Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre: How does Charlotte Bronte movingly describes Helen’s last moments?

In Chapter 9 of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte describes Helen, who is on the verge of death, to be cold. When Jane “got on to her crib and kissed her” she noticed “her forehead was cold, and her cheek both cold and thin, and so were her hand and wrist; but she smiled as of old.” This transcribes even so cold and near death, she smiles like she did before to reassure Jane of her state, which shows how selfless Helen is even in her last moments, she resembles an angel. As well as highlights a contrast to how she was portrayed before as “warm”, it shows how near death she is but how on the other hand it doesn’t change how calm she stays even in what is supposed to be the hardest time.

Further in the passage, Jane bombards Helens with questions of “ where” she is going, which shows Jane is desperately holding on to Helen, scared of seeing her go away, she wants to understand where she is going, in a sense of denial. Yet Jane knows Helen is going to die but nonetheless she “devours” her “tears” to in a way reassure her as well as herself.

When Jane “nestled” close to her, the reader gets the impression that Jane is taking care and reassuring Helen, which is a contrast to the earlier chapters in the book, when Helen was reassuring Jane and helping her through hard times.

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