The presentation of education
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
NB All quotes and page numbers refer to the 1996 Penguin Classics edition
Education is an important theme in Jane Eyre. At the time the novel is set, education was not
compulsory, but for those families that could afford education, it was customary for boys to be
sent away to school while girls would be educated at home by a governess, often in subjects
thought likely to attract a husband.
Lowood
After the red-room incident in Chapter 3, Jane is sent away to school. Here is Mr Brocklehurst’s
description of Lowood to Mrs Reed in Chapter 4:
‘Consistency, madam, is the first of Christian duties; and it has been
observed in every arrangement connected with the establishment of
Lowood: plain fare, simple attire, unsophisticated accommodations,
hardy and active habits; such is the order of the day in the house and its
inhabitants.’
Towards the end of Chapter 5, Helen Burns explains to Jane that Lowood is a charity school for
orphans, run by Mr Brocklehurst, the son of the lady who founded the school. As you read
chapters 5, 6 and 7, find examples of life at Lowood that illustrate the Chapter 4 description of:
1. Christian duties (religious rituals and beliefs)
2. Plain fare (food and drink)
3. Simple attire (clothing and hairstyle)
4. Unsophisticated accommodations (where the girls sleep, wash, live, eat and learn)
5. Hardy and active habits (their daily routine, activities, pastimes)
Make a note on the treatment of the following pupils:
1. Why and how is Helen Burns punished in Chapter 6?
2. How does Mr Brocklehurst humiliate Jane in Chapter 7?
3. What must happen to all the girls because of Julia Severn’s hair, in Chapter 7?
What do you think of such a school and the way it treats its pupils?
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The presentation of education
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Imagery
Read the first paragraph of Chapter 6 and comment on how coldness in nature is being used to
convey feelings and emotions at the school.
Compare this to the imagery Brontë uses, near the end of Chapter 8, to convey Jane’s anger at
Helen being punished again, beginning ‘I ran to Helen, tore it off, and thrust it into the fire:’
Names
Read the final sentence of Chapter 7 on Miss Scatcherd. Contrast her presentation to Miss
Temple’s in these chapters. How well do names in the novel seem to suit characters?
Life as a governess
After the death of Helen Burns, Jane’s progress from pupil to teacher, and the loss of Miss
Temple from the school due to her marriage, Jane looks for a post as governess. This is how
Jane describes herself in her advertisement in Chapter 10:
‘A young lady accustomed to tuition’ (had I not been a teacher two
years?) ‘is desirous of meeting with a situation in a private family where
the children are under fourteen’ (I thought that as I was barely eighteen,
it would not do to undertake the guidance of pupils nearer my own age).
‘She is qualified to teach the usual branches of a good English education,
together with French, Drawing and Music’ (in those days, reader, this
now narrow catalogue of accomplishments, would have been held
tolerably comprehensive). ‘Address, J. E. Post-office, Lowton, —shire.’
Comment on the effect of the style of this advert (third person, present tense etc.) and the
explanations in brackets made directly to the reader. How does it draw you into the story?
As you read chapters 11 and 12, make notes on the following aspects of Jane’s new position as
governess to Adele Varens:
1. Jane’s initial misunderstandings as to who Mrs Fairfax is.
2. Jane’s first meeting with Adele, including why Jane’s advert will have appealed to
Mrs Fairfax.
3. The library, which is to be used as the schoolroom, and its contents.
4. Compare Jane as a teacher with those at Lowood. In what ways is she like Miss
Temple? Is she presented as similar to any other teachers there?
5. Jane’s misunderstandings when she first meets Mr Rochester on the lane and later
back at Thornfield.
6. Jane’s assessment of Mr Rochester in her conversation with Mrs Fairfax at the end of
Chapter 12.
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The presentation of education
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Blanche’s opinions on governesses, Chapter 17
Blanche Ingram, whom Jane believes Mr Rochester is likely to marry, comes to stay at
Thornfield. One evening, in her conversation with Mr Rochester about governesses and knowing
that Jane can hear her, Blanche says:
‘half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi’.
‘I have just one word to say of the whole tribe; they are a nuisance’
Find these quotations in your text and read the description which follows of the tricks Blanche
and her brother, Theodore, played on their governesses. What does the passage tell you about:
1. the governesses
2. Blanche and her brother
3. their mother, Lady Ingram.
How do you think this affects Mr Rochester’s opinion of Blanche? Can we read more into his lack
of speech and reaction than if he had either agreed or disagreed with her?
The narrative comment beginning ‘She appeared to be on her high horse to-night;’ suggests
disapproval – by Jane, by the author or both?
Read the last paragraph of Chapter 17 and note how the incident has affected Jane.
Extension activity: Find evidence from the text to support the argument that Jane has a close
and caring relationship with Adele, her pupil at Thornfield.
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The presentation of education
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Morton village school, chapters 30 to 34
When Jane leaves Thornfield Hall, she eventually ends up staying at Moor House, with the Rivers
family. In the second half of Chapter 30, St John Rivers asks Jane to be the schoolmistress at
the new school for girls in Morton. He expects Jane to refuse the post as too lowly for her but
she accepts, because ‘compared with that of a governess in a rich house, it was independent’.
This quotation is followed by a list of subjects Jane will be expected to teach. What are they?
Read the opening two pages of chapters 31, 32 and 34 and note information on Jane’s:
1. initial reactions to the school and subjects she is to teach
2. changing feelings for the pupils and the improvements she sees in them.
Discussion: How does Jane treat her pupils compared to the way she was treated at Lowood
school? Write down some examples and references to the text, ready to back up your opinions
and ideas.
Adele’s schooling, Chapter 38
‘You have not quite forgotten little Adele, have you, reader?’
Note the reasons Jane decides to move Adele from one school to another. How is the new
school better?
Now you’ve reached the final chapter of the novel, do you feel that Brontë is addressing you as a
friend? What effect does it have on you as a reader?
Preparation for an examination style question:
1. Review your notes in response to questions and activities in this worksheet.
2. Read the relevant sections of the novel again.
3. Ensure your notes are up to date and detailed enough for you to use it to find
particular passages, characters, themes and aspects of style when you revise.
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The presentation of education
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Use this extract to answer the question that follows it. The extract is from Chapter 3 of Jane
Eyre. Mr Lloyd, the apothecary, speaks to Jane when she is ill, following her ordeal in the redroom.
‘Would you like to go to school?’
Again I reflected: I scarcely knew what school was; Bessie sometimes
spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore
backboards, and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise;
John Reed hated his school, and abused his master: but John Reed’s
tastes were no rule for mine, and if Bessie’s accounts of school-discipline
(gathered from the young ladies of a family where she had lived before
coming to Gateshead) were somewhat appalling, her details of certain
accomplishments attained by these same young ladies were, I thought,
equally attractive. She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and
flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could
play, of purses they could net, of French books they could translate; till
my spirit was moved to emulation as I listened. Besides, school would be
a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from
Gateshead, an entrance into a new life.
‘I should indeed like to go to school,’ was the audible conclusion of my
musings.
‘Well, well; who knows what may happen?’ said Mr Lloyd, as he got up:
‘The child ought to have change of air and scene;’ he added, speaking to
himself, ‘nerves not in a good state.
Starting with this extract, how does Brontë present Jane’s experience of education?
Write about:
1. how Brontë presents Jane’s understanding and experience of education in this extract
2. how Brontë presents Jane’s experiences of education in the novel as a whole, both as
a pupil and as a teacher.
Spend 50 minutes on your answer: read the extract and the question twice, then plan your
answer (about 15 minutes). Write your answer in full (about 30 minutes); if you think of new
points or examples as you are writing, note them on your plan then continue with the point you
are making in order to keep your answer organised. It’s easy to miss out whole words when
you’re working quickly, so if you have five minutes left at the end, use it to read, check and
correct what you’ve written.
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