Jane Eyre

"I am no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will."

Jane Eyre is a 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë, often known to be her most famous work.

It was successful upon being published and is even considered to be one of the first Victorian novels to feature a strong-willed, independent heroine.

The novel focuses on the titular character as she comes of age, finds her way into the social class, and finds love and happiness with her brooding master. The novel also features elements of social class criticism, Gothic elements, feminism and religion. Jane Eyre has since become a classic among the Brontë sisters.

Plot Summary
Jane Eyre is a ten-year-old orphan raised by her wealthy aunt Mrs. Reed at Gateshead Hall in Northern England. She was mistreated by her aunt and cousins since she was poor, dependent, and an outsider in the household. One day, after Jane gets into a fight with her cousin, Mrs. Reed punishes her by having her locked up in the red-room, where her uncle Mr. Reed had died in years earlier. Jane becomes terrified, believing she can see his ghost. She panicks until she faints.

Once she recovers, Jane is sent off to the Lowood Institution by Mrs. Reed, ran by the greedy, hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst. The school had terrible living conditions and harsh discipline, and Brocklehurst uses the school's funds to improve his family's rich lifestyle than for the students and the building. While at Lowood, Jane befriends a girl named Helen Burns, who teaches her about personal prejudice and Christian belief. After a consumption outbreak occurs at the school, Helen dies and arrangements are made at Lowood, improving the building and its conditions.

Jane stays at the school for 8 more years. Now an adult, she accepts a job application as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where her student is a young French-speaking girl named Adèle Varens. While at Thornfield, Jane is constantly bothered where she hears strange laughter and soon meets her employer: a sardonic, brooding man named Mr. Rochester who is the owner of Thornfield. She starts to fall in love with him, after she saves him from a fire in his room one night.

Jane is despondent when Rochester begins to have affections for a richer woman, but he turns her away and proposes marriage to Jane instead, which she accepts. But on the day of the wedding, the ceremony is interrupted by a lawyer, declaring that Rochester is already married. They go upstairs to the attic of Thornfield and find Rochester's insane, unstable wife named Bertha Mason, who had been responsible for the laughter and setting Rochester's room on fire. Jane becomes distraught and flees Thornfield.

She wanders alone aimelessly, until she is taken in by two sisters Mary and Diana Rivers and their brother, St. John. She befriends the Rivers and St. John offers her a job as a teacher. Some time later, Jane discovers that the Rivers are her cousins, and an uncle of theirs has just died and left her a large inheritance. St. John plans to travel to India and convinces Jane to come with him as his wife. She refuses his proposal and was close to reconsidering when she hears Rochester's voice calling out to her. She goes back to Thornfield.

When she arrives there, she finds Thornfield destroyed in a fire, and learns that Bertha Mason had set the building up in flames before killing herself. Mr. Rochester tried to save her, but he becomes blind, loses a hand, and is now residing at nearby Ferndean Manor. Jane goes there and finds Rochester, and after being reunited, they are married. Jane and Rochester had a son and are married for 10 years, while St. John goes on his missionary trip alone with failing health.

Characters
Jane Eyre- The main protagonist. Orphaned, poor and plain as a child, Jane manages to cope with her early struggles with her independence and bravery. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her sardonic employer Mr. Rochester. Her strong-willed traits and actions are challenging against the stereotypes of women and the poor in Victorian England.

Mr. Rochester- The owner of Thornfield Hall and Jane's love interest. He is a gruff, brooding man, but is also sympathetic and passionate; mainly of his troubled past and a secret he had been keeping for years. He also falls in love with Jane, despite him being 20 years her senior and manages to propose marriage to her; even though he was already married to an insane wife kept in the attic.

St. John Rivers- A minister and Jane's cousin. He takes her into his home and even offers her a teaching position nearby. He is a deeply religious man who is wanting to be a missionary rather than living a normal life in Northern England. He is planning to marry Jane, but he doesn't want her for love but simply as a travelling companion. He is seen as the complete opposite of Rochester; being cold and reserved.

Helen Burns- A student at Lowood School who Jane befriends. She is a kind and religious girl, who often teaches Jane the morals of Christianity and passion. She, too, is an orphan and both she and Jane become close. She calmly accepts all of the school punishments given to her by the staff and endures the impoverished life at Lowood. She dies of consumption in Jane's arms.

Mrs. Reed- Jane's aunt. She is a cruel and abusive woman who expresses her hatred to her niece by treating her as an outcast in her household, even though her dying husband made her promise to raise Jane alongside her children. In death, Mrs. Reed resents reconciling with Jane and unloved by her children.

Mrs. Fairfax- The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. She is welcoming and kind to Jane as she arrives at Thornfield and is like a mother-figure to her, since she was sympathetic of the governess' miserable past. She also was the first to tell Jane about the mysterious and strange laughter heard across the house.

Bessie Lee- A nursemaid who looked after Jane as a child at Gateshead. She is caring and helpful to Jane, though she would sometimes scold her for some of the naughty actions Jane did. She visited her while she was leaving Lowood and eventually marries the Gateshead coachman.

Mr. Lloyd- A kind apothecary who treats Jane follows her traumatic experience in the Red Room. He was the one who suggested Jane should go to school and writes a letter to Miss Temple to clear Jane from Mrs. Reed's charge of her being a liar.

John Reed- Mrs. Reed's son and one of Jane's cousins. He is cruel and abusive to Jane while she lived at Gateshead and often bullies her. Later in adulthood, he falls into drinking and gambling and eventually commits suicide after his mother stops paying his debts.

Eliza Reed- One of Mrs. Reed's daughters and another of Jane's cousins. She torments Jane during her childhood at Gateshead, but begins to warm up with her later in life. She devotes herself into Christianity and becomes a nun at a convent in France.

Georgiana Reed- One of Mrs. Reed's daughters and another of Jane's cousins. She also torments Jane during her childhood at Gateshead, but also warms up with her, too, later on. She later marries a wealthy man and becomes a socialite.

Mr. Brocklehust- The greedy and hypocrite clergyman who runs Lowood School where Jane attended as a student. He preaches Christian morals in his sermons and steals the school's funds to create a lavish lifestyle for his family. Upon the typhus outbreak and his cruel deeds come out of light, Brocklehurst was dismissed from his duties at Lowood.

Maria Temple- The headmistress and teacher at Lowood School. She is a kind, generous woman who is a mother-figure, mentor and a female role model to Jane. She also shows compassion and respect to her and Helen and both girls have a close connection to her.

Miss Scatcherd- One of the teachers at Lowood School. She is usually unkind to her students, and is mostly abusive and harsh towards Helen Burns.

Bertha Mason- Mr. Rochester's insane, demented wife. She was a pretty young Creole woman who Rochester had married to provide wealth to both of their families. Her madness soon spirals out of control and she is confined in the attic on the third floor of Thornfield Hall, where her presence is kept a secret, especially from Jane. She causes mischief around the house before burning it down and jumping to her death.

Grace Poole- A servant at Thornfield who is responsible for being Bertha Mason's keeper. Her constant carelessness and passing out from drinking allows Bertha to escape from the attic and wreak havoc, such as setting fires and ripping Jane's wedding veil.

Adèle Varens- Mr. Rochester's young ward and Jane's student. She is a lively, French-speaking girl from France, the illegitimate daughter of a French singer. After her mother abandoned her, Rochester took her in as his ward, though he is likely not her father. Her presence is part of a key moment in Rochester's past and who had allowed him to change his morals of his original lifestyle.

Celine Varens- A French opera singer and mother of Adèle Varens. Despite not making an appearance in the novel, she was once a mistress to Mr. Rochester, but was only interested in his money and claimed that Rochester is Adèle's father. After she abandoned her daughter, Rochester took the girl in.

Sophie- Adèle's French nursemaid who looks after her while she was at Thornfield.

Writing History/Reception
In the mid 1840s, Brontë and her sisters attempted to open their school and publish a poem collection, but after both of those had failed, they decide to pursue a writing career. Mid 19th-century novels written by women were often overlooked by critics as being unimportant other than simply providing entertainment, since most female novels were generally romance novels (mostly popularized by Jane Austen). It was also generally difficult for women to be novelists and have their books published, except that they would likely be taken seriously by publishers if they wrote under a male pen name. The three Brontë sisters use male pseudonyms when they became authors, mainly when Charlotte Brontë stated later in life that they used the pen names since they felt that their works won't be seen as feminine and would be looked down prejudiced.

Brontë first wrote Jane Eyre in mid 1847 while in London and in Manchester. Her first novel The Professor was rejected by publishers, and in August 1847, she sent the second manuscript to Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill where her sisters' other novels were sent for publication. A few weeks later, Jane Eyre was published on October 16th under the pseudonym "Currer Bell". The novel was a immediate success and became a bestseller, and received positive reviews for its assumptions of social class and gender in the Victoria era. It would become a classic among the Brontë's sisters' novels, and until Charlotte revealed her identity in 1849, many readers and critics were curious about the mysterious "Bell" names and if there were be more works published by "Currer".

The majority of the events in Jane Eyre were loosely based on Brontë's own life. As a child, she has a creative, vivid imagination and made up stories in her fictional world called "Angria". She attended school with strict discipline and infested with disease, and after losing her two oldest sisters to tuberculosis, Brontë used the novel's school Lowood Institution mainly to criticize the harsh reality of her school life. An example included when Jane endured the brutal regime of Lowood and her beloved friend Helen Burns succumbs to the building's consumption outbreak. Like her main character, Brontë ended up finding success as a governess and then a novelist, and she wrote her novel as a way to express her imagination in her character as a plain, independent heroine. Following the success of Jane Eyre, Brontë ended up receiving more money and soon became a respected celebrity in the literary world. Her fame lasted until her death in 1855, just a few years after her famous novel's publication.

Social Class
Brontë used this theme to define the different lifestyle of an individual's class, based on how they lived their life and what they can or cannot do, as it was common during the Victorian era. A woman who has wealth or a dowry makes them depend on who would be a suitable match or them, and in addition, the man who marries her would receive the dowry money. Both Jane and Mr. Rochester were both born in separate classes from the beginning. Rochester was born into wealth but tricked into an unhappy marriage since his family believed his wife would be worthy of him and their money. Jane grew up penniless and was tormented by the Reed's at the fact that she is of lower social statue and the Reed's themselves are at the upper level of the British class system. As an adult, she manages to find work by accepting a job application as a governess of Thornfield Hall, and originally she thought she wouldn't fit into higher class after she discovers Rochester is already married and looked down upon by the socialite guests Rochester invites. It wasn't after she receives her inheritance that she realizes she is no longer part of lower status and is finally an equal to Rochester. Social class is a critique in Jane Eyre for it explores the boundaries and stereotypes of the British social class system during her time period and how her main character had earned her respect and virtue by making her way from being an outcast to an equal.

Love and Family
Jane's main quest is to find her loving family and seek independence, for she is willing to find not just romantic love, but love that would make her more valued. She starts off life as an unloved orphan mistreated by Mrs. Reed, and without her parents, she finds herself in solitude and isolation. But when she attends Lowood, she experiences her first-hand of love when she is treated with affection and respect by Miss Temple and Helen Burns. Jane saw Helen as a sister who taught her about spiritualism and morality, and Miss Temple is seen as a maternal figure who brightens the girls with her compassion and task to help Jane grow into a more valued woman. As such, she had her friend and teacher as her temporary family, but after Helen's death and Miss Temple leaves Lowood, she knew that she must find someone new to love and be more related to. After she arrives at Thornfield, she sees Mrs. Fairfax as another mother-figure to her and even treats her student Adèle Varens as her own child than a pupil. In addition, Mr. Rochester acts as a surrogate parent to Adéle despite him denying she is his biological daughter. The Rivers family Jane meets after she flees from Thornfield act more kinder towards her and later finds out they are her cousins. A relative, John Eyre, always had intentions of wanting to raise his niece Jane as his own, and although he never got to meet her in person, he ended up offering a large fortune to her after his death. At other times, Jane realizes that there are some people in her life that act like family but may not be suited for a romantic relationship. When her cousin St. John Rivers proposes marriage to her, she knew that if she accepts, their union would be anything but loving and that it would be doomed to fail. It is only when she reunites with her true love Mr. Rochester and becomes his wife, she had successfully founded her real family and the person who would forever love her with value and respect.

Gender Inequality
Jane Eyre was published during a time period when gender roles were defined differently from one another, mainly to women who were mostly described as being less dependent and commanded by men as they are more strong and confident than their female counterparts. Throughout her journey, Jane strives to be more independent and mature after she was neglected in her childhood. Mr. Brocklehurst and Mrs. Reed see her as wicked when she explains how the Psalms aren't interesting. She also expresses her opinion on different positions between men and women. She claims that women should be more calm and are able to show off their inner feelings and positions that they find themselves being put into by men. Meanwhile, Mr. Rochester, until he had his power changed by Jane, usually had more command over different women he had met over the years. Céline Varens and Blanche Ingram are examples of who Rochester first had interest in but they both either didn't return their affections or were already part of higher social status which meant they aren't worthy being with Rochester. By the novel's ending, most of the more sympathetic characters have gotten married as equals while the least caring weren't able to fit in. This includes Bertha Mason, while she is already mentally unstable, she couldn't let Rochester have full control over her and she ends up succumbing to her shallowness of being unequal.

Gothic Elements
Jane Eyre is sometimes seen as a Gothic novel due to the fact that the elements featured in the narrative expose fear and mystery to the reader. Lowood Institution, Thornfield Hall and Moor House are buildings that are isolated from the outside world and that they sometimes pose a supernatural and threatening atmosphere to Jane, such as Lowood being dehumanized, miserable, Thornfield filled with mysteries and St. John at Moor House being obsessive over her. At Gateshead Hall, Jane believed that she is being haunted by the ghost of her deceased uncle Mr. Reed when she saw a gleaming light and noises that leave her shaken. Bertha Mason is also an example of a Gothic element when she is a dark secret revealed in the climax, and prior to that, Jane can hear her laughter and the fires burning, suggesting that perhaps she thinks that Thornfield is haunted as well. Both Jane and Mr. Rochester also have something in common, for they both had troubled pasts that had secrets that had been hidden until they were both discovered. In addition, another supernatural event that happened when Jane hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling for her on the moors, and his cries of help had urged her to return to him. As such, Brontë had written Gothic elements to evaluate the novel's analysis of the Gothic genre.

Religion
From her youth and in her independence, Jane made her journey with the morals of Christianity and spiritualism. As a child, she is shunned by the Reed's since she is seen as immoral since she couldn't control her attitude, and one servant had even warned her of God's punishments the more she misbehaves. She even thought religion wasn't very important, especially when she stated that the Psalms aren't interesting and Mr. Brocklehurst and Mrs. Reed think she is a wicked girl due to their hypocrisy in Christian belief. It wasn't until Jane meets Helen Burns that she finally gains a sense in how much religion is essential for her growing up and be more moral in society. Helen would often give her advice on God to teach her to stay true to her spiritualism, such as learning to love your enemies. This is explained when Jane visits Mrs. Reed at her deathbed, she doesn't confront her but instead forgives her for her actions, and while her aunt never reconciled with her, Jane believed she still at least did the right thing. Helen is also devoted to her religion and even in death, she hopes that she will find her peace in Heaven. After her friend's help, Jane can also use her religious values with passion, such as seeing St. John as someone she can share her commitment with, but not through marriage. In addition, Jane's teacher and cousin Miss Temple and Mary Rivers have married clergymen respectively, since they both agreed with the morals of Christianity.

The Red Room
A room at Gateshead Hall where Jane is forced to stay in by Mrs. Reed. Symbolizes her early years of feared injustice and imprisonment from society due to her low social status. She would have to control herself in her later years to be a more confident, noble woman. The red room memory resurfaces whenever Jane finds herself in difficult situations, and it is a traumatic moment that would haunt her for the rest of her life; despite that she eventually overcame her fears towards the end of the novel.

Bertha Mason
Mr. Rochester's insane first wife who was confined in the Thornfield Hall attic. She symbolizes Jane's consciousness as she represents her fears and anger in a more extreme way. Bertha often depicts her fits of raging insanity when she rips Jane's wedding veil, burns her husband's room and eventually the whole house, mainly as a way to express her anger of the way Mr. Rochester had treated her.

Fire and Ice
Fire and ice are major symbols that usually represent one's personality traits. Fire symbolizes rebellion but passion, as Mr. Rochester had a fiery temper but is also kind, while Jane had angry outbursts during her early years at Gateshead; but to her, fire can also be seen as a metaphor as when she is told what Hell is, she explains it is a pit full of fire. As time goes by, the "fire" in her emotions have her develop into someone more passionate like Mr. Rochester.

Ice symbolizes isolation and loneliness. During Jane's years at Lowood, the school was very cold during the winter and that it places her in a cold exiled world. Her cousin, St. John Rivers, is a cold man who doesn't have any compassion towards Jane and that marrying him would leave her more isolated in ice that could kill her. After she marries Mr. Rochester, both the couple's fiery passions for one another have melted the cold, ominous ice.

Foreshadowing

 * Jane is locked up in the red room that leaves her heavily scarred. Foreshadows the Gothic influences she experiences as an adult, such as Thornfield Hall's mystery and hearing Rochester's voice calling to her.
 * Jane grows up poor, not knowing about wealth and several characters mentioning her uncle John Eyre and him wanting to adopt her. Foreshadows his death and offering a large inheritance to Jane.
 * Jane has a dream where she sees a strange woman behind her wedding veil and wears it herself. Foreshadows the fact that the woman, Bertha Mason, is still Rochester's bride and her existence kept hidden.
 * A chestnut tree splits apart in the middle during a storm after Jane accepts Rochester's proposal. Foreshadows the couple's unexpected ruin during their attempted wedding.
 * Bertha Mason sets fire to Rochester's room. Foreshadows her burning down Thornfield Hall before killing herself. Jane had also dreamt of Thornfield being in ruins which also foreshadows the building's eventual destruction.