Schools in nineteenth-century England had been brutal and uncompromising institutions. Lowood School from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is a common girls school of that era, and its depiction was derived from the author's personal experiences at The Clergy Daughters' School, situated in Cowan Bridge, a village in the county of Lancashire.
When the apothecary Mr. Lloyd inquires no matter whether the kid Jane would like to check out school, the protagonist recalls her nursemaid Bessie's observations of school getting "a spot exactly where young ladies sat in stocks, wore back-boards, and had been anticipated to be exceedingly genteel and precise" (I, three, p.25).
Bessie's remarks echo the fact of considerably girls schooling in the early nineteenth century, as effectively as going some way to anticipating Jane's grueling experiences at Lowood, exactly where the pupils are mistreated, and the accommodation, sanitation, and provisions are all of a quite poor excellent. Those elements are vividly illustrated in various passages, such as the serving of burnt porridge to the girls at breakfast: "I saw an universal manifestation of discontent when the fumes of the repast met the nostrils of these destined to swallow it" (I, 5, p.45), and the building's lack of heating: "this morning we had been obliged to dispense with the ceremony of washing: the water in the pitchers was frozen" (I, six, p.52).
Various of those incidents are drawn from Charlotte's personal experiences at Cowan Bridge school, as are numerous of the characters who figure in them.
Lowood School's headmaster and treasurer is Mr. Brocklehurst, a grim and pious man who runs the institution as cheaply as doable. When Jane initially encounters him the fleeting impression she gets at 1st glance is that of "a black pillar!" (I, 4, p.31). Mr. Brocklehurst has an original in the Reverend William Carus-Wilson (1791-1859), the founder of The Clergy Daughters' School. Carus-Wilson was a Calvinist Evangelist, ordained in 1816. He was also the son of a prosperous landowner. Revelations regarding Carus-Wilson's operating of the school triggered a great deal controversy in later years.
The kindly superintendent Miss Temple who Jane develops a close friendship with has a real life counterpart in Ann Evans, who was the superintendent at Cowan Bridge school. Charlotte's favourable depiction of Miss Temple is thought of a 'just tribute' to Ann Evans's character.
An additional Lowood employees member who was modeled on an true person is Miss Scatcherd, the History and Grammar teacher who mercilessly bullies Jane's friend Helen Burns. Miss Scatcherd is apparently primarily based on a Miss Andrews, who taught at Cowan Bridge school when the Bronte sisters attended, and Charlotte's portrayal of her is really the opposite to that of Ann Evans. In reality, along with John Reed, Miss Scatcherd is arguably the most unpleasant character in the novel. In her Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell alludes to the harsh behaviour of Miss Andrews, cruelties echoed in the Lowood section of Jane Eyre, such as when Helen is birched by Miss Scatcherd for getting dirty fingernails, regardless of becoming unable to wash them due to the water becoming frozen that morning.
The character of Helen Burns is usually believed to be modeled on Charlotte's eldest sister Maria, who died of consumption in 1825, aged only 11. She created the illness from her insalubrious surroundings at The Clergy Daughters' School. Charlotte herself maintained that the school's privations permanently impacted her wellness as properly and that she did not exaggerate any specifics in her descriptions of Lowood in relation to the school at Cowan Bridge.
To study far more about Charlotte Bronte's novels, please check out The Literary Index, exactly where you will uncover hyperlinks to good quality Jane Eyre essays I have found on the net, as effectively as critical scholarship on the operates of over 300 other novelists and poets.
Ben H. Wright is an independent scholar and researcher
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