Jane leaves Gateshead for Lowood

Jane Eyre leaves Gateshead Hall for Lowood Institution on the morning of January 19, severing her abusive childhood home and entering a new, uncertain phase of life. This departure marks the first decisive act of self-liberation in her journey from oppressed dependent to independent woman.

Causes and Background

Jane's departure from Gateshead is the culmination of years of systematic cruelty and isolation. As a poor orphan dependent on her aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane has endured constant bullying from her cousin John Reed, who struck her and threw a book that cut her head, and the cold indifference of her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Mrs. Reed, who had promised her dying husband to raise Jane as her own child, instead treated her as an interloper, excluding her from family privileges and confining her to the nursery. The breaking point came when, after John struck her, Jane fought back and was locked in the red-room—the chamber where Mr. Reed had died—as punishment. The terror of that confinement, during which she imagined she saw a ghost, caused her to have a fit and lose consciousness. The apothecary Mr. Lloyd, called to attend her, suggested that a change of scene might benefit her nerves, and recommended she be sent to school. Mrs. Reed, eager to be rid of "such a tiresome, ill-conditioned child," readily adopted the suggestion. Mr. Brocklehurst, the treasurer of Lowood Institution, was summoned to interview Jane, and arrangements were made for her enrollment.

The Departure

On the morning of January 19, at five o'clock, Bessie brought a candle into Jane's closet and found her already up and nearly dressed. Jane had risen half an hour earlier, washing and dressing by the light of a setting half-moon. She was to leave Gateshead by a coach that passed the lodge gates at six a.m. Bessie, the only person yet risen, lit a fire in the nursery and prepared breakfast, but Jane, too excited to eat, could only manage a few spoonfuls of boiled milk and bread. Bessie wrapped some biscuits in paper and put them in Jane's bag, then helped her on with her pelisse and bonnet. As they passed Mrs. Reed's bedroom, Bessie asked if Jane would go in and bid her mistress goodbye. Jane refused, explaining that Mrs. Reed had come to her crib the night before and told her not to disturb her in the morning, adding that she had always been her best friend. Jane had covered her face with the bedclothes and turned to the wall. "Good-bye to Gateshead!" Jane cried as they passed through the hall and out the front door. The moon had set, and it was very dark; Bessie carried a lantern whose light glanced on wet steps and gravel road sodden by a recent thaw. The winter morning was raw and chill, and Jane's teeth chattered as she hastened down the drive. At the porter's lodge, her trunk stood corded at the door. When the coach arrived, Jane was taken from Bessie's neck, to which she clung with kisses. "Be sure and take good care of her," Bessie cried to the guard as he lifted Jane into the inside. The door was slapped to, a voice exclaimed "All right," and the coach drove on. "Thus was I severed from Bessie and Gateshead; thus whirled away to unknown, and, as I then deemed, remote and mysterious regions."

Consequences and Aftermath

The journey to Lowood was long and disorienting. The day seemed preternaturally long, and Jane felt as if they traveled over hundreds of miles. They passed through several towns, and in one large one, the coach stopped for dinner. The guard left Jane in an immense room with a fireplace at each end and a chandelier, where she walked about for a long time, feeling very strange and mortally apprehensive of being kidnapped. At last the guard returned, and they continued on. The afternoon came on wet and misty; as dusk deepened, Jane felt they were getting very far from Gateshead. The country changed; great grey hills heaved up round the horizon, and she heard a wild wind rushing amongst trees. Lulled by the sound, she fell asleep, and when she awoke, the coach had stopped at Lowood. A servant led her through a passage into a room with a fire, where she was left alone. Soon Miss Temple, the superintendent, entered and, after a brief interview, sent her to bed. The next morning, Jane experienced the harsh realities of Lowood: burnt porridge, inadequate clothing, and the rigid discipline of Mr. Brocklehurst's regime. Yet the departure from Gateshead, however frightening, was also a liberation. It removed Jane from a house where she was hated and oppressed, and placed her in an environment where, despite its privations, she could eventually find education, friendship with Helen Burns, and the mentorship of Miss Temple. The journey itself, undertaken alone at age ten, was an early test of her resilience and independence, foreshadowing the many solitary journeys she would later undertake. The memory of Gateshead and its cruelties would remain with her, but the departure marked the first step toward a life she could shape for herself.