Another hero in Jane’s story, Helen Burns, is introduced in this chapter. What does Helen Burns’ name signify? She is burning with a passion for heaven, and her fate is to die of a fever. Burns is based on Charlotte Brontë’s oldest sister, Maria, who died when she was twelve years old after contracting consumption at the Clergy Daughters School. Brontë’s second-oldest sister, Elizabeth, also died from this disease, caught at the unsanitary and damp school. Both Charlotte and Emily were withdrawn from the school before the following winter for the sake of their health. Like Helen Burns, Maria was known for the precocity of her thinking; Mr. Brontë said that “he could converse with her [Maria] on any of the leading topics of the day with as much freedom and pleasures as with any grown-up person.”
When Jane first notices Helen, her friend is reading Samuel Johnson’s didactic tome, Rasselas, an essay arguing that happiness is often unobtainable. Although she enjoys reading, Jane isn’t interested in Helen’s book because it doesn’t contain any fairies or genii. Like Jane, Helen is a poor, lonely child, but her method of dealing with her problems contrasts with Jane’s, as is apparent in the interaction with Miss Scatcherd. After being unfairly disciplined by Miss Scatcherd, Helen neither cries nor looks humiliated; instead, she accepts her situation with composure and grace. Wondering how Helen can accept this treatment so quietly and firmly, Jane notices that Helen seems to be “thinking of something beyond her punishment,” and her sight seems to have “gone down into her heart,” emphasizing Helen’s focus on spiritual rather than material matters. Jane is fascinated with Helen’s self-possession, which signals a depth of character that is new to her. At this point in the story, Jane doesn’t know how to judge Helen: Is she good or bad? Jane’s goals in this first section of the book to learn to recognize character and to find a role model.
