How Education Shaped Jane

      Jane says, "My duty will be to develop these germs: surely I shall find some happiness in discharging that office" (Brontë 401). She began teaching at the school where not much was expected of the children but saw it as an opportunity to pass on education. They weren't going to be easy to teach, some weren't brought up to value education, but regardless she calls them her scholars and devotes her efforts to teaching them to value their schooling. Education shaped Jane's morals and decisions. Since Lowood she has loved and gained immense appreciation for education. Her schooling had opened many possibilities for her such as escaping the Reed's home when she was very young to go to Lowood, becoming a governess and later a schoolteacher while living with the Rivers family. The apple represents how education played such an important role in Jane's background. She gained self-respect as well through schooling, she was very independent and free like a bird for this reason. However, Jane's mind was like a hurricane when she made important decisions such as choosing to leave and then return to Rochester. Inside she's unpredictable and insane but rarely allows this to show in her countenance. Brontë alludes to fire and ice many times throughout the novel for emotions and Jane and Rochester's love as it symbolizes the passion versus acknowledging the voice of reason. Like the rose bush in front of the prison in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne represented Hester Prynne's resilience, the rose represents Jane's resilience. She left the man she loved after learning he was already married, choosing what was best for herself, made a new life but ultimately ended up marrying Rochester.