Extreme, Radical, Over-the-Top

So, this has barely anything to do with the book, but more of the discussion we had in class. (Forgive me, for this is nearly a week late by now.) Having touched base on the fact that we are dealing with two extremes represented with the powerful symbols of fire and ice, I feel it necessary to think about what we are in life. Are we the constant burning flames, or are we the stationary frozen solid ice? We all know that Jane is a passionate character, burning with a desire for excitement and adventure. Although many things show this throughout only the first few chapters, the most clarifying description of her passion is when Bronte does not expose to us Jane's passionate character being suppressed by her schooling at Lowood. The eight years of Jane's attendance obviously had to be endured so long with a character paralleling or at least similar to Helen's, which is such the opposite from Jane's. The opportune moment to see Jane's life without passion is just forgone with all but a few brief sentences. Although the way it is set up, it seems the passion in her is set into a hibernation mode. She explains herself thoroughly on pg. 101 as she is just in her room thinking to herself. It is just after Miss Temple has left Lowood, and “…another discovery dawned on me. …She (Miss Temple) had taken with her the serene atmosphere I had been breathing … I was left beginning to feel … old emotions. I remembered that the world was … a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements….” Suddenly, her passion returns to inspire her with the great idea to venture out on her own and discover some part of the world for herself. I admire Jane for her passionate way to go about life. She may seem extreme, because she is often compared to a blazing fire, jumping about, never satisfied, (as we also see later at Thornfield Hall only a month after her arrival) always burning something up in her passion. Some may hate it, this instability of character, yet I cling to it. I imagine if I want to be jumping about from city to city thousands of miles across the sea, how must Jane feel once again realizing that she has been prisoner of such a mundane society for so long? Is Jane always going to be this fiery? What other obstacles of ice will she encounter?