Lowood vs. Thornfield

Lowood vs. Thornfield

Lowood is a home and school for orphans. Jane is sent there for an education. Thornfield is the home of Mr. Rochester, Jane’s true love. Bronte uses place names to connect people and to show what Jane learns. She also uses them to reveal their qualities to the readers. The settings’ characteristics follow from low and secretive.
The characteristics of Lowood originate from the word low. The children live in Lowood, and are taught by many teachers and learn plenty but they have a limited amount of tools for their studies. In the school, the orphans are given a meager supply of food and so there is famine around, and they also don’t get enough sleep because of the unbearable coldness. While Jane resides in the school, she criticizes it by saying, “Our clothing was insufficient” (60) and comments on the food by claiming “the porridge [was always] burnt” (45). Lowood is a charitable school and so the upper classmen send donations to the school but Mr. Brocklehurst spends little of the money for better dresses and care for the children. Lowood’s standards aren’t high but low.
Thornfield is the property of Mr. Rochester who Jane finds love in quickly. Thornfield describes itself as being full of open space and that it has thorns on the outside of the house. In reality thorns are beautiful but when someone goes near them, they are dangerous. The place name reveals itself by fine-looking on the outside and secretive on the inside. Thornfield holds the word/shocking secret before Jane, that when it is revealed, it becomes a sad and great shock to Jane. As Jane resides in Thornfield, she sees something one day that disturbed her. She describes it to Mr. Rochester by telling him,