ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Full Name: Charlotte Brontë

Pen Name: Currer Bell, the "editor"

Date of Birth: 1816

Place of Birth: Yorkshire, England

Date of Death: 1855

Brief Life Story: Charlotte Brontë's father was a rural clergyman.

She lost her mother when she was five years old. Brontë's two

older sisters - Maria and Elizabeth - died from an illness that

they likely contracted at their harsh boarding school. Brontë's

first of four novels - Jane Eyre - was immediately and widely

popular, and brought her into London literary circles. Her sisters

Emily and Anne were also successful novelists. After losing all

of her siblings to illness, Brontë married a clergyman. She died

at 38 of complications during her first pregnancy.

BELLS AND BRONTËS

The Brontës became a literary powerhouse when Charlotte, Emily, and Anne all wrote successful first novels. Each sister published the books

under a masculine-sounding pseudonym based on their initials. Charlotte Brontë became "Currer Bell"; Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights

(1845-46) as "Ellis Bell", and Anne Brontë published Agnes Gray (1847) as "Acton Bell". Women could enter the marketplace as writers and

novelists, but many writers, including the Brontës, used male pseudonyms to keep from being dismissed as unimportant.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS IN JANE EYRE

The childhood, passed in a inflexible school for governess where Jane's dearest friend, Helen Burst, dies of tuberculosis at Lowood school, that recalls the death of Charlotte's sisters at Cowan Bridge;

The hypocritical religious fervor of headmaster, Mr Brocklehurst who remember Reverend Carus Wilson, the Evangelical minister of Cowan Bridge;

The dissoluted life of John Reed, the cousin of Jane, and Branwell, the brother of Charlotte;

The figure of the governess which was the job of both Charlotte and Jane;

The love for a man of an high social class: Arthur Bell Nichols for Charlotte and Edward Rochester for Jane.

KEY FACTS

Literary Period: Victorian AgeDate: 1847Full Title: Jane Eyre: An AutobiographyGenre: Victorian novel. Jane Eyre combines Gothic mystery, a romantic marriage plot, and a coming-of-age story.Setting: Northern England in the early 1800s.Protagonist: Jane EyreAntagonists: Mrs. Reed, Bertha Mason, St. John RiversPoint of View: First person. Jane recounts her story ten years after its ending.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Jane Eyre is set in the north of England in the first half of the nineteenth century. During this

period, British society was undergoing slow but significant change. Perhaps most apparentwas the transition from a rural to an industrial economy. The Industrial Revolution had begunin Britain in the late 1700s, and by the time ofJane Eyre , it was running full steam. AlthoughCharlotte wrote about some of the effects ofthe Industrial Revolution in her novel Shirley

(1849. she touches three areas of social concern in Jane Eyre: education, women's

employment and marriage.

SUMMARY

The novel begins in Gateshead Hall, where a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre is living with her mother's brother's family. The brother, Mr. Reed, dies shortly after adopting Jane. His wife, Mrs. Sarah Reed, and their three children (John, Eliza and Georgiana) neglect and abuse Jane because of the preference that his uncle had for her. Her female cousins, Georgiana and Eliza, tolerate, but don’t love her. Their brother, John, is more hostile to Jane. One day he is angered to find Jane reading one of his books, so he takes the book away and throws it at her. Finding this treatment intolerable, Jane fights back.

Mrs. Reed orders to the servants to drag her off and lock her up in the red-room, the unused room where Mr. Reed had died. Still locked in the room, during the night, Jane sees a light and starts screaming, thinking that her uncle's ghost has come. Her scream rouses the house, but Mrs. Reed just locks up Jane in the room for longer.The day after Jane gets up in her bed with the doctor, Mr. Lloyd, standing over her bed. He advises Mrs Reed to send Jane away to school, because she is obviously unhappy at Gateshead.Jane is sent to Lowood School, a charity institution for orphan girls, run by Mr. Brocklehurst. A stingy and mean-hearted minister, Brocklehurst provides the girls with starvation levels of food, freezing rooms, and poorly made clothing and shoes. He justifies his poor treatment of them by saying that they need to learn humility and by comparing them to the Christian martyrs, who also endured great hardships.

Despite the difficult conditions at Lowood, Jane prefers school to life with the Reeds. Here she makes two new friends: Miss Temple and Helen Burns.A day, Mr. Brocklehurst, visiting the school for an inspection, put Jane on a chair and say to the other girls:“You see this girl? She is young, she looks like an ordinary child. Nothing about her tells you she is evil. But she is all wickedness! Children, don’t talk to her, stay away from her. Teachers, watch her, punish her body to save her soul – if indeed she has a soul, because this child… I can hardly say it… this child is a liar!”

Later that day, Miss Temple allows Jane to speak in her own defence. After Jane does so, Miss Temple writes to Mr. Lloyd. His reply agrees with Jane's, and she is cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst'saccusation.Thanks to the Mr. Brocklehurst’s doctrine of privation and poverty the majority of children in the school become sick because of a typhus epidemic in which nearly half of the students die, including Helen Burns, who dies in Jane’s arms.

The narrative resumes eight years later. Jane has been a teacher at Lowoodfor two years, but after Miss Temple marriage she decides to leave Lowood so she advertises for a governess and is hired by Mrs. Alice Fairfax, housekeeper of the manor of Thornfield, to teach to a little French girl named Adèle.

A few months after her arrival at Thornfield, Jane goes for a walk and help a man who had fall off his horse. He is rude to her and calls her a 'witch' but she helps him to back on the horse. On her return to Thornfield, Jane discovers that the horseman is her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester, a moody, charismatic gentleman nearly twenty years older than Jane.

That same night, Jane hears eerie laughter coming from the hallway, and upon opening the door she sees smoke coming from Rochester's room. Rushing into his room, she finds his bed curtains ablaze and douses them with water, saving Rochester's life. Rochester says a matronly servant named Grace Poole is responsible, but Grace Poole shows no signs of remorse or guilt. Jane is amazed and perplexed. But by this time, Rochester and Jane are in love with each other, though they do not show it.

Soon after the fire incident, Mr. Rochester leaves Thornfield. When he returns, he organizes a party with high-class ladies and gentlemen, including Miss Blanche Ingram, a beautiful lady whom he seems to be courting. The party is interrupted when a strange old gypsy woman arrives and insists on telling everyone's fortunes. When Jane's turn comes, the gypsy tells her a great deal about her life and feelings, much to Jane's surprise. Then the gypsy reveals "herself" to be Rochester in disguise.That night, after a piercing scream wakes everyone in the house, Mr. Rochester ask Jane to help him; a certain Mr. Richard Mason, a Englishman from the West Indies has been stabbed and bitten in the arm. Again, Rochester hints that Grace Poole is responsible.

Jane returns to Gatesheadbecause of her aunt conditions. Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter that she had previously hidden out of spite. The letter is from Jane's father's brother, John Eyre, notifying her of his intent to leave her his fortune upon his death.After Jane's return to Thornfield, she and Rochester gradually reveal their love for each other.

Jane accepts Rochester's proposal of marriage, but she is plagued by doubts about it. She feels she is Rochester's inferior and continues to address him as "master". Her doubts increase when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and torn her wedding veil in two. As usual, Rochester attributes the incident to Grace Poole.

However, the wedding goes ahead. But during the ceremony in the church, the mysterious Mr. Mason and a lawyer step forth and declare that Rochester cannot marry Jane because his own wife is still alive. Rochester admits this fact, explaining that his wife is a violent madwoman that he keeps imprisoned in the attic, where Grace Poole looks after her. But Grace Poole occasionally drunk, giving her the opportunity to escape. It is Rochester's mad wife who is responsible for the strange events at Thornfield. The wedding is cancelled, and Jane is heartbroken.

Jane decides to escape from Thornfield.

She sleeps outdoors on the moor and begs for food in the villages that she meets along the way for several days. One night, freezing and starving, she begs for help at Moor House. St. John Rivers, the young clergyman who lives in the house, decides to help her.

Jane, who gives the false surname of Elliott, quickly recovers under the care of St. John and his two kind sisters, Diana and Mary. St. John finds a job for Jane, she will teach in a charity school for girls in the village of Morton.

One snowy night, St. John unexpectedly arrives at Jane's cottage, suspecting Jane's true identity. He tells her about Jane Eyre's experiences at Thornfield and says that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left Jane his fortune of 20,000 pounds. After confessing her true identity, Jane decides to share her inheritance with the Rivers, who turn out to be her cousins.St. John had decide to travel to India and devote his life to missionary work. He asks Jane to accompany him as his wife. Jane consents to go to India but she kindly refuses to marry him because they are not in love.

St. John continues to pressure Jane to marry him. Almost convinced by St John's reasons, she hears Rochester's voice calling her name, and this gives her the strength to reject St. John completely.

The next day, Jane decides to go back to Thornfield. But she finds only grey ruins where the house once stood. An innkeeper tells Jane that Rochester's mad wife set the fire and then committed suicide by jumping from the roof. Rochester saved the servants from the burning mansion but lost a hand and his eyesight. He now lives in an isolated manor house called Ferndean.

Going to Ferndean, Jane reunites with Rochester. At first, he fears that she will refuse to marry a blind, disfigured man, but Jane accepts him without hesitation.

“Now I have been married for ten years. I know what it is like to love and be loved. No woman has ever been closer to her husband than I am to Edward. I am my husband’s life, and he is mine. We are always together, and have never had enough of each other’s company. After two years his sight began to return in one eye. Now he can see a little, and when our first child was born and put into his arms, he was able to see the boy had inherited his fine large black eyes. Mrs Fairfax is retired, and Adèle has grown into a charming young woman. Diana and Mary are both married, and we visit them once a year. St John achieved his ambition by going to India as planned, and is still there. He writes to me regularly. He is unmarried and will never marry now. He knows that the end of his life is near, but he has no fear of death, and looks forward to gaining his place in heaven.”

CHARACTERS

Jane is passionate and opinionated, and values freedom and independence. She also has a strong conscience and is a determined Christian.

JANE EYRE

Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane on her husband's wishes, but abuses and neglects her. She eventually disowns her and sends her to Lowood School.

MRS. REED

Jane's cousin, who as a child bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in his mother's presence. He ruins himself as an adult by drinking and gambling and is thought to have committed suicide.

JOHN REED

MR. LLOYD

A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clearing Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.

MR. BROCKLEHURST

The clergyman, headmaster and treasurer of LowoodSchool, whose maltreatment of the students is eventually exposed. A religious traditionalist, he advocates for his charges the most harsh, plain, and disciplined possible lifestyle.

HELEN BURNS

Jane's best friend at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusting in God and praying for peace one day in heaven. She teaches Jane to trust Christianity, and dies of consumption in Jane's arms.

An elderly widow and the housekeeper of Thornfield Manor. She cares for both Jane and Mr. Rochester.

MRS. FAIRFAX

The master of ThornfieldManor. A byronic hero, he is tricked into making an unfortunate first marriage to Bertha Mason many years before he meets Jane, with whom he falls madly in love.

EDWARD ROCHESTER

BERTHA MASON

The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester; moved to Thornfield and locked in the attic and eventually commits suicide by burning down Thornfield Hall.

Bertha Mason's caretaker. Mr. Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep Bertha hidden and quiet, and she is often used as an explanation for odd happenings. She has a weakness for drink that occasionally allows Bertha to escape.

GRACE POOLE

A socialite whom Mr. Rochester temporarily courts to make Jane jealous. She is described as having great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious intent.

BLANCHE INGRAM

A clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. He is thoroughly practical and suppresses all his human passions and emotions in favour of piety. He is determined to go to India as a missionary.

ST. JOHN RIVERS

SYMBOLS

THE RED ROOM

The red-room symbolizes her punishment in her childhood and how society traps Jane by limiting her freedom due to her class, gender, and independent streak.

Fire is another symbol present in Jane Eyre, both caused by Bertha, first when she sets fire to Rochester’s bed and second when she burns down Thornfield by setting fire to what was Jane’s bedroom. Bertha first setting fire to Rochester’s bed could be just be a reminder for the burning passion that they once had, or it could be a warning that she isn’t just going to let him get away with doing to Jane what he do to her. Jane is the one to extinguish the flames set ironically only to set new one of the metaphorical kind. The second fire Bertha sets in Jane’s old bedroom, which ends up burning down Thornfield, this shows Berthas objection to Jane’s sexual interests in Rochester. The fire Bertha sets could also represent her using power of sexuality to destroy Rochester’s home.

FIRE

MADNESS

Bertha’s violent nature contrast sharply with Jane’s calm morality but she is also a manifestation of Jane’s subconscious feelings, specifically, of her rage against oppressive social and gender norms. Jane declares her love for Rochester, but she also secretly fears marriage to him and feels the need to rage against the imprisonment it could become for her. Jane never manifests this fear or anger, but Bertha does. Thus Bertha tears up the bridal veil, and it is Bertha’s existence that indeed stops the wedding from going forth. And, when Thornfield comes to represent a state of servitude and submission for Jane, Bertha burns it to the ground.

EYES

The eyes are the windows to the soul in Jane Eyre. Jane is especially attracted to Mr. Rochester's black and brilliant eyes, which symbolize his temper and power. After Mr. Rochester loses his eyesight in the fire, Jane becomes his eyes: metaphorically, Jane now holds the position of mastery. Now Mr. Rochester can also see Jane in a better and new way.

THEMES

LOVE AND AUTONOMY

Jane is searching love, not to have romanticism, but rather for a sense of being valued and belonging; but Jane must learn how to gain love without sacrificing and harming herself in the process. Jane refuses Mr. Rochester’s marriage proposal because it 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 dependent upon him as her “master”.

RELIGION

Religion is important for Jane because she meets three main religious figures: Mr. Brocklehurst(he illustrates danger and hypocrises in 19th century), Helen Burns(Helen’s meek and forbearing mode of Christinanityis too passive for Jane to adopt as her own, although she loves and admires Helen fot it) and St. John Rivers(his is a Christianity of ambition, glory and extreme self-importance).

Although Jane refuses all three models of religion, she does not abandon morality, spiritualism, or a belief in a Cristian God. For Jane, religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one on to worldly efforts and archievements. These archievements incluse full self-knowledge and complete faith in God.

SOCIAL CLASS

Jane Eyre is critical of Victorian England’s strict social hierarchy. Jane is a figure of ambiguous class standing and a source of extreme tension for the characters around her. However, it is also important to note that nowhere in Jane Eyre are society’s boundaries bent. Ultimately, Jane is only able to marry Rochester as his equal because she has almost magically come into her own inheritance from her uncle.

GENDER RELATIONS

Three central male figures threaten her desire for equality and dignity: Mr. Brocklehurst, Edward Rochester and St. John Rivers. Each tries to keep Jane in a submissive position, where she is unable to express her own thoughts and feelings.

WOMEN EDUCATION IN VICTORIAN AGE

The great advance in the education of girls and women may be traced back to the early activities of the “Governesses’ Benevolent” institution, founded in 1843. These schools were founded to make teaching a profession for women. In London were founded King’s College(which exhaminated women how they teached and then conducted classes in which women could receive the necessary instruction) and Queen’s College, as a home for these and other classes allowed to present themselves at the “Local” examinations of Cambridge, and in 1869, Cambridge and London universities instituted examinations for women; in the same year were begun in Cambridge courses of lectures, which led to the foundation of Newnham College. The university of London threw open its degree examinations to women in 1878, Cambridge opened the triposes to them in 1881, and, certain of its schools. Most schools were boarding schools like Lowood School, where Jane Eyre stayed, where they received basic teachings.