What my sensations were, no language can describe; but just as they all rose, stifling my breath and constricting my throat, a girl came up and passed me; in passing, she lifted her eyes. What a strange light inspired them! What an extraordinary sensation that ray sent through me! How the new feelings bore me up! It was as if a martyr, a hero, had passed a slave or victim, and imparted strength in the transit. I mastered the rising hysteria, lifted up my head, and took a firm stand on the stool.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. Jane describes how Helen Burns helps her while she is being punished by Mr. Brocklehurst at Lowood. As she stands on the punishment stool, her “pedestal of infamy,” Helen reaches out to give Jane hope and strength during her trial of humiliation. Similes comparing Helen to a martyr and Jane to a slave are used to describe the moment. Helen’s depiction as a martyr is foreshadowing of her own death by tuberculosis at a very young age in the infamous Lowood School.