Chapters 5 to 10: Lowood — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
Chapters 5 to 10: Lowood
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Lowood school: cold, hunger and Mr Brocklehurst's regime, Jane's friendships with Helen Burns and Miss Temple, her public shaming,
the typhus epidemic and Helen's death, and Jane's years as pupil and teacher until she advertises for a post.
Key quotations: 'by Naomi Brocklehurst, of Brocklehurst Hall', 'my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh', 'this girl is—a liar!', 'When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard', 'If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way', 'if others don't love me I would rather die than live', 'semi-starvation and neglected colds', 'I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer', 'grant me at least a new servitude'.
Structure: eight years passed over in a few pages after Helen's death, and Jane's restlessness as the push to her next stage.
Context: Cowan Bridge, the school for the daughters of poorly paid clergymen that Charlotte Brontë attended, and its founder William Carus Wilson.
OCR's question on this novel is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the novel elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the novel, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts when it is relevant to the question, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
