Helen Burns Quotes

The punishment seemed to me in a high degree ignominious, especially for so great a girl – she looked thirteen or upward…to my surprise, she neither wept nor blushed. Composed, though grave, she stood, the central mark of all eyes…her sight seems turned in, gone down into her heart. She is looking at what she can remember, I believe; not at what is really present. I wonder what sort of girl she is – whether good or naughty.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 5. Soon after arriving at Lowood School, Jane witnesses another orphan girl Helen Burns being humilated, as she is publicly punished for untidiness by being kicked out of class and made stand in the middle of the school room. Jane is impressed with Helen’s composure and strength in enduring her unjust punishment. Jane’s interest in the stoic Helen signals how important she is to the story and how she will serve as a Christ-like friend in Jane’s life, teaching Jane about the Christian virtue of forgiveness.

It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. Helen Burns is speaking to Jane after Helen has been flogged on the neck by teacher Miss Scatcherd brandishing a bundle of twigs. The rebellious Jane says that had she been struck by that rod, she would have grabbed it from the teacher’s hand and broken it under her nose. But Helen is a religious girl who believes in the Bible’s message of turning the other cheek and showing Christian forgiveness to your enemies. She becomes Jane’s best friend at Lowood.

What a singularly deep impression her injustice seems to have made on your heart! No ill-usage so brands its record on my feelings. Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. Helen Burns challenges Jane about holding on to her hatred and bitterness towards Mrs. Reed and John Reed. She advises Jane that she would be happier if she let go of her anger, as life is too short to be nursing grievances about the wrongs done to us. Helen is a devout Christian who symbolizes the Christian ideals of tolerence and forgiveness.

I hold another creed: which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and to which I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes Eternity a rest – a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last: with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live in calm, looking to the end.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. The pious and stoical Helen Burns explains her religious faith to the passionate and rebellious Jane. Continuously victimized by her teachers at Lowood, Helen accepts her punishments without protest, confusing the more feisty Jane. But Helen is able to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, believes in forgiveness and looks forward to Heaven as a welcoming place and her true home. So Helen is not affected by the mistreatment of teachers and the harsh conditions at Lowood. Instead she lives this life “in calm, looking to the end” – here she is referring to the Christian goal of getting to Heaven, as well as foreshadowing her own death.

What my sensations were, no language can describe; but just as they all rose, stifling my breath and constricting my throat, a girl came up and passed me; in passing, she lifted her eyes. What a strange light inspired them! What an extraordinary sensation that ray sent through me! How the new feelings bore me up! It was as if a martyr, a hero, had passed a slave or victim, and imparted strength in the transit. I mastered the rising hysteria, lifted up my head, and took a firm stand on the stool.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. Jane describes how Helen Burns helps her while she is being punished by Mr. Brocklehurst at Lowood. As she stands on the punishment stool, her “pedestal of infamy,” Helen reaches out to give Jane hope and strength during her trial of humiliation. Similes comparing Helen to a martyr and Jane to a slave are used to describe the moment. Helen’s depiction as a martyr is foreshadowing of her own death by tuberculosis at a very young age in the infamous Lowood School.

While sobbing out this wish in broken accents, some one approached; I started up – again Helen Burns was near me…She sat down on the ground near me, embraced her knees with her arms, and rested her head upon them; in that attitude she remained silent as an Indian.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. It is easy to see why Helen Burns becomes Jane’s best friend at Lowood. At Jane’s time of crisis, having been embarrassed and humiliated by Mr. Brocklehurst, she draws strength from Helen being close to her. While Jane breaks down and sobs, Helen sits down on the ground beside her and offers her the healing balm of friendship. A simile describes Helen’s stoical attitude – “silent as an Indian.”

Mr. Brocklehurst is not a god: nor is he even a great and admired man: he is little liked here; he never took steps to make himself liked. Had he treated you as an especial favourite, you would have found enemies, declared or covert, all around you; as it is, the greater number would offer you sympathy if they dared.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen Burns offers comfort to Jane after she is forced to stand on a stool in front of the whole school by Mr. Brocklehurst. She tries to make Jane feel better by saying that everyone is sympathetic to her because they don’t like Mr. Brocklehurst either.

If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen Burns offers this advice to Jane, who is feeling alone and sorry for herself because she has been called a liar before the whole school by Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane has suffered with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy and isolation throughout her young life. Helen tries to convince her that people in the school don’t despise her or believe she is a liar, but instead pity her. She urges Jane to follow her conscience and not the crowd and she will find that she has friends.

Hush, Jane! you think too much of the love of human beings; you are too impulsive, too vehement; the Sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures feeble as you. Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us, for it is everywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are commissioned to guard us; and if we were dying in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognise our innocence…God waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness – to glory?

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen Burns consoles Jane after her humiliation by Brocklehurst. Helen has a very strong Christian faith and a very religious way of thinking about adversity. Here she addresses Jane’s statement that she needs to be loved by others and would sacrifice almost anything for that. She chides Jane for thinking too much about human love. She advises her to have faith in God’s love and tells her that his angels watch over and guard us, seeing our pain and recognizing our innocence. Death and the separation of the spirit from the body offers the reward of eternal happiness and the glory of Heaven, Helen assures her. This foreshadows how Helen herself will succumb to illness, leading to her death.

Helen had calmed me; but in the tranquility she imparted there was an alloy of inexpressible sadness. I felt the impression of woe as she spoke, but I could not tell whence it came; and when, having done speaking, she breathed a little fast and coughed a short cough, I momentarily forgot my own sorrows to yield to a vague concern for her.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Jane reflects on when her friend Helen provided her with comfort and calm after her punishment and humiliation at Lowood. But Jane has the sense of a sadness and impression of woe in Helen’s voice as she speaks. She is concerned about Helen’s breathing and cough. Being foreshadowed here is the serious illness that Helen will sadly succumb to, the symptoms of which she is at this time experiencing. Despite her being unwell, Helen displays selfless love for a friend when she gives herself to help and care for Jane.

I resolved, in the depth of my heart, that I would be most moderate…I told her all the story of my sad childhood. Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of Helen’s warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary. Thus restrained and simplified, it sounded more credible: I felt as I went on that Miss Temple fully believed me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Having been denounced to the entire school as a liar by Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane is invited by Miss Temple to speak in her own defense and give her side of the story. Miss Temple, along with Helen, is one of the few people in the life of the young Jane, to demonstrate kindness and the affection you would usually get from family. Jane opens up to Miss Temple about her difficult childhood growing up with her aunt’s family at Gateshead. But she takes on board Helen’s advice and recounts her story with less resentment and bitterness than usual. Helen and Miss Temple have become two important people in Jane’s life and she wants to keep that connection.

We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Miss Temple invites Jane and Helen to her room and treats them to slices of seed-cake and tea, bringing Jane much comfort after her public humiliation by Brocklehurst. The importance of the new bond of friendship and affection between the head teacher and her two young students is underlined by metaphors comparing the fare they feast on to ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the Greek gods. Orphan Jane has discovered a new and loving surrogate family at Lowood.

As to Helen Burns, I was struck with wonder. The refreshing meal, the brilliant fire, the presence and kindness of her beloved instructress, or perhaps more than all these, something in her own unique mind, had roused her powers within her. They woke, they kindled; first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek, which till this hour I had never seen but pale and bloodless; then they shone in the liquid lustre of her eyes, which had suddenly acquired a beauty more singular than that of Miss Temple’s – a beauty neither of fine colour, nor long eyelash, nor penciled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance. Then her soul sat on her lips, and language flowed…Such was the characteristic of Helen’s discourse on that, to me, memorable evening; her spirit seemed hastening to live within a very brief span as much as many live during a protracted existence.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen’s inner beauty and spirituality shine forth to Jane during a wonderful night they spend together with Miss Temple at Lowood. Jane is wonder-struck by Helen and sees her as unique and angel-like. To Jane she becomes a kind of heavenly spirit with a radiance about her and a mystical power and strength, “her soul sat on her lips” as she speaks.

They conversed of things I had never heard of; of nations and times past; of countries far away: of secrets of nature discovered or guessed at: they spoke of books: how many they had read! What stores of knowledge they possessed! Then they seemed so familiar with French names and French authors: but my amazement reached its climax when Miss Temple asked Helen if she sometimes snatched a moment to recall the Latin her father had taught her, and taking a book from a shelf, bade her read and construe a page of Virgil; and Helen obeyed, my organ of Veneration expanding at every sounding line.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Jane’s love of knowledge and learning is evident in this passage where she describes the lively conversation Miss Temple and Helen have on a range of diverse topics. She pays close attention to and soaks up everything they discuss. She is particularly excited when Helen at Miss Temple’s prompting does a reading from a book by the Roman poet Virgil.

I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual: my mind is at rest…By dying young I shall escape great sufferings…I believe; I have faith: I am going to God.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Helen Burns is dying of tuberculosis in Jane’s arms at Lowood School. Helen has a very stong Christian faith and endures the hardships of life at Lowood without complaint. She tells Jane that her mind is at rest and urges her not to grieve over her passing. She accepts death and is content that God will reward her by welcoming her into Heaven.

And I clasped my arms closer round Helen; she seemed dearer to me than ever; I felt as if I could not let her go; I lay with my face hidden on her neck. Presently she said in the sweetest tone, – “How comfortable I am! That last fit of coughing has tired me a little; I feel as if I could sleep: but don’t leave me, Jane; I like to have you near me.”
“I’ll stay with you, dear Helen: no one shall take me away.”
“Are you warm, darling?”
“Yes.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. In this very moving and heartbreaking passage, Jane and Helen Burns speak their final farewell words and kiss each other goodnight. Jane has climbed into Helen’s bed to be with her in her last moments before she succumbs to tuberculosis.

I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn, had found me laid in the little crib; my face against Helen Burns’s shoulder, my arms round her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was – dead. Her grave is in Brocklebridge church-yard; for fifteen years after her death it was only covered by a grassy mound; but now a gray marble tablet marks the spot, inscribed with her name and the word “Resurgam.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Helen Burns does not die alone, we learn. Miss Temple discovers her in her bed in the morning with Jane asleep beside her and Jane’s arms around her dead friend’s neck. This shows the strong bond of friendship between the two girls who supported and clung to each other in life and death. Helen’s grave stone is inscribed with the Latin word “Resurgam,” meaning “I will rise again.” This has a double meaning. Helen was a committed Christian who believed that after death she would rise to be with God in Heaven. Also Helen’s spirit lives on in her friend Jane.
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