"Jane Eyre" is set during the Victorian period, at a time where a women"s role in society was restrictive and repressive and class differences distinct. A job as a governess was one of the only few respectable positions available to the educated but impoverished single women. Not only is "Jane Eyre" a novel about one woman"s journey through life, but Bront?â?½ also conveys to the reader the social injustices of the period, such as poverty, lack of universal education and sexual inequality. Jane"s plight and her "dependant" status is particularly emphasised at the beginning of the novel. Miss Temple is...
home to me" and without the presence of Miss Temple there to guide her she feels that "the reason to be tranquil was no more".

Miss Temple acts as a strong role model to Jane, and holds the qualities which Jane aspires to have: kindness, sensitivity to the sufferings of others and resolute in her stance to injustice, "I had imbibed from her something of her nature and much of her habits".

It is through Miss Temple"s influence that Jane deals successfully with situations that occur later in her life, including leaving Gateshead and refusing to marry St John.