Throughout the course of life the places where people live and the experiences gathered there serve to develop their characters. As Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre unfolds through many scenes the character's paths of life lead them to different places where they encounter new experiences and deal with their circumstances in different ways. The environment surrounding a person can influence his or her life in such a way that it creates a positive effect on his character.
Harsh institutions provide the rough circumstances needed to refine an individual's character. Lowood Boarding School contains the experience needed to produce positive refinement in its inhabitants. As Jane Eyre studies at Lowood, extreme physical deprivation confronts her. "Despite terrible deprivation, however, Jane is given something at Lowood gar more prescious than the food and clothing she had at Gateshead: a sense of her own worth-(Berg 44). Living in a "crowded schoolroom and dormitory- with clothing "insufficient to protect [them] from the severe cold- adds to the "semi-starvation and neglected colds- that torture the students (Bronte 69,52). These harsh conditions force Jane either to withstand the institutional experiences or to give up and die with many of her classmates. All of the seemingly negative suffering Jane endures at Lowood, however, creates a positive development in her character because she learns to persevere. Jane realizes she can live without the luxury of her own bedroom, the comfort of all the layers of clothing imaginable, and as much food as she desires because her survival proves it. She actually lives through the cold weather, the periods of starving and sickness, and she even decides to stay beyond her schooling years to become a teacher. The inability to indulge herself at Lowood instills within Jane's character the will to persevere through harsh circumstances.
In addition to the physical suffering inmates experience at Lowood, many also contend with mental deprivation.
