Honors British Literature
February 16, 2014
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography written by Charlotte Bronte is a novel of an orphan girl dealing with her malicious Aunt Reed and beloved Helen Burns. These two characters have a great effect on Jane Eyre and through their meeting; she grasps a piece of their message so that she can develop. Although Aunt Reed abuses Jane physically and emotionally, it becomes the best outcome for Jane because she soon meets the comforting Helen Burns that cools her temper. Since Mrs. Reed is who Jane lived with in the beginning, most of her exciting attitude comes from the treatment she received while living with the Reeds’.
Mrs. Reed is Jane’s Aunt and has taken her in after her parents died of typhus. She detests Jane for no reason at all as her children do the same and attack her frequently without remorse. Jane soon grows tired of the abuse and fights back with all the reasons she’s had in store but even with that, it is not her place to do so. After being with the heartless Reeds’, Jane has come to develop into a more mature young lady as to behaving savagely, after all she has no role model.
Though Jane was soon sent to an all-girls orphanage, Jane finds light after meeting Helen Burns. Helen quickly becomes Jane’s first and best, friend at Lowood School. She teaches Jane how to forgive, be patience, and love those who even do wrong. Helen often speaks of the beauty in God and tries to have her grow in the Christian faith. At her death, Jane is affected deeply and remembers Helen as her first and truest friend.
Through Jane’s sufferance with Helen being dead and Aunt Reed’s mistreating ways, Jane has developed into a greater character than before. She has brought two of the traits that she developed after meeting the two and had used them for greater use. Both Helen Burns and Aunt Reed have made Jane Eyre, the girl orphan who she is and is becoming. Their existence has developed Jane Eyre significantly.