Jane Eyre Chapter 7 - 12
Jane spent the first quarter at the Lowood Institution consumed with the task of learning the numerous rules about student conduct, and in dealing with the challenging physical conditions of starvation as well as cold. The students were barely supplied with sufficient nourishment which caused many of the larger girls to prey on the smaller students’ rations. The students were required to attend the Sunday mass at the church where their patron presided, a laborious task that resulted in them being paralyzed with cold, exhaustion, and starvation. Mr. Broclehurst stayed away from the school for nearly the whole of Jane’s first month, during which time Jane fretted over his eventual return and disclosure of the hatefully malicious lies that Mrs. Reed had entrusted him with at the time of their first meeting.
That first encounter was truly as dreadful as Jane had initially feared for Mr. Brocklehurst spent the first few moments of his arrival discussing the state of affairs at the school with Miss Temple. He admonished the many allowances that Miss Temple had made in her attempts to feed and care for the students. He claimed that the institution was responsible for training the young men to be humble and devoted Christians which could not be done by the coddling of the flesh but rather by punishing it so that the soul may soar. His lecture on maintaining a somber appearance was interrupted the entry of his wife and daughter, both of whom were decked out in the most frivolous silks and ostentatious hairstyles. Mr. Brocklehurst then noticed Jane and called her forth to be publicly shamed for being a malicious liar as had been claimed by her generous benefactor. He instructs the teachers that Jane should be caused to stand on a stool in the middle of the assembly of students for half an hour. Jane is distraught but she can bear the punishment due to a look of reassurance and courage that she receives from her friend Helen Burns. Once everyone has departed for a meal, and the ascribed half an hour has elapsed, the young Jane climbs down the stool and sits down in a dark corner to cry.
She is comforted by the arrival of the quiet and devout Helen, who says nothing but just stays by Jane’s side as she gives vent to her grief. Jane finally asks Helen how she is to go on living now that everyone thinks that she is a liar, while Helen tells her that none of the students were likely to believe the words of Mr. Brocklehurst who was quite disliked by the students. Furthermore, Helen explains how her faith in God and the world of angels keeps her motivated to go about her life without caring for the opinions of others. Jane is nearly completely recovered from her grief when the two of them are found by Miss Temple, who leads them both to her room. Miss Temple treats the girls to tea and cake after she has allowed Jane to refute the accusation laid out by Mr. Brocklehurst. She further promises to write to the apothecary, Mr. Lloyd, to confirm Jane’s account of her aunt, and publicly clear Jane of the accusations made. Miss Temple seemed quite concerned with Helen’s cough, while Jane was left amazed by the intensity and eloquence of Helen’s discourse. She was very surprised to see Helen read Latin with Miss Temple, who did later clear Jane’s character of the malicious accusation after she had received a reply from Mr. Lloyd.
Spring was a time of beauty for the gardens and the surrounding countryside of Lowood, while sickness grew in its walls. The mists of the forest filled the corridors and brought Typhus with them which caused nearly half of the students to be sick. The remaining healthy students were given generous rations and allowed to pass their time as they pleased. Jane roamed the countryside with her new friend Mary since Helen had been removed to one of the rooms due to her affliction of consumption, a disease that Jane had thought was milder than Typhus. She returned one evening to discover the pony of the surgeon tied at the front gate and was told that it meant someone was seriously sick. Jane learns from the nurse that Helen is severely ill and isn’t expected to survive the night. She wishes to see Helen at once but is forbidden to do so. Jane waits for everyone to fall asleep and sneaks to Miss Temple’s room where she finds an alive but weakened Helen. Jane and Helen sleep in the crib as Helen tells Jane that she is going to the next phase of her journey, while Jane questions her about God. Jane wakes in the morning as she is being carried to her dorm by the nurse. She later learns that Miss Temple had returned to her room in the morning to find Jane sleeping next to the deceased Helen.
Jane spent another 8 years at the Lowood Institute whose state was much improved after news of the typhus infection that had run rampant in the school became public knowledge. Generous subscribers interceded to ensure that the students were provided a better means of living, and Jane managed to excel at her education during that time. She ranked first in her classes and was asked to join the school as a teacher in which capacity she remained for the last two years of her time at Lowood. Miss Temple remained the superintendent and was much like a mother and even companion to Jane. Miss Temple then married a gentle reverend and left the institution to begin her marital life. Jane experienced troubling thoughts the very afternoon that Miss Temple departed for she wanted liberty. Jane wished to leave the institute and after much brain-racking set an advertisement stating her availability for the position of a governess. She received a reply within a week, the offer was generous and involved the manageable task of teaching a girl younger than nine years.
Jane secured the necessary recommendations from the committee that managed the school after the members had written and gained assent from Mrs. Reed to release Jane from the institute. Just as Jane was preparing to leave for her new employment, she received a surprise visitor in the form of her old nurse Bessie, who was now both married and a mother to two young children. Bessie was visibly disappointed in how Jane had grown to appear but was much satisfied at her conduct and education. She informed Jane that Mrs. Reed’s children were not doing all too well, especially John Reed, who had been removed from college and who now spent unsustainably large amounts of money. She also tells her that a man claiming to be Jane’s uncle had contacted the family, but had been turned away by Mrs. Reed, and had then set sail for some foreign place.
Jane was excited to leave the confine of Lowood to join her new position at Thornfield, and when she arrived there she found a most agreeable old woman called Mrs. Fairfax. She mistakes the old lady to be the owner of the house but on the following day learns that the woman is merely the caretaker of the large house and is employed by Mr. Rochester. He has a ward of barely eight years called Adele. The young girl speaks mostly in French and is cared for by a nurse, both of whom stay at Thornfield at the expense of Mr. Rochester who visits rarely. Jane has a tolerable time teaching the young and vivacious Adele but never quite manages to form a close bond with the girl, and though the house is located in a beautiful part of the world, Jane cannot quite bring herself to experience satisfaction. She wishes to be out in the open engaging with people and seeing new things, and this restlessness mars her days as she spends most of her free time pacing a corridor in a secluded part of the house. This all changes when Jane encounters a rider on her way to town. Jane witnesses a rider and his horse fall on the road due to a sheet of ice, the rider is a gruff man, who sprains his ankle and refuses Jane’s aid at first, however, he relents when he realizes that his ankle has been sprained. Jane returns home after posting the letter and discovers that the man injured on the road had been Mr. Rochester who is now in residence at Thornfield.
Analysis
Jane Eyre is essentially a story about a young girl finding a place in the world where she can be loved, as such love vs autonomy is a major theme that is explored throughout the book. Jane can remain at Lowood for such a very long time because of the presence of Miss Temple as she is someone that Jane loves. It is also evident that Miss Temple reciprocates Jane's feelings, and so while she is in residence at Lowood Jane also remains. However, she finds the situation untenable on the very first afternoon that she has to spend at the institute without the presence of Miss Temple.
It has also been noted that Jane Eyre features many characters that function as Jane's substitute mothers, which consequently forms an important motif that aids the development of the novel's major themes. Bessie, the nurse from Gateshead, is the first substitute mother that Jane encounters, and though she isn't always kind to Jane, she expresses a form of love that Jane can recognize. Miss Temple is another substitute mother that Jane encounters, and her relationship with Jane is much warmer than the one that had existed between Bessie and Jane. Miss Temple's departure causes Jane to realize that Lowood has nothing to offer her for without Miss Temple, it is no longer her home.
Jane Eyre is as much about Jane's journey of discovering religion as it is about finding love. She encounters several religious figures in life, and the first two are the characters of Mr. Brocklehurst and Helen Burns. Mr. Brocklehurst expounds an Evangelical philosophy of privation and humiliation that had been a dominant religious philosophy in Victorian England. The depiction of a hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst, who exposes the girls at Lowood to deplorable conditions in the name of Christ while encouraging his wife and daughters to live extravagantly and luxuriously, is most likely Brontë's way of criticizing the Evangelical philosophy.
