Similarities Between Antoinette And Jane

When Jane first meets Helen, Jane sees her being punished by her teacher. Jane admires her strength – ‘not a tear rose to Burns’ eye.’ This is similar in the way to which Antoinette looks up to Tia’s strength – ‘fires always lit for her, sharp stones never hurt her bare feet, I never saw her cry.’ However, Tia’s description implies that what Antoinette looks up to in Tia is her violent strength, suggested by the use of ‘sharp’, and ‘fire’, while what Jane admires in Helen is her ability to resist violence. The use of asyndetic listing makes the list seem longer, as if Tia’s strength is unattainable to Antoinette.
However, both Antoinette and Jane see their strong friends in positions of vulnerability. For Jane, it is nearly immediately

after; ‘the trace of a tear glittered on her thin cheek.’ The word ‘glittered’ suggests that the tears are something Jane admires. In comparison, Antoinette sees Tia cry when she throws a ‘jagged stone’ at her – again showing Tia’s violence. Antoinette says that she ‘saw her face crumple up as she began to cry.’ The word ‘crumple’ suggests weakness, therefore implying that Antoinette sees Tia’s emotional outburst as a flaw.
For both Jane and Antoinette, it is obvious that Tia and Helen are people they look up to and wish to be. For Jane, this comes across when she faces the humiliation of punishment. She wishes to seem strong, but states that she ‘was no Helen Burns’, as though she were an icon. For Antoinette, this is shown when she and her family are attacked, their house burned down, and she is forced to leave her home. She says that she ‘will live with Tia, and I will be like her’. This shows that for both girls, their childhood friends were a major influence on the way they wish to be.
In terms of the effect they have on their friends, there are obvious differences. Helen has the ‘aspect of an angel’ and makes Jane feel ‘like a martyr’ – i.e. lifting her up spiritually. Contrastingly, Tia ‘had taken my dress’. The dress was the only thing Antoinette had that showed she was rich and white, so taking that away brings Antoinette down socially.
Helen continues to deal in spiritual matters when she advises Jane on how to live her life – ‘the Bible bids us return good for evil’. Similarly, Tia’s information she gives to Antoinette stays in the social realm – ‘black nigger better than white nigger’. Both girls give their friends information on how the world is, or at least how it seems to them, but focus on different aspects – spirit and social.
Another difference is that Helen inspires love in Jane while Tia inspires hatred in Antoinette. Jane calls Helen ‘dear’ and ‘darling’, innocent terms of endearment, while Antoinette calls Tia a ‘cheating nigger’. Helen makes Jane feel as if she must give Helen ‘one last kiss’, while Tia leaves Antoinette ‘feeling sick, hating her’.
The last, most important, difference is how the girls affect the future lives of their friends. Jane thinks of ‘Helen Burns, recalled her dying words’ as she saw her dying aunt for the last time, and this encourages her to offer forgiveness. This shows how Helen taught Jane how to let go of her anger and feel more love. However, Tia comes back to Antoinette when she is in the attic, and bids her to jump into the ‘pond’ surrounded by a ‘sky so red’. This echoes the soon to come jump from the roof of burning Thornfield, and therefore shows how much violence Tia inspired in Antoinette.
Therefore, while both girls majorly influenced their friends, Helen taught love and forgiveness while Tia taught hatred and violence.