JANE EYRE

- Written by
Charlotte Brontë
under the pen name
‘Currer Bell’.
- Published in 1847.
Why did Charlotte Brontë use a synonym?
In the early 19th century, critics
often dismissed the work of women
writers as light entertainment.
Women writers who wanted to
create more literary works often
found that their work would be
taken more seriously if they used a
male pseudonym. This is why
Charlotte Brontë published her first
two novels, Jane Eyre and Shirley,
under the name Currer Bell.
Critics recommended Jane Eyre at
the time of its publication.
SETTING
 THE PLOT: 1) GATESHEAD HALL
Jane Eyre is a 10-year-old orphan in England in the first decades of the
1800s. Jane’s parents died of typhus when she was a baby. Mrs Reed,
who married Jane’s uncle, has agreed to raise her, so Jane lives with the
Reed family in Gateshead Hall. However, Mrs Reed and her three
children Eliza, John and Georgiana treat Jane very badly and cruelly.
They dislike her because she has no money. Jane is often sent to the
red-room for punishment. The red-room is where Jane's uncle died nine
years earlier. While she is confined there, Jane thinks she sees a ghost
and she passes out.
Jane is sent off to Lowood school, a very strict school.

THE PLOT: 2) LOWOOD SCHOOL

 THE PLOT: 3) LOWOOD SCHOOL
Lowood school is terrible. The students are cold, underfed, and
poorly clothed. Jane makes friends with Helen Burns, who helps
Jane accept the poor conditions. A typhus epidemic passes through
the school and Helen dies from consumption. During her six years as
a student, Jane rises to the top of her class. She appreciates one of
her teachers, Miss Temple. Jane then stays on in Lowood as a
teacher for two more years. The superintendent at Lowood is mean
Mr. Brocklehurst.
 THE PLOT: 4) THORNFIELD
In search of new experiences, Jane accepts the post of governess at
Thornfield, a large, beautiful estate. Her young French student, Adèle
Varens, belongs to Mr. Rochester, Jane's employer. Mr. Rochester is
quirky, unusual and prone to dark moods, but Jane finds herself falling
in love with him. One night she saves his life when she puts out a fire
that has been set in his room. Jane wonders if the fire might be
connected to strange laughter she sometimes hears on the third floor,
and Mr. Rochester says that a servant, Grace Poole, was responsible.
 THE PLOT: 5) GATESHEAD HALL
Jane’s dying Aunt, Mrs. Reed, asks Jane to go see her in Gateshead
Hall. She tells Jane that her uncle, John Eyre of Madeira, has been
trying to find Jane and would like to adopt her and leave his fortune
to her. Mrs. Reed, still angry with Jane, told her uncle that Jane was
dead. Now that Mrs. Reed is dying, she wants to unburden herself.
 THE PLOT: 6) BACK TO THORNFIELD
When Jane returns to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester tells her that he has
secretly been in love with her, and he asks her to marry him. Jane
accepts. However, happiness eludes Jane. Her wedding ceremony is
interrupted by a lawyer, Mr. Briggs, who claims that Rochester is
already married.
 THE PLOT: 6) BERTHA MASON
Rochester tells Jane that, when he was a young man in Jamaica, his
father had arranged his marriage to a Creole woman named Bertha
Mason. Bertha revealed herself as insane and unmanageable, and
Rochester secretly brought her to Thornfield, under the care of Grace
Poole, on the third floor. It was Bertha, not Grace Poole, who set the
fire in Rochester's room. Rochester asks Jane to understand him. He
hadn't meant to deceive her but had convinced himself that Bertha's
madness somehow nullified his marriage. He thought that, if he lived
a good life, he deserved to find real love with Jane. Jane forgives him
in her heart and assures him that she still loves him, but, as he is a
married man, she knows that she must leave him.
 THE PLOT: 7) THE MOORS
Jane flees Thornfield and finds herself on the outskirts of a remote
village on the moors. Three siblings—Mary, Diana, and St. John
Rivers—take her in and Jane begins to teach at the village school. She
then receives news that she has inherited a large fortune from her
uncle, John Eyre. She also discovers that the Rivers siblings are her
cousins and she decides to share the fortune with them. St. John
pressures Jane to go to India with him as his wife to do missionary
work. She doesn't love him but she's on the verge of accepting, out
of a sense of religious duty, when she thinks she hears Rochester's
voice calling her name on the moors. She knows that she must find
out what has happened to him.
 THE PLOT: 8) BACK TO THORNFIELD
Jane goes back to Thornfield only to find the manor in ruins; it has
burned to the ground. Bertha had escaped and set the fire before
falling from the roof to her death. Jane rushes to Ferndean, the
remote house where Mr. Rochester, who lost his sight and the use of
a hand in the fire, is living. They rekindle their relationship and
marry. Ten years later Jane reports that they are closer and happier
than ever. Rochester has regained some of his sight, they have a son,
and all of their loved ones are happy as well, even the dying St. John.
• Jane is the central character and
the heroine of the novel.
• She is physically plain, but acutelly
intelligent and strongly independent.
• She is not immune to suffering,
mainly because of her life before
Thornfield: she is terribly aware of
the differences between how things
are and how they might be.
• She is passionate, but she also

JANE
recognises the dangers of
uncontrolled passion. Although she
is rebellious when she needs to be

EYRE
rebellious, she also knows very well
that actions must be tempered by
reason.
SOCIAL
CLASS
JANE’S MORAL
CODE

Jane tells Rochester why she must

leave him, despite her feelings, now
that she knows about his marriage. In
doing so she asserts her worth as an
individual, despite being a woman and
not of the upper class, and she
proclaims her moral code.
 GOTHIC
INFLUENCES
Gothic literature was characterised by bizarre
characters and melodramatic incidents,
menacing castles, decaying manor houses and
wild landscapes. There is usually a mood for
mystery or suspense. Additionally,
unexpected events take place at night.
 NATURE/THE
LANDSCAPE

- Nature and the English countryside are used to suggest the character’s condition and state of
mind. This is a typically Romantic element. However, there are elements of the landscape
which are typical of the Gothic literature: there are numerous references to the weather and
the sky, in the form of storms, rain, clouds. At the very opening of the novel, Jane sets the
scene by mentioning that ‘the cold winter wind’ had brought with it ‘clouds so sombre, and a
rain so penetrating’.
- The moon, too, appears frequently. There is a full moon the night when Jane flees Thornfield.
1) DARK, DISTURBING CHARACTERS/BERTHA MASON (Rochester’s wife)
Rochester’s insane wife has been hidden away in a room in the attic
room at Thornfield Hall. She is crazy, in some ways uncivilised, almost
monstruous (she sets fire to Thornfield). She appears on only a few
pages of the novel, but her Gothic existence is felt well before it is
revealed. She is more of a symbol than a character. She represents
Rochester’s dark side and Jane’s dark double.
2) THE HAUNTED CASTLE
Thornfield is, in a way, haunted. There are mysterious things
happening, strange noises at night, and it gets burned down (the fire
is a Gothic element).
3) THE HERO
Rochester has some Gothic elements. For four months, Jane and the
reader do not know what he looks like and what he is like. He is
wealthy, passionate and has a dark secret.
4) A GOTHIC ROMANCE
Jane and Rochester’s love story is definitely not smooth and they have
to overcome some obstacles before they can be together.
5) ESCAPE FROM A MALE HERO
Jane makes a romantic and desperate escape from Rochester, the
male hero.
Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am
an automaton?—a machine without feelings? […] Do you think,
because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and
heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as
much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much
wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now
for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium
of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit
that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the
grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,—as we are! (Jane Eyre)

Restare e non essere niente per voi? Forse io sono una macchina senza
sentimenti? Credete perché sono povera, strana, insignificante e
anonima, ch’io sia senza anima e cuore? Ma ho anima e cuore tanto
quanto voi. E se Dio mi avesse benedetta con la bellezza e la ricchezza,
avrei potuto rendervi più difficile il lasciarmi come lo è per me il
lasciare voi. Non vi parlo più da essere mortale. È il mio spirito che
parla al vostro spirito, come se fossimo già in cielo, uguali davanti a
Dio. Come deve essere.
Reader, I married him.
Jane Eyre, Chapter 38

This breathtakingly short sentence tells

readers about the key event they have been
waiting for but it also reminds readers that
Jane has completed her journey toward
being a strong, independent woman.
 MAIN THEMES
• Jane’s fear of losing her autonomy makes her refuse Rochester’s marriage
proposal. Jane believes that “marrying” Rochester while he remains legally
tied to Bertha would mean rendering herself a mistress and sacrificing her
own integrity for the sake of emotional gratification. Only after proving her
self-sufficiency to herself can she marry Rochester and not be asymmetrically
Love vs dependent upon him as her “master.” The marriage can be one between
equals. As Jane says: “I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine. . . . To be
autonomy together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude, as gay as in company. . . .

• Brontë uses the novel to express her critique of Victorian class differences.
Jane is a poor individual within a wealthy environment, particularly with the
Reeds and at Thornfield. Her poverty creates numerous obstacles for her and
her pursuit of happiness, including personal insecurity and the denial of
opportunities. The beautiful Miss Ingram's higher social standing, for instance,
makes her Jane's main competitor for Mr. Rochester’s love, even though Jane
SOCIAL is far superior in terms of intellect and character. Moreover, Jane’s refusal to
marry Mr. Rochester because of their difference in social stations
POSITION demonstrates her morality and belief in the importance of personal
independence.