Discuss the treatment of childhood in the novel Jane Eyre.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century there was both a
philosophical and psychological debate about how the mind was formed and stocked with
ideas.  While some viewed a child's mind as a blank page, Mr. Brocklehurst of Bronte's
Jane Eyre held the Calvinistic view that children were born with
original sin upon them, so their souls must be cleansed by means of stern measures so
that they may be fit for salvation.  In short, he held children as unregenerate beings. 
The Romantics, however, held that children were naturally good and it was society that
corrupted them later.  They believed in the "natural child" and felt that children
should not be hurried into adulthood.

This Romantic view
coincides with that of the Victorian Charlotte Bronte, who possessed an awareness of the
vulnerability of the child at the mercy of a Mrs. Reed, who finds them tiresome.  She
was also very aware of such institutions as Lowood School which summarily categorized
children and forced them into more adult-like situations for which they were
unprepared.  For instance, the hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst, who professes that girl's
bodies should be starved in order to save their souls when he merely enjoys being
cruel, punishes Jane for breaking her slate, saying that the Evil One has already found
a servant in her.  He tells the other girls that Jane is a castaway and must be shunned;
she is

not a
member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an
alien. 

After he maligns Jane
further to her uncomprehension, Brocklehurst calls her "a liar."  He explains that he
has learned this from her "benefactress" who sent her to Lowood.  With this castigation
of Jane, he instructs that she be made to stand on a stool and no one speak to her for
an half an hour.  In this passage, Charlotte Bronte placed much value upon the
perception of children, and strives for as much verisimilitude in describing Jane's
experience through her eyes.

It is a veritable invective
against the views of those like Brocklehurst that Bronte presents in her
characterization of the long-suffering Helen, the true Christian who instructs Jane
to

"read and
observe what Christ says, how He acts--make his word your rule, and his conduct your
example."

"What does He say? [Jane
asks]

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do
good to those that hate you and despitefully use
you."

Poor Helen is a true
Christian, but in the environment of the stringent and hypocritical Calvinist, Mr.
Brocklehurst, she, like Christ, becomes a sacrificial victim to the thinking of such
cruel men.  In one of the most poignant scenes in the novel, Jane climbs into bed to
warm the freezing Helen, who dies in the night of tuberculosis.  Poor little Helen is
modeled after Bronte's sister, Maria, who died of tuberculosis in
1825.

The disturbing treatment of children is part of
Charlotte Bronte's theme of the importance of the individual; a worth that should be
recognized.