Jane Eyre
The plot in 58 words
Jane Eyre is an orphan whose childhood is harsh. She becomes a
governess to a girl brought up by Mr. Rochester. Jane and Rochester
fall in love. On their wedding day Jane learns that he is already married.
She runs away. A year later she returns. She finds Rochester blind, but single.
His wife is dead. They marry.
or in 150 words . . .
Jane Eyre's parents die when she is a baby. Her aunt sends her to a school for orphans,
which is very strict. Jane grows up and becomes a teacher at the school. Later she finds
work as a governess to Adele, who is looked after by a rich but difficult man called
Rochester. Jane and Rochester fall in love, and decide to get married. As they stand
in church on their wedding day, a man appears saying that Rochester is already married.
Rochester shows Jane his mad wife Bertha who lives in a room under the roof. Jane is
heartbroken and leaves. Rochester is about to run after Jane when he sees his house
is on fire. Bertha is standing on the roof screaming. He goes to rescue her but she
dies in the fire and he almost loses his sight. Many months later, Jane returns and
they get married.
The cast
The Reeds at Gateshead Hall
- Mr Reed: a magistrate, loved his only sister (Jane) and opposed his family's disowning her when she married a lowly clergyman (p260). On his deathbed he makes his wife promise to look after his niece Jane Eyre who is only one year old when he dies (p23).
- Mrs Reed (nee Gibson) resents Jane Eyre because her husband loved her more than he did his own children; dies when Jane is 20
- Eliza a dour money-grubber
- Georgiana is pretty (&) vacant (one year older than Jane)
- John gets into debt gambling and commits suicide at the age of 23, precipitating his mother's stroke and death (p250) (four years older than Jane)
- Bessie, their nurse
- Mr Lloyd, the apothecary
The Eyres (and the Rivers)
Jane Eyre the narrator and eponymous heroine of the story; orphaned at age 1, brought up
by her cruel aunt Mrs. Reed, sent to Lowood School where she is a student and then a
teacher. She advertises for work as a governess in a local newspaper, and is taken on
by Mrs Fairfax at Thornfield Hall. Her job is to look after Adele, a little French girl.
She falls in love with Edward Rochester, but runs away from him when she discovers he
is already married. She finds shelter with the Rivers, but eventually returns to Thornfield Hall
and marries Edward (who is recovering from injuries sustained in the fire that destroyed much of T Hall).
They have a son. Jane's father was a curate (his brother John Eyre of Madeira is rich & works
for Richard Mason). Their sister married Mr. Rivers and had 3 children: St John, Diana and Mary.
Mr. Rivers lost all his money after poor advice from John Eyre of Madeira, his brother-in-law.
They quarreled and never made up, so John Eyre left all his fortune to Jane Eyre.
Lowood School
- Mr Brocklehurst the headmaster, a crooked hypocrite who spends the money donated to the school on his family
- Mrs Harden the mean housekeeper
- Miss Scratcherd the evil teacher
- Miss Temple the kind teacher who befriends Jane
- Helen Burns the first friend Jane has, but who dies of TB
The Rochesters at Thornfield Hall
- Edward Fairfax Rochester: the younger brother of Rowland (RR inherited all their father's estate and fortune, but died 9 years ago); married off by his father to a woman 5 years his senior, Bertha Mason who came with a fortune of 30,000. After four years of marriage Bertha's madness became so pronounced, Edward locked her away at Thornfield and went to Europe. There he had a succession of mistresses: Giacinta, an Italian, Clara, a German, and Celine , a French opera dancer (p350). Celine duped Edward into believing he was the father of her child Adele Varens, and even though he discovered the truth, he still took the child in when her mother ran off and abandoned her. (p160-164).
- Mrs Fairfax the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. Her late husband was distantly related to the Rochesters; Edward Rochester's mother was a Fairfax and was second cousin to Mrs Fairfax's husband
- Grace Poole the servant who looks after Bertha (and keeps her a secret)
- John and his wife Leah the servants
- Carter the surgeon who tends to the stabbed Richard Mason
- Pilot (Edward Rochester's dog)
The Masons of Jamaica
Bertha: the daughter of Mr. Jonas Mason (a West Indian planter & merchant) and Antoinetta his mad Creole wife (hidden away in an asylum p344). She has a brother Richard who visits Thornfield Hall only to get stabbed by Bertha. She also has (had?) a dumb idiot younger brother.
The first page
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the
leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company,
dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating,
that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.
I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was
the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the
chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to
Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room:
she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time
neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining
the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance;
but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation that I was
endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more
attractive and sprightly manner, --- something lighter, franker, more natural as it were
--- she really must exclude me from the privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.'
"What does Bessie say I have done?" I asked.
"Jane, I don't like cavillers or questioners: besides, there is something truly forbidding
in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak
pleasantly, remain silent."
Notes on the first page
- Which day?
- Who are 'we'?
- Who is Mrs Reed? What is her relationship with 'we' and 'I'?
- Who is 'I'? A man or a woman? An adult or a child?
- Wintry desolate scene: leafless, no company, cold winter wind, clouds so sombre, rain so penetrating (it is 4 p.m. on a day in the middle of November)
- Contrast with the cold outside with the 3rd paragraph's warm interior (the family by the fireside in the drawing-room, from which Jane is excluded)
- Nurse Betty acts as a buffer zone between the upper-class Reeds and their poor relation Jane Eyre
- Vocabulary (drawing-room, mama, nurse) very upper-class
Jane Eyre: Chapter by Chapter
Volume 1
- Jane banished to the red room
- J begs to be let out but is forced back in by Mrs. Reed
- Mr. Lloyd the apothecary visits Jane, asks if she'd like to go to school
- Mr. Brocklehurst visits. Jane tells Mrs Reed what she thinks of her
- Jane leaves Gateshead Hall, goes 50 miles to Lowood
- Jane gets to know Helen Burns
- Mr B tells school that Jane is a liar
- Miss Temple invites Jane and Helen to her room for supper; tells school J is not a liar
- Typhus sweeps through Lowood. Helen dies of TB with J in bed beside her
- Eight years have passed. Jane leaves Lowood for new job as governess at Thornfield
- Welcomed by Mrs Fairfax; meets Adele; hears strange laugh; Grace Poole
- Jane helps Mr Rochester in Hay Lane after he falls from his horse
- J meets R at Thornfield; Mrs F tells J about R's past
- J and R get to know each other
- R tells J who Adele's mother was; J saves R from burning bed
Volume 2
- J questions Grace P; R off to the Leas for a party; Mrs F mentions Blanche Ingram
- R returns a fortnight later with BI and guests; J followed out of room by R
- Charades; Mason arrives; gypsy fortune teller arrives
- Jane has her fortune read; the gypsy is R; J tells him of Mason's arrival
- Mason stabbed in the night; J nurses him; he leaves; J and R talk in orchard
- J visits the dying Mrs Reed, forgives her
- J returns to find R planning for his wedding to BI
- R tells J in orchard of post in Ireland; tears; they agree to marry !!!!!!!!!
- Mrs F warns J of marriage; shopping; J writes to her uncle of her marriage
- J tells R of strange woman who tore her wedding veil in half one night
- J & R's wedding interrupted by Briggs a lawyer and Mason; R shows J Bertha
Volume 3
- J refuses to be R's mistress; J bids R farewell; leaves in middle of night
- J begs for food at Whitcross/Morton; finds shelter with the Rivers
- J hides her identity from her hosts; asks for work
- SJR offers J the job of village teacher; letter tells SJR his uncle has died
- J opens school in Morton; SJR tells of his plans to be a missionary
- J paints Miss Oliver's picture; SJR rips off J's name from art paper
- SJR tells J he knows her identity, she's inherited uncle's fortune, they're cousins
- J refuses to go to India as SJR's wife
- SJR tries to persuade J; on verge of accepting, she hears R call out her name
- J visits Thornfield, now a ruin; innkeeper tells J of fire and Bertha's death
- J finds R blind at Ferndean, marries him
- Now (ie time of J writing this story down) is 10 years later; R's sight in one eye has returned; they have a son; SJR is dying in India
The Chronology of Jane Eyre
If we say Jane was born in 1800, then . . .
1778 Bertha Mason born
1783 Edward Rochester (ER) born
1799 Jane's parents marry (her mother disowned by Reed family)
1800 Jane Eyre born the only child of a poor curate and his wife
1805 ER marries Bertha Mason in Jamaica
1808? Rowland (Edward's elder brother) dies
1809 ER's father dies (ER 26, Bertha 31)
1810 ER returns from Jamaica to Thornfield Hall where Bertha is kept isolated under lock and key, supervised by Grace Poole, the only person other than the surgeon Carter who knows of her existence. ER travels around Europe from 1810 till 1820. In Paris he has an affair with Celine Varens, an opera dancer; later he meets Giacinta, an Italian, and Clara, a German.
November (start of book) Jane aged 10 living at Gateshead Hall
January 19th: Jane moves to Lowood
March: Mr Brocklehurst tells school that Jane is a liar
April: Outbreak of typhus at the school
June: Helen Burns dies of consumption
John Eyre visits Gateshead Hall looking for his niece Jane Eyre
1817 John Eyre writes to Mrs Reed asking for Jane's address as he wishes to adopt her; she writes back
saying that Jane is dead
1819 October: Jane moves to Thornfield Hall
1820 January: Jane meets Rochester for first time (in Hay Lane)
End of Volume One
1820
March: Jane realises she's in love with Rochester
April: Richard Mason visits Thornfield Hall (gets stabbed and bitten by Bertha)
May 1st: Jane visits Gateshead Hall for one month (Mrs Reed dying)
June: Jane returns to Thornfield Hall
July: Jane and Rochester's aborted wedding (J 19, ER 36, Bertha 41)
End of Volume Two
July: Jane leaves Thornfield. A few days later she arrives at Moor House (Marsh End)
August: Jane opens school in Morton
Nov 5th: St John Rivers sees Jane's name written on a piece of paper
Nov 6th: SJR tells her she's inherited 20,000 and they're cousins
Christmas: Jane moves back to Moor House
1821
May: Jane refuses to go to India with SJR as his wife
June 1st: Jane finds Thornfield in ruins, Rochester at Ferndean. They marry
1831 Time of writing (10 years on from their marriage)
The structure
A 31-year-old married woman looks back on two stormy periods in her life:
- 6 months when she was 10 years old (and sent away to boarding school)
- 21 months when she was 20/21 years old (when she starts work, and meets her employer
who eventually becomes her husband)
The focus
- On how Jane was brought up and educated.
- On her life as a governess.
- On her love life.
The themes
- The cold of the climate and the people
- Fires (fireplace = the symbol of the family, but fire = destructive passion)
- Cool reason against hot desire
- Religion versus temptation and damnation
- Simplicity versus ornateness
- Hypocrisy
- Pride
- The orchard with its chestnut tree hit by lightning
- Class divide
- How learning can give women a degree of independence
- Hunger for food and for love
- Superstition (ghosts, hearing voices)
- Beauty and the beast (both Jane and Edward Rochester not conventionally beautiful)
- Madness (Bertha Mason, St John Rivers' one-track mind)
The good bits
- Great turn of phrase
- Good at building suspense, making us want to know what is going to happen next (the mysterious laughter, the fire engulfing Rochester's bed, Mason getting stabbed)
- Good on the class divide
- Great dialogue
- Jane's character
The bad bits
- Amazing coincidences that beggar belief (Jane finding shelter with her long-lost cousins, Mason staying with his employee John Eyre in Madeira when Jane's letter arrives telling of her imminent marriage to Rochester)
- The relationship between Jane and St John Rivers. Why does she let herself be cowed by him? Jane becomes uncharacteristically weak. Also why does she go so OTT about cleaning Moor House?
- Why does she write her name on her paper when she is trying so hard to keep her identity a secret?