Miss Smith

Miss Smith is one of the under-teachers at Lowood Institution, a figure defined by her practical duties rather than by any dramatic or ideological presence. She attends to the work of the school, cutting out the cloth from which the pupils make their own frocks, pelisses, and everything else, and she is charged with the care of the linen and the inspection of the dormitories. Her role places her squarely in the realm of the school's daily, unglamorous operations, a counterpoint to the more elevated moral authority of Miss Temple and the harsh discipline of Miss Scatcherd.

Role in the School and First Encounters with Jane

Jane Eyre first encounters Miss Smith on her first full day at Lowood, when, around three o'clock in the afternoon, Miss Smith puts into her hands a border of muslin two yards long, together with needle, thimble, and other necessaries, and sends her to sit in a quiet corner of the schoolroom to hem it. At that hour most of the other girls are sewing as well, and it is while Jane is thus occupied that she witnesses Miss Scatcherd's harsh treatment of Helen Burns. Miss Smith later calls Jane's attention away from that scene by asking her to hold a skein of thread while she winds it, and during this task she talks to Jane, asking whether she has ever been at school before and whether she can mark, stitch, or knit. This brief, kindly interaction establishes Miss Smith as a teacher who, while not remarkable, is at least capable of ordinary, unthreatening conversation with a new pupil.

Under the Brocklehursts' Scrutiny

Miss Smith's most notable moment comes during Mr. Brocklehurst's infamous inspection of the school. After he has finished lecturing Miss Temple about the girls' curled hair and has pronounced sentence that all top-knots must be cut off, the three female Brocklehursts—Mrs. Brocklehurst and the two Misses Brocklehurst—enter the room. They have been conducting a rummaging scrutiny of the rooms upstairs while their reverend relative transacted business with the housekeeper, questioned the laundress, and lectured the superintendent. They now proceed to address divers remarks and reproofs to Miss Smith, who is charged with the care of the linen and the inspection of the dormitories. Jane, however, has no time to listen to what they say, for other matters—namely, her own impending public humiliation—call off and enchant her attention. This moment places Miss Smith at the receiving end of the Brocklehurst family's petty, intrusive oversight, a position that underscores the school's atmosphere of constant surveillance and the vulnerability of even its adult staff.

A Minor but Consistent Presence

Miss Smith's appearances are few but consistent with her defined role. She is the teacher who, on the evening of the day Jane saw Miss Scatcherd flog Helen Burns, is present in the schoolroom during the play-hour, though she does not figure prominently in that scene. She is also the teacher to whom Helen Burns addresses a slight question about her work after Mr. Brocklehurst has placed Jane on the stool of ignominy, and who chides Helen for the triviality of the inquiry. In the broader narrative, Miss Smith remains a flat, functional character—a representative of the ordinary, overworked, and somewhat careworn teaching staff at Lowood, whose presence helps to fill out the institutional world in which Jane's formative years are spent. She is never developed beyond her professional duties, and she disappears from the story entirely once Jane leaves Lowood, having served her purpose as a minor figure in the school's ecosystem.