School Life Charlotte studied at Cowan Bridge a strict charity school The food was bad The building was cold The teachers were cruel In Jane Eyre Lowood School is the same picture Mr Brocklehurst represents the real schoolmaster Carus Wilson of Charlotte s school Jane says Our clothing was insufficient to protect us from the severe cold This is Charlotte s own memory Her suffering becomes Jane s suffering The Death of Sisters and Helen Burns Two of Charlotte s sisters Maria and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis at Cowan Bridge This broke Charlotte s heart In the novel Jane s friend Helen Burns dies of illness Helen is patient gentle and spiritual She is like Charlotte s sister Maria Jane s sorrow at Helen s death reflects Charlotte s grief for her real sisters Governess Life Charlotte Bront worked as a governess for two families She was a governess for the Sidgwick family at Stone Gappe in Yorkshire in Later in she worked for the White family at Upperwood House in Rawdon Her unhappy experiences in these roles greatly influenced her writing particularly the character of Jane Eyre Jane also works as a governess at Thornfield She teaches Ad le She faces the same half-respected place Jane s dignity and self-respect as a governess reflect Charlotte s own feelings in real life The Theme of Love and Independence Charlotte once loved her teacher Constantin H ger in Brussels But he was married She could never marry him In Jane Eyre love for Rochester is also full of pain and obstacles Yet Jane refuses to give up her dignity She says I am a free human being with an independent will This is Charlotte s own voice She believed that love must stand with freedom and equality Religious Faith and Moral Struggle Charlotte s father Reverend Patrick Bront was an Irish clergyman So Religion was part of her life She often struggled between feeling and faith In the novel Jane leaves Rochester after learning of Bertha Mason This shows her moral struggle She loves Rochester but she will not live in sin Marrying him will go against her moral principles So she says I care for myself The more solitary the more friendless the more unsustained I am the more I will respect myself Her decision reflects Charlotte s own deep religious and moral sense Jane Eyre is more than a novel it is Charlotte Bront s own soul written in a story Every page carries her pain her loss her work and her struggle Jane s voice is Charlotte s voice The suffering at Gateshead the cruelty of Lowood the death of Helen the hard life of a governess and the cry for love all are Bront s lived truths That is why Jane Eyre feels so real It is not just fiction it is half autobiography