Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: A reconsideration

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In Lowood, a great part of Jane's character will be based on the concepts of (in)visibility as well as on the power of the gaze. Talking about Miss Temple, Jane Eyre says that Miss Temple's "language" has: "something which chastened the pleasure of those who looked on her" (Ch. , p.69). Unlike most of Jane's visibilities, Miss Temple 's is a positive visibility that pleases the beholder's eyes. One may say this is because Jane loves this teacher and she is, more likely blinded by her love and admiration for Miss Temple. However, there is a sense of pleasantness associated with the character of Miss Temple. Such claims might be truer in the case of Jane who once goes on to say: "The refreshing meals, the brilliant fire. . . . they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek. (p. 70) After the departure of Miss Temple Jane who now "lost" her "stead" mother and till this moment has never left Lowood is "dawned" by what she calls "another discovery" (p 81): I had undergone a transforming process; that my mind had put off all it had borrowed of Miss Temple …. My world had for some years been in Lowood, my experience had been of its rules and systems; now I remember that the real world is wide… (81) The invisibility of Miss Temple has posed an opportunity for Jane's mind eye to transgress the visible (Lowood with all what it meant to Jane) to the invisible (or what she calls the "real world") which, at this very moment, at least, invisible to her as it lies beyond the walls of this institution. It is this unthought-of-invisible that fashions Jane's character in the coming chapters of the novel. It also determines her power of the gaze: That is the way she looks at and feels about the world around her. Jane's new romantic self becomes a corollary of her interest in exploring the invisible that lies beyond the boundaries of Lowood. The new transformed self is also reflected in Jane's forgiveness of her aunt Sarah Reed when she visits her at a latter time. I saw her in a black gown …. From the town (85) I looked I saw a woman attired like a well-dressed servant (86) After miss Temple's departure from Lowood, Jane starts thinking ambitiously of knowing what lies beyond the boundaries of Lowood school:

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