The Ultimate Bronte heroine?

There is something about Lucy Snowe which changes her from being a detached, independent woman who after a struggle at lasts finds love i.e. an instant Victorian heroine. (I know I'm generalising here). Lucy Snowe appeals to the reader as an underdog, and there is something inherently painful about her experiences which touches the heart and not just the mind. She is undoubtedly the most human character in all Bronte's novels. At first I felt that she was being used as a tool to make the reader think in a particular way, but by the end I saw a real woman there, struggling to match her intellectual ideas with genuine, raw emotions. But is Lucy Snowe intended to be Bronte's ultimate heroine, or a representation of herself - or both? Whatever the intention, I think this is Bronte's best.