The journey only ends when she finds true happiness.
Jane makes her journey from Gateshead to Lowood at the age of ten, finally freeing her from her restrictive life with her aunt. Before making her journey, Jane's feelings are conveyed by Bronte through the use of pathetic fallacy:.
".the grounds, where all was still petrified under the influence of hard frost.".
The word choice here reflects Jane's situation - she is like the ground, petrified' under the influence of her aunt, whose behaviour is mirrored in the term "hard frost" because of the icy discipline she bestows. Mrs Reed's attitude towards Jane highlights one of the main themes of the novel, social class. Jane's aunt sees Jane as inferior as she had humble beginnings: she is "less than a servant". Jane is glad to be leaving her cruel aunt and of having the chance of going to school.
Eight years later, when Jane travels from Lowood to Thornfield, she is much more contented. She has come to be respected by the teachers and pupils at Lowood, largely due to the influence of her teacher, Miss Temple, to whose instruction she "owed the best part of her acquirements" and who had stood her "in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion". Jane has found in Miss Temple what Mrs Reed always denied her.
This particular journey marks a huge change in Jane's life; it is a fresh start for her:.
"A new chapter in a novel is something like a new scene in a play.".
This comment also shows that Jane herself thinks of the move as a new beginning and is looking forward to her "new duties" and her "new life". .
When Jane arrives in the town of Millcote, she is fearful:.
".I am not very tranquil in my mind.I looked anxiously around.all sorts of doubts and fears are troubling my thoughts.".
Her anxiety, though, is counterbalanced by the "charm of adventure"; Jane is finally independent and in control of her own life.
Although journeying into the completely unknown, Jane does not look back, only forward to her new life and her freedom at Thornfield:.
