The fight against starvation can be seen during Jane's time in Lowood. The children of Lowood struggle with starvation which eventually leads to a typhoid epidemic. Hunger causes some girls to steal from each other. Mr. Brocklehurst, while keeping his family well fed, keeps the children malnourished. Mr. Brocklehurst states that keeping their bodies nourished “will starve their immortal souls” (Bronte 76). Rather than seeing food as a way to survive, he believes it serves as a way of self-denial. This comes from the idea that denying food can lead to purifying one's spiritual soul (Lii). Hunger also serves as a way to advance the plot in Jane Eyre, as is regularly seen in Victorian literature. After leaving Rochester Jane almost starves: “But it will be terrible; with this feeling of hunger, fainting, cold and this sense of desolation, total prostration of hope. In all probability, however, I should die before morning... Oh, Providence! support me a little longer!” (Bronte 385). This suffering ultimately brings Jane to her cousins. What makes starvation such a regular occurrence in Victorian literature is the fact that everywhere the problem of hunger was present regularly