Opposing Reactions to Punishment

“On reaching the bed-room, we heard the voice of Miss Scatcherd: she was examining drawers; she had just pulled Helen Burns’s, and when we entered Helen was greeted with a sharp reprimand, and told that to-morrow she should have half a dozen of untidily folded articles pinned to her shoulder.

‘My things were indeed in shameful disorder,’ murmured Helen to me, in a low voice: ‘I intended to have arranged them, but I forgot.’

Next morning, Miss Scatcherd wrote in conspicuous characters on a piece of paste-board the word ‘Slattern,’ and bound it like a phylactery round Helen’s large, mild, intelligent, and benign-looking forehead. She wore it till evening, patient, unresentful, regarding it as a deserved punishment. The moment Miss Scatchered withdrew after afternoon-school, I ran to Helen, tore it off, and thrust it into the fire: the fury of which she was incapable had been burning in my soul all day, and tears, hot and large, had continually been scalding my cheek; for the spectacle of her sad resignation gave me an intolerable pain at the heart.” (page 70)

Prior to meeting Helen, Jane had never had a companion near her age. When they do meet, Helen serves almost as guidance toward the behavior Jane is expected to exhibit at Lowood, compliant, intelligent, and pious. This passage demonstrates the difference in behavior and thought between the two characters, and how these differences relate to the belief of afterlife and judgment after death.

When Helen is reprimanded for folding her clothes in an unsuitable style she doesn’t try to fight her punishment, instead she is accepting and even admits to her mistake. Helen’s punishment also contains religious attributes further expressing Helen’s position as a holy figure in Jane’s life. The idea of public ridicule is reminiscent of the idea of martyrs who are given punishment and don’t at against it, instead silently accepting knowing that their suffering can eventually lead to change. The diction Bronte uses also also aids in Helen’s development. In describing the sign, she says the teacher “bound it like a phylactery round Helen’s large, mild, intelligent, and benign-looking forehead.” A phylactery being something used in worship instantly connects Helen’s sign to something more powerful.

Jane’s description of her anger is telling her balance with faith. In previous discussions with Mr. Brocklehurst she had mentioned her idea of the afterlife as a place of fire, and a place she was possibly destined. In describing her anger Bronte says“ the fury of which [Helen] was incapable had been burning in my soul all day, and tears, hot and large, had continually been scalding my cheek.” Jane’s soul is described as burning, possibly related to the burning of souls in the afterlife. Also, it is mentioned that Helen is incapable of such anger, showing her soul is destined for heaven. However, Jane is not an evil character. As the last sentence of the passage shows, her actions of hatred were out of her compassion for Helen, “the spectacle of her sad resignation gave me an intolerable pain at the heart.”

This passage develops Jane and Helen as the opposing outcomes in the afterlife, Helen the good, Jane the bad. By using religious imagery and words with religious connotation, Bronte is able to develop her contrasting characters through a seemingly simple life experience. Without writing a passage about death, Bronte is able to allude to it, causing an objective view on the goodness of each character’s actions.