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Wide Sargasso Sea: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

loved or even wanted. She looks unto “Lowood” as a place that she may be able to make a new beginning, a place that she may able to find kindness and love. Before Jane’s departure, Jane had kept from her aunt all of her feelings and desires. Jane makes a point before her final departure to make clear to her Aunt Reed ‘You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity’ (30). As Jane is leaving, for her long awaited fifty- mile journey to “Lowood”, she cries out silently as she passes through the hall and out the front door ‘Goodbye to Gateshead’ (34). Jane now sees Gateshead and her past life as a life that has been floated away to an immeasurable distance.

Upon Jane’s arrival at “Lowood” she finds that it is not as spacious or as splendid as Gateshead, but comfortable enough. Jane welcomes the vague and strange present, a future that she can form no conjuncture about. As time goes by Jane finds herself having difficulties in forming herself to the new roles and unwanted tasks. Holding close to her the fear of failure, the fear of still not being loved or treated kindly. Unfortunately Jane was unexpectedly forced to face these fears, encountering a moment in which no love or kindness was shed upon her. Jane was drawn forward by Mr. Brocklehurst the master of “Lowood”, who makes clear to the entire school that Jane ‘is a little castaway - not a member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien, born of evil’ (59). Jane became devastated by these acquisitions, ‘she had meant to be so good, and to do so much at Lowood: to make so many friends, to earn respect, and most of all win affection’ (60). As Jane continued her stay at “Lowood” she was able to prove that the acquisitions made towards her were false. She was able to form two relationships, with two females, at “Lowood” Helen and Miss Temple. The relationships formed were unfortunately not long lasting being that Helen passed away from an illness and Miss Temple left “Lowood” after being married. This now left Jane feeling alone and unloved, still a void in her life. This is when Jane decided to set out on her journey leaving “Lowood” and becoming a governess.

Jane departed “Lowood” heading for another new horizon known as “Thornfield”, where she had been offered to teach as a governess to a young child and she willingly accepted. Upon Jane’s arrival, “Thornfiled” to her was more magnificent then all the other places she had yet been. “Thornfield” was the first place that Jane really began to feel like she may have a chance of being respected and loved. Jane referred to “Thornfield”, saying ‘at last I have found my safe haven’ (90). As Jane [next page]