Early female influences

Eliza and Georgiana Reed

Jane's cousins - offer negative examples of vanity and social ambition (Georgiana) and meanness of spirit and a rejection of life in the world (Eliza).

Helen Burns

Helen Burns helps to develop Jane's intellectual ambitions; but Jane rejects her friend's resignation and submission to fate.

Miss Temple

Miss Temple clearly plays a major role in Jane's life, but surprisingly little is said about her and she makes only very short appearances over a space of two or three chapters:

• She plays a part in the expansion of Jane's intellectual ambition and scope, with her interest in books and learning
• Her name suggests that she is invested with spiritual significance
• She arouses Jane's veneration (see Characterisation: Phrenology - a note)
• However, once she leaves the novel as a married woman, she is never mentioned again.

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