Jane Eyre Summary
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Setting
Jane Eyre takes place in five different settings: Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall, Moor House, and Ferndean in England. Each of these settings includes a different stage in Jane’s life.
Main Characters
Jane Eyre- she is the novel’s narrator of the novel and is ten when the story begins.
Mrs. Reed- she is Jane’s aunt.
John Reed- he is Mrs. Reed’s son, Jane’s cousin.
Eliza Reed- she is Mrs. Reed’s daughter who is a religious but unkind cousin.
Georgiana Reed- she is Mrs. Reed’s daughter who is a beautiful but self-centered cousin.
Bessie- she is the nurse at Gateshead who shows Jane some kindness.
Mr. Reed- he is Mrs. Reed’s late husband and Jane’s late uncle on her mother’s side.
Plot Summary
The novel begins at Gateshead Hall where orphaned 10-year-old Jane is adopted by her Aunt Reed. Jane is cruelly treated by her cousins, Eliza, Georgiana, and John. After one incident, where Jane retaliates, she is locked in the red room in which her Uncle Reed had died and suffers terrifying delusions. Soon afterward, Jane is sent to the charitable institution, Lowood School, where the director has unfairly denounced Jane as deceitful. She submits Jane to the public humiliation of being branded a liar.
The tyranny of the school’s regime is relieved for Jane by the friendship of Helen Burns and the mentorship of the school’s superintendent, Miss Temple. After eight years as both pupil and teacher at Lowood, Jane accepts a post as governess at Thornfield Hall. Before leaving Lowood, she is informed by the Gateshead servant, Bessie, that her other uncle, John Reed, has been seeking her. At Thornfield, Jane’s pupil is Adele, ward of the absent master, Rochester.
Before Rochester’s return, Jane hears strange laughter as she wanders the third storey of the mansion and is informed that the laughter is that of a servant, Grace Poole. Walking out one winter’s day, Jane comes to the aid of Rochester when he falls from his horse. Rochester is drawn to Jane and seeks her companionship. Rochester confesses to a sinful history of sexual indiscretion, including his affair with French mistress Celine Varens, of which liaison Adele is apparently the offspring.
After an unannounced absence of several weeks, Rochester returns to Thornfield with house guests who include Blanche Ingram, whom, Rochester appears to be wooing and intends to marry. During the house party, Rochester disguises himself as a fortune-telling gypsy and uses this cover, to probe Jane’s feelings as well as to ask Blanche Ingram about her opinion of his wealth. That night the household is disturbed by the violent attack, accompanied by a savage cry, upon a visit to Thornfield, Richard Mason. As Jane tends Mason’s wounds at Rochester’s request while he seeks medical help, she hears wild animal snarls in the room her patient has come from.
Mason leaves Thornfield directly and Jane is recalled to Gateshead by the dying Mrs. Reed, who wishes to confess to Jane that, when Jane’s uncle John came in search of his niece to make her his heir, Mrs. Reed claimed that Jane was already dead. When Jane returns to Thornfield, Rochester admits that his intentions toward Blanche Ingram were never serious, and proposes to Jane, who accepts. That night the chestnut tree under which they had been sitting is split by lightning.
On the eve of the wedding, Jane is visited by a spectral woman who tears her bridal veil. At the wedding ceremony, Mason returns accompanied by a lawyer who declares the intended marriage is invalid as Rochester is already married. Rochester takes the guests to his living wife, the mad Bertha, who inhabits the third story like a caged wild animal, and immediately attacks her husband. Rochester tries to persuade Jane to live as his mistress, but she refuses, and leaves Thornfield in the dead of night, destitute.
After Wandering miles without shelter or food and close to death, Jane is taken in by the Rivers family at Marsh End, where she assumes a false name and begins in the lowly post of village school teacher offered to her by John Rivers. When John discovers her true identity, he realizes that she is the unknown relative to whom his deceased uncle John Reed left his fortune and that Jane is his cousin. Jane shares her inheritance with her cousins but resists John’s insistent request that she join him as his missionary wife in India.
On the point of accepting, Jane hears Rochester’s voice calling her name. She Returns to Thornfield at once and finds a burned-out ruin, set alight. She learns, by Bertha, who died in the flames, though not before Rochester had lost a hand and the sight of one eye in trying to save her. Jane finds Rochester at Ferndean, and the couple gets married.
Themes
- Isolation. Jane’s sense of loneliness and isolation is evident in the way she hides behind thick curtains in a deserted room, excluded by her aunt and cousins.
- Religion. Helen accepts any cruelty and punishment with courage and without complaint. Jane struggles with this idea, believing that one should stand up to unjust treatment and undeserved cruelty. Helen presents her with an alternative point of view, driven by the Christian belief that one should ‘Love your enemies'.
- Equality. The powerful communication between Rochester and Jane brings across the equality of their minds, regardless of their positions in society. Jane is eloquent and articulate with him, and certainly not afraid to be honest