Alone to Lowood: Jane Eyre Chapter 5
A Jane Eyre Readalong and Teachalong
Breakfast was over, and none had breakfasted. Thanks being returned for what we had not got, and a second hymn chanted, the refectory was evacuated for the schoolroom.
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Chapter 5)
Jane is sent to Lowood School. No family rises early to say goodbye, and no one accompanies her on the 50 mile journey by coach. The porter’s wife and Miss Temple both remark on the oddity that a ten-year-old girl would travel alone. Though a novel, some have suggested that Jane Eyre is structured in five acts, each represented by a different location. Act 1 at Gateshead ➺ Act 2 at Lowood.
Chapter 5 Questions
✢ Jane is sent alone on the journey to Lowood School. How do others perceive this? Why do you think Charlotte Brontë chose to have Jane travel by herself?
✢ What are your first impressions of Lowood? Would you want to go to school there? Why or why not?
✢ What do we know so far about Miss Temple? What do you think of her?
✢ Jane talks to another student who tells her about the school and the teachers. Compare the purpose of the school with how the school is actually run.
Teaching Tips
✢ This is a transition chapter. However, various details set a foundation for Lowood as a setting and Miss Temple and the older girl (later revealed as Helen Burns) as characters.
✢ Note the contrast between Lowood’s founding and purpose as a charitable institution and the treatment of the girls. Contrast Miss Temple’s treatment as superintendent with Mr. Brocklehurst’s responsibility as treasurer.
✢ Consider Jane’s thoughts when she sees Helen Burns’ (unnamed in this chapter) punishment. “She looks as if she were thinking of something beyond her punishment—beyond her situation: of something not round her nor before her… Her eyes are fixed on the floor, but I am sure they do not see it—her sight seems turned in, gone down into her heart: she is looking at what she can remember, I believe; not at what is really present.” Why is Jane struck by Helen’s behavior? While Jane wonders whether Helen is indeed good or naughty, Brontë describes Helen’s reaction as either Stoic or supernatural.