Jane Eyre Current Events

Authors often create past events to shape the current activities, attitudes, and morals of the characters featured in their works. Charlotte Brontë utilizes this tool while following a woman's story from childhood to adulthood in one of her most famous works, Jane Eyre. While the well-recognized novel's forefront character Jane gets a fairly happy ending, many tragic events occur throughout her life that shape Jane into the woman seen in the final chapters of the book. As a reader, I believe one of the most crucial events to shape not only Jane, but the story as a whole, is the death of Jane's uncle, which causes the custody of Jane to fall into the hands of her wicked step-aunt. Due to the unloving and non-nurturing environment Jane is raised in for the first ten years of her life, one might assume that she would grow up to be equally uncaring. Instead, she

Lowood School, an all-girls school, has considerably poor conditions, although Jane still prefers this over Gateshead Hall. Upon arriving, Jane takes a liking to Miss Temple, a sweet and intelligent teacher. The instructor quickly shows a deep love for Jane, as well as Jane's friend Helen Burns. At one point, Miss Temple goes as far as to disprove an accusation made by her boss against Jane. After many difficult years at Lowood, a fatal epidemic, and the loss of a friend, the teacher remains Jane's safe haven and mentor. Upon Miss Temple's departure from Lowood, Jane says, "From the day she left I was no longer the same; with her was gone every settled feeling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree home" (100). It is at this point in the novel that Jane has become an upstanding woman and deeply caring person. I believe this can be accredited to both Miss Temple and Bessie. After the leaving of Miss Temple, Jane decides to quit her teaching position and embark on a new stage in her