accustomed to marrying their governesses”, Jane is irritated and calls Mrs Fairfax her “monitress”.
Jane leaves Lowood, after Miss Temple gets married, and obtains a position as governess at Thornfield. Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper, warmly welcomes her and this surprises Jane. Not being used to being treated like an equal she takes little for granted. She is quite contrary, seen when Mr Rochester sprains his ankle and she offers to help. He gruffly brushes her off, but this makes her more determined to be helpful.
Jane is naïve, even after the eight years at Lowood. She declares that she has “hardly ever seen a handsome youth: never in her life spoken to one”. She feels innocent and ignorant in Rochester’s presence and he seems so world-weary.
When she leaves him, she has a struggle between her feelings and her conscience. But she knows she has done right, though she lets herself go for a while, by not looking after herself and becoming a beggar, to ease the parting. She becomes isolated again for the first time in years.
Jane expects no kindness from anybody and when it is freely given she is surprised and appreciates it greatly. When Diana and Mary take her into their house she feels welcome and as though she belongs. Something she has longed for, for a long time. After her degradation to beggar, she pulls herself back up and does not appear downstairs until she is spotless again. Her pride reappears and she delights as never before with the company of intelligent charming associates, who are her equal in every way.
At problematic times, Jane now turns to God. When she flees Thornfield, her “remembrance of God” is the same as when she acknowledges to herself her love for Rochester, where she says that Rochester has become so important in her life that he even displaces religion and stands between her and God.
Jane also has the power of forgiveness in her. She is ready to forgive Mrs Reed for her wrongs and she returns to Thornfield to find and forgive Rochester. It is possible for her learnings from Lowood to be forgotten or ignored in a trice. She stoops low to begging when she leaves Rochester and when she lets St. John take over her feelings, but regains them at both times, refusing his proposal of marriage and being taken in by the Rivers.
Lowood made Jane a capable woman with morals, who knew her place. It was all that she needed to have back in the 19th century when at the time the book was written, women were considered inferior to men.
