Miss Temple Quotes

Oh, madam, when you put bread and cheese, instead of burnt porridge, into these children’s mouths, you may indeed feed their vile bodies, but you little think how you starve their immortal souls!

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. This shows the religious hypocrisy of Mr. Brocklehurst, the clergyman who operates Lowood boarding school for orphaned girls. He is speaking to Miss Temple, the kind and fair-minded teacher in charge of Lowood, who complains that breakfast was so bad that the pupils couldn’t eat it. She has ordered bread and cheese for lunch but is slammed by Brocklehurst for this. Burnt porridge is good for the girls’s souls, he declares.

I had meant to be so good, and to do so much at Lowood; to make so many friends, to earn respect, and win affection. Already I had made visible progress: that very morning I had reached the head of my class; Miss Miller had praised me warmly; Miss Temple had smiled approbation; she had promised to teach me drawing, and to let me learn French, if I continued to make similar improvement two months longer: and then I was well-received by my fellow-pupils; treated as an equal by those of my own age, and not molested by any: now, here I lay again crushed and trodden on; and could I ever rise more?

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Education is very important to Jane who is eager to use her time in Lowood School to improve herself in subjects like art and French. She also yearns for respect and affection, which she did not experience while in Gateshead. She reports progress with the help of the kindly and compassionate Miss Temple. But she now feels crushed again by Mr. Brocklehurst’s public humiliation of her.

Some heavy clouds, swept from the sky by a rising wind, had left the moon bare; and her light, streaming in through a window near, shone full both on us and on the approaching figure, which we at once recognised as Miss Temple.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. After Jane is falsely accused of being a liar by Mr. Brocklehurst, the appearance of the moon through the window and sweeping away of heavy clouds foreshadow an upcoming positive event. Miss Temple appears, comforts Jane and her friend Helen in her room with cake and tea and the three spend a happy evening together. Throughout the novel the weather and the moon are used by Bronte to herald positive or negative events and moods.

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.

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 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.

During these eight years my life was uniform, but not unhappy, because it was not inactive…Miss Temple, through all changes, had thus far continued superintendent of the seminary; to her instruction I owed the best art of my acquirements; her friendship and society had been my continual solace; she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion…From the day she left I was no longer the same; with her was gone every settled feeling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree a home to me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane reflects on the eight years she spends at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher. During that time she is sustained by the friendship and guidence of Miss Temple, who is like a mother to her. While Miss Temple is there, Lowood is like home to Jane. But from the day Miss Temple leaves, Jane no longer experiences that sense of belonging at the school.
Close