#lowood

[raointean]

From chapter 5 of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre"

[eyreguide]

What If...? Jane Eyre Edition - Lowood

Inspired by the Marvel series on Disney+, I'm starting a blog series of "What If" - that explores alternate timelines within the world of Jane Eyre. Throughout this series, I will discuss the possibilities of how different scenarios might have unfolded by grounding my assumptions in the characters' original motivations as written by Charlotte Brontë, while occasionally allowing for a bit of personal wish fulfillment in my speculation.

The second scenario is:

What if... Jane never left Lowood?

"Several wealthy and benevolent individuals in the county subscribed largely for the erection of a more convenient building in a better situation; new regulations were made; improvements in diet and clothing introduced; the funds of the school were intrusted to the management of a committee. Mr. Brocklehurst, who, from his wealth and family connections, could not be overlooked, still retained the post of treasurer; but he was aided in the discharge of his duties by gentlemen of rather more enlarged and sympathising minds: his office of inspector, too, was shared by those who knew how to combine reason with strictness, comfort with economy, compassion with uprightness. The school, thus improved, became in time a truly useful and noble institution."

This scenario is a sad one to me. Because if Jane never leaves Lowood, I feel like she would grow stagnant as a teacher, and not have found life to be very happy or fulfilling. I also wonder if Jane would have had a little of Charlotte Brontë's feelings when Charlotte was a teacher at Roe Head School. At the time, Charlotte once wrote in a diary:

The thought came over me am I to spend all the best part of my life in this wretched bondage, forcibly suppressing my rage at the idleness the apathy and the hyperbolical & most asinine stupidity of these fat headed oafs and on compulsion assuming an air of kindness, patience & assiduity? must I from day to day sit chained to this chair prisoned with in these four bare-walls, while these glorious summer suns are burning in heaven & the year is revolving in its richest glow & declaring at the close of every summer day the time I am losing will never come again?

Not really the most inspiring look at being a teacher. But I think Jane might have had a little more empathy towards her students, and wished to make their lives better, as opposed to the harsh upbringing she had. But it would have still been difficult for Jane, because she would live a stifled life, beholden to the students, and with very little independence. In my imagination, Jane would do her duty and be a good teacher, but gradually the tedium and the monotony might steal her spark, and she would give up on finding a new livelihood.

It is interesting though, that when Mr. Rochester (as the gypsy) asks Jane if she has some secret hope for her future, she says:

“Not I. The utmost I hope is, to save money enough out of my earnings to set up a school some day in a little house rented by myself.”

I feel like Jane would not be happy teaching children her whole life, but her dream is realistic for her circumstances and with her own school, she has some measurement of independence. And setting up her own school was also something that Charlotte Brontë wanted to do with her sisters.

And now you, gentle reader. How do you think Jane would have developed if she had stayed on at Lowood?

[cynosurus]

The character Helen Burns, the saintly and sickly school friend in Jane Eyre, gives strong signs of what we today would call ADHD like symptoms! Just listen to this, it fucking makes me cry. She has just been punished with the cane for being untidy, and this is how she talks of herself:

----------

"You say you have faults, Helen: what are they? To me you seem very good."

"Then learn from me, not to judge by appearances: I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements. This is all very provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is naturally neat, punctual, and particular."

"And cross and cruel," I added; but Helen Burns would not admit my addition: she kept silence.

"Is Miss Temple as severe to you as Miss Scatcherd?"

At the utterance of Miss Temple's name, a soft smile flitted over her grave face.

"Miss Temple is full of goodness; it pains her to be severe to any one, even the worst in the school: she sees my errors, and tells me of them gently; and, if I do anything worthy of praise, she gives me my meed liberally. One strong proof of my wretchedly defective nature is, that even her expostulations, so mild, so rational, have not influence to cure me of my faults; and even her praise, though I value it most highly, cannot stimulate me to continued care and foresight."

"That is curious," said I, "it is so easy to be careful."

"For you I have no doubt it is. I observed you in your class this morning, and saw you were closely attentive: your thoughts never seemed to wander while Miss Miller explained the lesson and questioned you. Now, mine continually rove away; when I should be listening to Miss Scatcherd, and collecting all she says with assiduity, often I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream. Sometimes I think I am in Northumberland, and that the noises I hear round me are the bubbling of a little brook which runs through Deepden, near our house;—then, when it comes to my turn to reply, I have to be awakened; and having heard nothing of what was read for listening to the visionary brook, I have no answer ready."

"Yet how well you replied this afternoon."

"It was mere chance; the subject on which we had been reading had interested me.

...

"And when Miss Temple teaches you, do your thoughts wander then?"

"No, certainly, not often; because Miss Temple has generally something to say which is newer than my own reflections; her language is singularly agreeable to me, and the information she communicates is often just what I wished to gain."

"Well, then, with Miss Temple you are good?"

"Yes, in a passive way: I make no effort; I follow as inclination guides me. There is no merit in such goodness."

[obscurelittlebird]

Jane Eyre

[janeeyrequotes]

On a dark, misty, raw morning in January, I had left a hostile roof with a desperate and embittered heart--a sense of outlawry and almost of reprobation--to seek the chilly harbourage of Lowood: that bourne so far away and unexplored.  The same hostile roof now again rose before me: my prospects were doubtful yet: and I had yet an aching heart.  I still felt as a wanderer on the face of the earth; but I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers, and less withering dread of oppression.  The gaping wound of my wrongs, too, was now quite healed; and the flame of resentment extinguished.

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

[sammydiaz87-blog]

Taken a couple of years ago but still love fishing..

[raointean]

From chapter 8 of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre"

[raointean]

From chapter 6 of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre"