Northumberland is significant to Jane Eyre because it is where the character Helen Burns, Jane’s childhood friend at Lowood, is from. She describes it as being on the border of Scotland, and reminisces briefly to Jane about a bubbling brook near her house. In my research, I gathered information from https://historywithbeth.substack.com/p/northumberland-a-history-lovers-paradise . This source is a blog post by a travel blogger named Beth who describes herself as “in love with Scotland and Scottish history”, and Northumberland as “only a hop, skip, and a jump over the Anglo-Scottish border into England”. I learned from her that Northumberland has more castles than any other English county. Helen’s religious beliefs and demeanor could possibly tie into the rich religious history of Northumberland, such as Lindisfarne, or “Holy Island”, which is also called the Cradle of Celtic Christianity.
This location highlights the limits of first person narration due to receiving such a limited bit of information on Helen’s place of origin. There was not much information that Jane herself gave us, and we only heard a small piece from Helen about the brook in Deepden and the short distance from Scotland; we are uninformed about its rich religious history, its many castles, its rolling hills, and much more. I feel that digging deeper into Northumberland sheds a light on Helen Burns’ upbringing and the culture of where she was raised — and this context is something I never would have gotten without further research.
Mapping this location on COVE reveals many things, but I choose to focus on the history of Northumberland and how I believe it affects Helen Burns. I think it speaks on her character that she comes from a long standing religious place made up of rolling hills and scattered castles; it almost feels as if Helen herself is a personification of Northumberland, with her well-mannered and traditionally Christian demeanor, yet scattered behaviors and tendencies. I believe it even highlights her character foil to Jane; while Jane, our gothic protagonist, comes from a dreary manor haunted by the sins of her aunt and the death of her uncle, Helen came from a vast green display of rural living and Christian values.
Image source: https://matfenhall.com/news/discover-northumberland-10-facts-about-englands-hidden-gem/
Information source: https://historywithbeth.substack.com/p/northumberland-a-history-lovers-paradise