Minor Characters in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

The Minor Characters of Jane Eyre

All the minor characters who appear in the novel, Jane Eyre are only sketched in, so to speak. They are "flat"; not developed in the way that the central three characters are developed. All of them are conventional; behave and speak conventionally, and do not develop at all. They are set merely as foils for the central characters, and they tend to be extremes or stereotypes, behaving very predictably and not surprising us with any unexpected reaction.

Some of the minor characters who parallel aspects of Jane's character, like Maria Temple and Helen Burns, are idealised - made to seem saint-like. others, who contrast with Jane, like Georgiana Reed and Blanche Ingram, are grotesque in order to emphasise the difference between them and her.They become, in effect, symbolic and their excesses or virtues sharpen the contrast with Jane.

Georgiana and Eliza Reed are described by JE as "feeling without judgement"(Georgiana) and "Judgement without feeling" (Eliza) - both are drawn by CB to show the results of each type of excessive behaviour. JE herself has to fight to preserve the balance in HER character between Judgement and feeling - the Reed sisters therefore provide an indicator as to what happens if the balance goes wrong.

Blanche Ingram is a woman without scruples or morality - haughty and proud - very beautiful and priveleged - she is nevertheless shallow and intellectually inferior. She is a warning shadow to JE, who is soon to be faced with the temptation to give in to her passions and embrace the shallow life of a courtesan, when Rochester pleads with her to go to the continent with him after the "wedding". The more virtuous minor characters serve the same function, standing as moral or spiritual beacons to which Jane may aspire, but may not ever reach.

Maria Temple - the charitable schoolteacher is both an example and a warning. She can and does serve as a role-model for Jane, but she is also a powerless female - having to answer for her independence to a wrathful Mr Brocklehurst, and having no real authority when he is on the premises. Her position is servile and inferior and she submits to it. JE later will break this pattern at Thornfield, in her dealings with her employer, but ironically her habit of submissiveness is gained as a direct result of association with Maria Temple.