Examples Of Pathos In Jane Eyre

People today do not know what orphans went through in 19th century England and the sadness and pain they had to endure. Pathos was felt quite a lot by the orphans of that time. The overall theme of pathos in the book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, is first expressed by the experiences of the orphans at Lowood. The narrative strategy of retrospective, depicts Jane's time at Lowood and the pathos expressed there. Pathos is expressed at Lowood for many reasons such as the shortage of food, the poor clothing and sleeping arrangements, the poor treatment of the orphans, and the breakout of typhus.
Firstly, the lack of food given to the orphans at Lowood expresses a lot of the pathos. The children barely eat any food at the school so they are always starving. They eat little food throughout the day, the servings are even small for them. If someone were to walk into the school who was not normally there they would notice that the children were quite thin and would see the lack of food given to them. In this quote, “I devoured a spoonful or two of my

portion without thinking of its taste….burnt porridge is almost as bad as rotten potatoes; famine itself soon sickens over it.”(pg 54), it explains that the food was not good half the time and the portions were small. On more than one occasion the porridge had been burnt, thus making it not edible and the girls would end up going hungry. Going hungry would of course make someone sad because they would be hungry until the next meal that they would eat and those portions would be miniscule, it could easily bring the mood down.

Secondly, the poor conditions the orphans are in will add more pathos to the story. The girls sleep in a long room that does not retain heat, so they are exposed to the cold at night. They would be freezing in their beds because the blankets were not thick enough to keep them warm. “...a keen northeast wind, whistling through the crevices of our bedroom windows all night long, had made us shiver in our beds” (pg. 63) this quote depicts the girls being frozen at night because of where they slept. Not only were their sleeping conditions poor, but the clothing they wore would not keep them warm all the time. They did not have boots to keep their feet warm in the snow and they had no gloves to keep their hands warm. A quote stated in the story about the poor shoes they had to wear would be “...when my feet inflamed, and the torture of thrusting the swelled, raw, and stiff toes into my shoes in the morning.”(pg. 72). This shows that the orphans were not cared for properly and with lack of nourishment to keep up with growing kids they would be feeling down and more punishment would result from it.
Thirdly, the orphans were treated very poorly at Lowood.

Punishment is one of the main things that Lowood does to make its girls proper and to not be liars. One punishment is a bundle of sticks that the girls would be hit with if they got out of line, this shows that orphans at that time were treated in horrible ways. Being punished like this would make any girl depressed and carry on a sorrowful and depressing mood throughout the school. The second punishment was to be put on top of a stool and sometimes they would have to stand there the rest of the day with no food or drink and with no communication with others. “Let her stand half an hour longer on that stool, and let no one speak to her during the remainder of the day.” (pg. 82). This shows that they would be publicly disgraced for things they did. Sometimes they would be threatened with eating even smaller portions for making mistakes or doing something

wrong.

Lastly, the outbreak of typhus at the school brought many deaths causing the sorrow of the school to be even greater. From all the conditions that the girls were in and the lack of food, it was not surprising that when winter ended typhus broke out at Lowood. The teachers were too occupied with the sick children that little attention was payed to the other girls. “Many, already smitten, went home only to die: some died at the school, and were buried quietly and quickly.” (pg. 94). With many girls dying, a sadness would be taken over the entire school, making Lowood even worse than what it was before. With this sadness adds the sadness Jane feels when she loses the only friend she had at the school, even though her friend did not die from typhus. All this death leads to pathos being a major factor in the story.
To Conclude, pathos has a major effect on the story as a whole. All the terrible things the girls went through at Lowood, lack of food, poor conditions, poor treatment, all led to the outbreak of typhus and added to even more sadness. Being an orphan at that time meant that you were not treated properly at times and this would have an effect on someone. Jane carries this sadness on throughout the rest of the story and effects many of the things she does. Having to be a child and go through all that would change someone completely.