If Helen Burns seems "too good to be true" to you, how does that reflect on either the narrator's perception or the author's development of character? Are there other characters in the first 8 chapters that seem too "flat" to you? What expectations do you have of the balance of the novel, given the characters you've met so far?

Response from Jacob Beland:
In my opinion, I believe that the authors description can be spot on. When given that much influence over how to do things and how to view the world at such a young age, having god be your one and only saviour with you atoning for all the sins that commited is not a hard thing to believe. Children at a young age will learn by example and if this was shown to her repeatedly throughout her life then she is most likely to believe it and live by it as a sense of a moral and ethical code of conduct. Maybe to a certain degree this character, Helen Burns, is being exaggerated in her devoutness towards god, but again its not hard to believe that she was trully this way.

Another character that doesn't seem to be right in the mind is Mr. Brocklehurst. He seems to be an evil and cruel person that believes the orphans to be full of sin and lust for things that they cannot attain or achieve, which is why he thinks that by denying the orphans of certain luxuries, like ample food, clothing, and an adequate shelter prevents them from becoming this way. In the real world, there are people just like him that have these beliefs and have, in my opinion, been corrupted with the devoutness to god and his teachings. They take everything that god has to say about the way life should be lived and live by that as a meaning of life.