Jane initially avoids recounting the tragedy that strikes Lowood by describing these months as aesthetically beautiful: "April advanced to May: a bright, serene May it was; days of blue sky, placid sunshine, and soft western or southern gales filled up its duration...it became all green, all flowery" (Brontë 62).
That said, one quickly learns that this time is also when the typhus epidemic breaks out at Lowood, and many students die. Jane is found saying, "Semi-starvation and neglected colds had predisposed most of the pupils to receive infection: forty-five out of the eighty girls lay ill at one time. Classes were broken up, rules relaxed. The few who continued well were allowed almost unlimited license; because the medical attendant insisted on the necessity of frequent exercise to keep them in health: and had it been otherwise, no one had leisure to watch or restrain them" (Brontë 62).Through this contrast of Jane's description of this at Lowood as both beautiful and tragic, it establishes a reflection of the way Jane's life, by the end of the book, will be both beautiful and tragic. At the novel's conclusion, she will have endured abuse, neglect, hunger, and homelessness, but will also successfully become a caretaker, wife, lover, and mother. The balance of both happiness and tragedy is a dichotomy addressed throughout the entirety of Jane Eyre.
Despite the possibility of typhus being coupled with poverty, due to its association with unclean water and poor sanitation, it's important to remember it was a classless disease: everyone was affected, rich or poor. With the book's constant reflection on class, specifically between the meshing of Jane, a poor nanny, and Rochester, a rich businessman, typhus becomes an uncanny mirror of Jane and Rochester's unexpected relationship.
To read an analysis of the typhus outbreak at Lowood as well as other diseases during the Victorian period, consider reading “Jane Eyre and Public Health: A Closer Look at the Lowood School Epidemic.” This article “…focuses on public health in respect to works in Victorian period including book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Topics discussed include writing of the book during a historical moment in which public health regulation was needed, diseases responsible for public health crisis include influenza, small pox, cholera, tuberculosis, typhoid, fever and diphtheria, difficulties faced by the Victorian public health including how to halt the spread of diseases” (Thielman).
Bibliography: Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Philadelphia, Courage Books, 1988.
Thielman, Fran. “Jane Eyre and Public Health: A Closer Look at the Lowood School Epidemic.” Victorians Institute Journal, vol. 42, Jan. 2014, pp. 179–198. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hus&AN=111781976&site=eds-live.