Hypocrisy In Jane Eyre

Mr. Brocklehurst, the supervisor at Lowood Institute, represents the hypocrisy in religious thinking, common at the time Jane Eyre was written. When he first meets Jane, he questions how religious Jane is. He deduces that Jane is a “wicked” girl simply because she does not like to read Psalms (7%). This symbolizes the radical and conventional beliefs Mr. Brocklehurst holds regarding those who are not devout Christians and how he believes these types of people are threats to society. At school, Jane discovers that Mr. Brocklehurst bases everything he does at the school on his religious interpretations. When Miss Temple gives the students extra food, Mr. Brocklehurst disapproves and reprimands Miss Temple for giving students extra luxury by

saying that she is starving their “immortal souls” (14%). This philosophy of his shows that he would uphold his beliefs at the cost of making other people suffer. It may seem that if Mr. Brocklehurst encourages a simple lifestyle for the girls at Lowood Institute, then he would do the same for his family, but that is not true. When Jane is introduced to Mr. Brocklehurst’s wife and his two daughters, she notes they were adorned in expensive furs and silk (15%). Therefore, it can be seen that Mr. Brocklehurst does horrible things to the girls at his school in the name of religion for his own gain, but when it comes to himself and his family, his “values” suddenly vanish. Mr. Brocklehurst represents the people in Victorian England who used religion to their advantage by pretending to be missionaries of Christianity, when in actuality, their own principles and actions go against that same religion.