A booklet or pamphlet was published by the London Orphan Asylum outlining the charity’s mission and rules.  It describes itself as the kind of strict institution, set on imbuing orphaned children and 'whaifs' with life skills and a righteous moral code.  These institutions were underfunded, understaffed and corporal punishment was common.

Professor John Mullan explains the commonplace nature of institutions like these in hos article on Orphans in Victorian Fiction, and even references their appearance in Jane Eyre, explaining how typical their struggles were for abandoned children, "Jane Eyre is barely cared for by her unloving aunt, and is tormented by her cousins. She is then packed off to the appalling Lowood School, where most of the pupils are similarly abandoned. When she arrives she meets her fellow pupil Helen Burns, who tells her that ‘all the girls here have lost either one or both parents, and this is called an institution for educating orphans’ (ch. 5).  Jane...

How do the events of Charolette Bronte's early life influence the content within her novel, Jane Eyre? Are there similarities between Charlotte Bronte's life and the events in Jane Eyre?

Hoeveler, Diane Long, and Lisa Jadwin. "Chronology." Charlotte Brontë, Twayne Publishers, 1988, pp. xi-xii. Twayne's English Authors Series 541. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2328600010/GVRL?u=viva_vcu&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=4e9a2a09. Accessed 21 Oct. 2021.

Stoneman, Patsy, and Patricia Ingham. Charlotte Bronte, Liverpool University Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vcu/detail.action?docID=5520625.

Pollard, Arthur. Charlotte Bronte . Routledge, 2015, doi:10.4324/9781315681122.

Jane Eyre was written in 1847, but age of consent laws did not come under intense public discussion in England until the late 1800’s, particularly after an expose on the so-called "White Slave-Trade." In 1885, The Law Amendment Act was passed which raised the age of consent for sex outside marriage from 13 to 16 years of age. However, girls who were perceived as "older than their age." were excluded from the benefits of these laws and many men were not persecuted for breaking this law if they made such claims about her age and appearance. The age at which individuals could marry was less discussed and was based around “physical maturity” (12 years old for girls and 14 for boys). The campaigns around raising the age of consent focused primarily on protecting young working-class girls from the advances of older middle or upper-class men. Although Jane Eyre is 18 when she meets Mr. Rochester, his behaviors are obviously predatory as he takes advantage...