20 Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre

Dr. Supriya Shukla

19.0 Introduction

19.1 Biographical Sketch

19.2 Jane Eyre

19.3 Detailed Summary

19.4 Critics’ views

19.5 Important Characters

19.6Character Sketch of the protagonist, Jane Eyre

19.7 Excerpts from Jane Eyre

19.8 Jane Eyre: An Overview

19.9 Suggested Readings:

19.10 Questions on Jane Eyre

19.11Multiple Choice Questions

19.0-Introduction

Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), the eldest of the famed Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood, was one of the most powerfully insightful writers of the early nineteenth century. She was one of the foremost romantic novelists along with her sisters Emily and Anne Bronte. The novelist and poetess enjoyed a high status in the artistic hierarchy of her own generation when it exalted her above her sister Emily .However, the recognisable naiveté of her fiction was also denounced by many of her readers. It is evident that the Cindrella theme is the subject matter of all her work but she treats it differently by making her heroine ugly and not beautiful and her Ugly Sisters, beautiful. Nevertheless Charlotte Bronte endows her heroine with an invisible talisman of spiritual quality which completely annuls the disadvantage of her ordinary looks. This is the theme of Jane Eyre and Villette. In presenting her unconventional heroine who is defiantly virtuous, morally courageous and fiercely independent and able to overcome adversity she brought about a change in the style of contemporary fiction.

Sentimental writing seemed to be her forte as she gives descriptions of oppression, humiliation, illtreatment, agonising experiences of childhood and a sense of inferiority with unequalled ardour and honesty. Charlotte Bronte‘s tendency to sentimental writing was not due to an innate inaptitude for the artistic process, but due to the pressure of external circumstances. This sentimental writing was not due to her loneliness and privation or the misconduct of her brother Branwell, though it was a contributing factor. It was her especially acute need to make and secure a place in the world for herself and her two sisters, Anne and Emily which caused desperation and found expression through sentimental writing. Her life was thus ravaged by a series of bitter disappointments and in the expectation of protection which children expect from adults and which women expect from men.

Growing up in Victorian England , the Bronte sisters were inspired by romantic writers of their time like Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and Lord Byron. The fanciful and melodramatic vein of authors like Charles Dickens and Walter Scott had a deep impact on her writings though she was a much more fascinating writer in many ways than many of the Romantic authors from whom she had mastered the art . Unlike her close contemporary Jane Austen who did not resort to sentimental writing and was different from Charlotte in tone and style there was a commonality between the writings of both these novelists. Both writers portrayed their heroines though not perfect in beauty but endowed with strength of spirit unparalleled in its time. Charlotte Bronte writings were similar to those of her sisters but unlike most other authors of nineteenth century England. All the three Bronte sisters Charlotte , Anne and Emily gave each other moral support by sharing creative ideas and proof-reading one another‘s works. For Charlotte who was the eldest of the author-sisters writing was a means of financial independence and supporting her siblings.

19.1 Biographical Sketch

Early Life and Education

Charlotte Bronte, born in Thornton in Yorkshire, England on April 21, 1816 was the third of Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell‘s six children. Her father was an Anglican minister who moved the family to Haworth in 1820 after finding work at a church there. Most of Charlotte‘s education was provided at home by her father, except for a brief and unhappy period when she attended a religious school – later described in the opening chapters of Jane Eyre. At the age of five Charlotte lost her mother to cancer in 1821. In 1824 the four eldest daughters were enrolled at the Clergy Daughter‘s School. A year later the two elder daughters Maria and Elizabeth left school as they were suffering from tuberculosis which proved to be fatal. Charlotte now nine years old, lived in isolation with her father, aunt who had been with them since her mother‘s death and her sisters Anne and Emily, and brother Patrick Branwell.

Mrs Bronte‘s struggle with her malady had prevented her from giving much attention to the children . Mr Bronte was an eccentric recluse and soon became an alcoholic. But even before taking to the bottle he had not provided his children with sympathy, companionship or any preparation into adult life. Mrs. Bronte‘s sister who came from Cornwall to take charge of the motherless children disliked Yorkshire, retired to her bedroom, and cared for none of them except Branwell. The only comfort for Charlotte came in the form of her elder sister Maria in whom she found a substitute for her mother. But Maria died at the abe of twelve when Charlotte was just eight years old. Her only other older sister, Elizabeth died two months later. So about the time of her ninth birthday, the negligence and death of her elders left her with her own way to make in the world. Suddenly she became the head of the family, with one brother and two sisters dependent on her for everything above the bare physical necessities of life. So at home Charlotte acted as ―the motherly friend and guardian of her sisters‖ It was at this time that she and all her surviving siblings started creating their own literary fictional worlds, chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of imaginary kingdoms.Charlotte and her brother Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their imagined country (Angria), and Emily an Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs (Gondal). This prepared them for their literary vocations in adulthood.

Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head where she met her life-long friends, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period she wrote her novella ‗The Green Dwarf‘ under the name of Wellesley.From 1835 to 1838 she returned to Roe Head as a teacher. In 1839 she took up the job of a governess to various families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued till 1841.

Brussels

In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enrol in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger and his wife. They learned French and German and studied literature with the intention of starting their own school someday. They were also tutored in music, singing, writing, arithmetic and drawing. In return for boarding and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the Boarding school was cut short when her aunt, Elizabeth Branwell who had come to take care of them after the death of their mother, died in 1842. It is said that Charlotte was in love with the married Heger which inspired the novels, Villete and The Professor. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels a year later to take up the post of a teacher at the boarding school. Her second stay at the boarding school was not a happy one as she was homesick, lonely and became deeply attached to Heger. Mrs. Heger was suspicious about Charlotte‘s relationship with her husband which strained her relations with Charlotte. She finally returned to Haworth in 1844. Even after returning she kept up her correspondence with Heger though she as allowed to write to him only twice a year.

First Publication

In May 1846 Charlotte, Emily and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poetry under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Action Bell. These pseudonyms deliberately veiled the sisters‘ gender whilst preserving their real initials. Charlotte later explained,

― Averse to personal publicity we veiled our own names under those of Currer , Ellis and Action Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because

– without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called‘ feminine‘- we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward , a flattery, which is not true praise.

This   statement of hers makes it obvious that Victorian England was a man‘s world. Though this collection of poetry did not attract several buyers (only two copies being sold) yet the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels under the guise of their pseudonyms. Charlotte had written Jane Eyre (1846, Shirley (1849) and Villete (1853). Emily Bronte‘s best –seller Wuthering Heights was published in 1847. Anne also became a novelist with her novels Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). Charlotte‘s only brother Branwell was considered to be talented by the family with a promising career as painter or journalist. He was sent to London to study portrait painting but failed miserably as he soon became an alcoholic and an opium addict, and though he did become a tutor in the Robinson family to earn his living, he was dismissed due to his irregularities and his affair with Mrs. Robinson. Finally at the age of 31 Branwell passed away. 1848 was a disastrous year for the Brontes. After the death of her only brother in September, Emily fell sick and died the same year in December. The following year Anne died. A grief-stricken Charlotte wrote in her poem, 

On the death of Anne Bronte‖

There‘s little joy in life for me

And little terror in the grave;

I‘ve lived the parting hour to see

Of one I would have died to save.

Charlotte was writing her epic novel Shirley (1849) during this period of grief and personal loss and there is a change evident in her tone of writing when she states in the first chapter:

If you think, from this prelude, that anything like a romance is preparing for you, reader, you never were more mistaken. Do you anticipate sentiment, and poetry, and reverie? Do you expect passion, and stimulus, and melodrama? Calm your expectations; reduce them to a lowly standard. Something real, cool and solid lies before you; something unromantic as Monday morning.

With the publication of Shirley, which got mixed reviews, she was welcomed into the literary society and befriended Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell, who lauded her for Jane Eyre. In1852 Arthur Nicholas proposed to her much to her surprise and consternation of her father Rev Bronte. In1853 Charlotte‘s Villete was published with the same theme as Jane Eyre and Shirley –the struggles of a strong independent woman and her need for love. In 1854 she accepted Arthur‘s proposal and married him, her father had also by then realised that he was worthy of his daughter. They started their very short but happy marriage with a month-long honeymoon at Ireland. Unfortunately on 31st March, 1855, after an extended illness she died while pregnant. She now rests with the members of her family in the family vault of the church of St. Michael and All Angels in Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.

After her death, Arthur stayed with Rev. Patrick Bronte and looked after him till his death in 1861. Not acting as priest anymore, Arthur settled on a farm near Banagher in Northern Ireland. He married his cousin Mary Anna Bell. The couple remained childless and Arthur died in 1906. As the last of the Bronte family with no heirs, Arthur had guarded personal facets of their lives from inquisitive and interfering authorities. In 1857 Charlotte‘s friend Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) published her controversial biography and homage The Life of Charlotte Bronte which was criticised by feminists like Elaine Showalter for suppressing details of Charlotte‘s passionate nature and her life. Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle, by Clement K. Shorter, was published in 1896.

However, Virginia Woolf showers high praise on her when she says, “We read Charlotte Bronte not for exquisite observation of character, not for comedy, not for a philosophic view of life, but for her poetry. Probably that is so with all writers who have, as she has, an overpowering personality, so that . . . they only have to open the door to make themselves felt. There is in them some untamed ferocity perpetually at war with the accepted order of things.” Works

Fiction

Jane Eyre (1847)

Shirley        (1849)

Villette      (1853)

The Professor (published posthumously in 1857)

Emma (unfinished published posthumously in 1860)

Poetry

Apostasy

Evening Solace

Frances

Gilbert

Life

Mementos

On the death of Anne Bronte

Parting

Passion

Pilate‘s wife‘s dream

Peference

Presentiment

Regret Stanzas

The Letter

The Missionary

The Teacher‘s Monologue

The Wife‘s Will

The Wood

Winter Stories

19.2 Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre, considered to be one of the finest works of literature to be produced in England, was a novel with universal appeal which shot Charlotte Bronte into immediate fame and success. Even a century later it is still considered to be her masterpiece. It received favorable reviews and was a commercial success. Thackeray was so impressed by the novel that he introduced Charlotte to the circles of literary London. G.H. Lewes wrote that it was ―an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit‖ Written pseudonymously it initiated much speculation about the identity and gender of Currer Bell and it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman.

Charlotte believed that art was most convincing when based on personal experience. Jane Eyre :  An Autobiography was path-breaking as it was written from an intensely evoked first person female perspective. The combination of naturalism and melodrama created an innovative style.

In a nutshell it was the story of a plain governess, Jane, who after overcoming insurmountable obstacles in early life, falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester. Their love finds fruition in marriage after Rochester‘s first insane wife, of whom Jane is ignorant about initially, dies in a house fire.

19.3 Detailed Summary

Jane Eyre, the protagonist is an orphan since birth. She lives with her aunt Sarah Reed and her two female cousins Georgina and Eliza and their brother John at Gateshead. In the absence of her kind Uncle Reed who has already passed away, the hapless ten-year old is an outsider in the Reed household as she is ill-treated by her aunt and cousins especially John who is blatantly hostile towards her, torments her and considers her to be a poor dependent of his mother, not fit to associate with children of a gentleman. The only redeeming feature for Jane is Bessie, the servant who is kind to her, telling her stories and singing for her. Life for Jane is otherwise miserable as she is constantly chided and humiliated by her Aunt Sarah and her cousin sisters and bullied by John, her cousin brother. However, an incident occurs which changes the course of her life. One day when John finds her reading one of his books, he is enraged and snatches the book and hurls it at her. Finding this intolerable she fights back only to get into the bad books of her aunt who imprisons her in the red –room in which her Uncle Reed died. Locked inside the dark room Jane gets into a hysterical fit as she imagines that she sees her uncle‘s ghost, screams and faints. Once she regains consciousness she finds herself in the care of Bessie and the family physician, Mr. Lloyd who suggests that she should be sent away to a boarding school to which Mrs. Reed readily agrees.

Jane is happy to get away from her present situation and is soon sent to Lowood school, a charity institution for orphan girls. However, there she finds the situation to be far from idyllic. Mr. Brocklehurst, the headmaster is cruel, hypocritical and abusive .The food provided is hardly sufficient, keeping the girls at almost starvation levels, the rooms are freezing and the clothes and shoes given are inadequate. Mr. Brocklehurst preaches a doctrine of humility, poverty and privation to the orphans giving examples of Christian martyrs who also endured great hardships meanwhile using the school‘s funds to provide a comfortable and opulent life style for his own family. Despite the miseries of school Jane prefers it to life with the Reeds. Moreover even amid the squalid conditions there is a silver lining at school for she befriends Miss Temple from whom she learns to be lady-like and compassionate and Helen Burns. Helen has a martyr-like attitude towards the miseries prevailing in school which Jane disproves of yet she also attracts Jane and becomes a good friend of hers. Jane inculcates a spiritual focus in the company of Helen. Soon a typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood and Helen dies of consumption. Mr. Brocklehurst is also dismissed for the insalubrious conditions in the school.

Fortunately Jane‘s life improves dramatically once more when considerate and sympathetic gentleman take over as subsequent headmasters and Jane spends eight years in the now-conducive atmosphere of the school , six as student and two years as teacher. After teaching there for two years Jane yearns for newer experiences. Miss Temple marries and Lowood is not the same for Jane anymore. She applies for the post of a governess in a local newspaper. She gets only on reply from one Mrs. Fairfax of the manor, Thornfield where she has to be governess to a ten year old girl. Jane readily accepts the job and is warmly welcomed to the comfortable three-storeyed country estate by the distinguished housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax. Jane is happy teaching her lively pupil Adele Varens. She likes Thornfield except the mysterious third floor of the manor where a strange servant, Grace Poole works uncannily and from where she hears maniacal laughter from a locked room.

One evening when Jane‘s out for a walk, she meets a mysterious man when his horse slips and he falls—of course, this is Mr. Rochester. Jane and Rochester are immediately interested in each other. She likes the fact that he‘s craggy, dark, and rough-looking instead of smooth and classically handsome. She also likes his abrupt, almost rude manners, which she thinks are easier to handle than polite flattery. He likes her unusual strength and spirit and seems to find her almost unworldly; he‘s always comparing her to a fairy or an elf or a sprite.

Rochester quickly learns that he can rely on Jane in a crisis—one evening, Jane finds Rochester asleep in his bed with the curtains and his bedclothes on fire, and she puts out the flames and rescues him. Jane and Rochester have fascinating conversations in the evenings and everything seems to be going really well… until Rochester invites a bunch of his rich friends to stay at Thornfield, including the beautiful Blanche Ingram. Rochester lets Blanche flirt with him constantly in front of Jane to make her jealous and encourages rumors that he‘s engaged to Blanche.  Don’t worry, though—it’s really only Jane he wants.

During the weeks-long house party, a man named Richard Mason shows up, and Rochester seems afraid of him. At night, Mason sneaks up to the third floor and somehow gets stabbed and bitten (ew). Rochester asks Jane to tend Richard Mason’s wounds secretly while he fetches the doctor. The next morning before the guests find out what happened, Rochester sneaks Mason out of  the  house.

Before Jane can discover more about the mysterious situation, she gets a message that her Aunt Reed is very sick and is asking for her. Jane, forgiving Mrs. Reed for mistreating her when she was a child, goes back to take care of her dying aunt.Jane leaves Thornfield for a month to attend her aunt, who is on her deathbed following her son John’s excessive debauchery and apparent suicide. Jane tries to create a reconciliation with her aunt, but the woman refuses all Jane’s attempts at appeasement. Before dying, she gives Jane a letter from her uncle, John Eyre, who had hoped to adopt Jane and make her his heir. The letter was sent three years ago, but Aunt Reed had vindictively kept it from Jane. Sarah Reed dies, unloved by her daughters.

When Jane returns to Thornfield, Blanche and her friends are gone, and Jane realizes how attached she is to Mr. Rochester. Although he lets her think for a little longer that he‘s going to marry Blanche, eventually Rochester stops teasing Jane and proposes to her. She blissfully accepts.

It’s the day of Jane and Rochester’s wedding. It should be the happiest day of Jane’s life, but during the church ceremony two men show up claiming that Rochester is already married. Rochester admits that he is married to another woman, but tries to justify his attempt to marry Jane by taking them all to see his wife.When Jane returns to Thornfield, the houseguests have left. Rochester tells Jane he will soon marry Blanche, so she and Adèle will need to leave Thornfield. In the middle of this charade, Jane reveals her love for him, and the two end up engaged. Jane is happy to be marrying the man she loves, but during the month before the wedding she is plagued by strange dreams of a destroyed Thornfield and a wailing infant. Two nights before the wedding, a frightening, dark-haired woman enters her room and rips her wedding veil in two. Although Jane is certain this woman didn’t look like Grace Poole, Rochester assures her it must have been the bizarre servant. The morning of the wedding finally arrives. Jane and Rochester stand at the altar, taking their vows, when suddenly a strange man announces there’s an impediment to the marriage: Rochester is already married to a woman named Bertha

Antoinetta Mason. Rochester rushes the wedding party back to Thornfield, where they find his insane and repulsive wife locked in a room on the third story. Grace Poole is the woman’s keeper, but Bertha was responsible for the strange laughter and violence at Thornfield. Rochester tries to convince Jane to become his mistress and move with him to a pleasure villa in the south of France.

Mrs. Rochester is Bertha Mason, the “madwoman in the attic” who tried to burn Rochester to death in his bed, stabbed and bit her own brother (Richard Mason), and who‘s been doing other creepy things at night. Rochester was tricked into marrying Bertha fifteen years ago in Jamaica by his father, who wanted him to marry for money and didn’t tell him that insanity ran in Bertha‘s family. Rochester tried to live with Bertha as husband and wife, but she was too horrible, so he locked her up at Thornfield with a nursemaid, Grace Poole.

Meanwhile, he traveled around Europe for ten years trying to forget Bertha and keeping various mistresses. Adèle Varens (Jane’s student) is the daughter of one of these mistresses, though she may not be Rochester‘s daughter. Eventually he got tired of this lifestyle, came home to England, and fell in love with Jane.

After explaining all this, Rochester claims that he‘s not really married because his relationship with Bertha isn‘t a real marriage. The main problem is that he can‘t divorce her (because it was pretty tough to get a divorce at all in the Victorian period, and Bertha‘s behavior isn‘t grounds for a divorce, since she‘s mentally ill and therefore not responsible for her actions). He wants Jane to go and live with him in France, where they can pretend to be a married couple and act like husband and wife. Jane refuses to be his next mistress and runs away before she‘s tempted to agree.

Jane travels in a random direction away from Thornfield. Having no money, she almost starves to death before being taken in by the Rivers family, who live at Moor House near a town called Morton. The Rivers siblings—Diana, Mary, and St. John—are about Jane‘s age and well-educated, but somewhat poor. They take whole-heartedly to Jane, who has taken the pseudonym “Jane Elliott” so that Mr. Rochester can‘t find her. Jane wants to earn her livelihood, so St. John arranges for her to become a teacher in a village girls‘ school. Diana and Mary are compelled to take up jobs of governesses.

One day, St. John learns that Jane has inherited 20,000 pounds from her uncle, John Eyre. Furthermore, she discovers that St. John’s real name is St. John Eyre Rivers, so he, his sisters, and Jane are cousins. The Rivers were cut out of John Eyre’s will because of an argument between John and their father. Thrilled to discover that she has a family, Jane insists on splitting the inheritance four ways, and then remodels Moor House for her cousins, who will no longer need to work as governesses. Not content with his life as a smalltime clergyman, St. John plans to become a missionary in India. He tries to convince Jane to accompany him, as his wife. Realizing that St. John doesn’t love her but just wants to use her to accomplish his goals, Jane refuses his request, but suggests a compromise by agreeing to follow him to India as a comrade, but not as a wife. St. John tries to coerce her into the marriage, and has almost succeeded, when, one night Jane suddenly hears Rochester’s disembodied voice calling out to her.Jane immediately leaves Moor House to search for her true love, Rochester. Arriving at Millcote, she discovers Thornfield a burned wreck, just as predicted in her dreams. From a local innkeeper, she learns that Bertha Mason burned the house down one night and that Rochester lost an eye and a hand while trying to save her and the servants. He now lives in seclusion at Ferndean.

Jane immediately drives to Ferndean. There she discovers a powerless, unhappy Rochester. Jane carries a tray to him and reveals her identity. The two lovers are joyfully reunited and soon marry. Ten years later, Jane writes this narrative. Her married life is still blissful; Adèle has grown to be a helpful companion for Jane; Diana and Mary Rivers are happily married; St. John still works as a missionary, but is nearing death; and Rochester has regained partial vision, enough to see their first-born son.

19.4 Critics’ views

S. Penkevich holds the novel in high esteem as is evident from the following review:

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and    they will make it if the cannot find it.

One would be hard pressed to find a stronger female character than Charlotte Brontë‘s Jane Eyre. She is a staggering figure of feminist literature, rejecting, or rather, dismissing the notions of social class and many gender roles as she moves upward from her humble beginnings. I was floored by how incredibly enjoyable and poetic this novel was, and how it would resound equally well with audiences of either gender despite being often dismissed by males. With Brontë‘s strong feminist themes brilliantly illuminated through her enviable prose and engrossing characters, Jane Eyre truly deserves the title of Classic Novel.

One cannot help but fall in love with the character of Jane Eyre. I went into this novel expecting simply a variation of Austen, and was pleasantly surprised. Instead of being focused on the proper workings within proper society, I found a total rejection of these notions in the character of Jane. Still being pleasant and strong willed like Austen‘s leads, Jane climbs the ladder of  society without stopping to consider her place within it and often criticizes class based distinctions. Although she is merely a governess, she aims for the heart of the ‗Master of the house‘, and even after certain events would no longer require her servitude, she is quite insistent upon maintaining employment and an income. She is like a Victorian era punk, totally bent on independence. Mr. Rochester is another lovable character, despite his being a complete pompous ass (which totally won my heart). It is interesting to note that Brontë toys with some of the ideas of romantic plots as well. It is usual for the romantic couple to be attractive (look at Hollywood), yet Brontë is quick and often to point out that neither Jane nor Mr. Rochester are particularly pleasing  to the eye, and have a difficult  countenance.

Brontë‘s use of language is widely impressive, having a keen eye for detail and distinction in both natural descriptions and dialogue. It was difficult not to speak like these characters in real life (which would have probably earned me a punch to the mouth), the writing and speech is that infectious. It flows for pages with a strong current without becoming dull in the long descriptive passages and accounts. In short, Brontë writes with the best of them.

Harold Bloom declared Jane Eyre to be ― a classic of Gothic and Victorian literature.  [Elizabeth Rigby, writing in The Quarterly Review, 1848]

I love this quote because it says so much in so few words. Charlotte Bronte rattled cages, by publishing a book about an ―orphan, friendless and penniless‖ who had the audacity to not merely think highly of herself, but to refuse to be grateful to a social order that demeaned her as valueless, not because of a lack of merit, intelligence, ambition, self-sufficiency or honor, but because she was a girl-child orphaned in poverty.

Nearly everyone recognizes the name Charlotte Bronte. Nearly no one can name the woman who wrote this criticism. There is no doubt who won this historical argument.

19.5 Important Characters

•  Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. Jane is courageous, passionate and strongly principled, and values freedom and independence. She also has a strong conscience and is a determined Christian.
• Mr. Reed: Jane’s maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her parents die. According to Mrs. Reed, he pitied Jane and often cared for her more than for his own children. Before his own death, he makes his wife promise to care for Jane.
• Mrs. Reed: Jane’s aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane on her husband’s wishes, but abuses and neglects her. She eventually casts her off and sends her to Lowood School.
• John 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.
• Eliza Reed: Jane’s cousin. Jealous of her more attractive sister, and a slave to rigid routine, she self-righteously devotes herself to religion. She leaves for a nunnery near Lisle after her mother’s death, determined to estrange herself from her sister.
• Georgiana Reed: Jane’s cousin. Although beautiful and indulged, she is insolent and spiteful. Her sister Eliza foils her marriage to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere, when they were about to elope. She eventually marries a “wealthy worn-out man of fashion”.

•  Bessie Lee: The nursemaid at Gateshead. She often treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs, but she has a quick temper. Later she marries Robert Leaven.
• 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, director and treasurer of Lowood School, whose maltreatment of the students is eventually exposed. A religious traditionalist, he advocates for his charges the harshest, plain, and disciplined possible lifestyle, using all the funds for maintaining an opulent life style. He is ultimately dismissed for irregularities after the outbreak of Typhus which claims several lives in the school.
• Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats the students with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr. Brocklehurst’s false accusation of deceit, and cares for Helen in her last days. Eventually she marries Reverend Naysmith.
• 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.
• Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Hall. 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. 
• Bertha Antoinette Mason: The violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester; moved to Thornfield and locked in the attic and eventually commits suicide after setting fire to Thornfield Hall.

• Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She has been Mr. Rochester’s ward since her mother, Mr. Rochester’s mistress, abandoned her and “ran away to Italy with a musician or singer” (ch. 15).
• Mrs. Alice Fairfax: An elderly, kind widow and the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall.
• Blanche Ingram: A socialite whom Mr. Rochester temporarily courts to make Jane jealous. She is described as having great beauty and talent, but displays callous behaviour and avaricious intent.
• Richard Mason: An Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is Mr. Rochester’s first wife. He took part in tricking Mr. Rochester into marrying Bertha. He still, however, cares for his sister’s well-being.
• Grace Poole: 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.
• St. John Eyre Rivers: 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 good works. He is determined to go to India as a missionary, despite being in love with Rosamond Oliver.
• Diana and Mary Rivers: St. John’s sisters and (as it turns out) Jane’s cousins. They are poor, intelligent, and kind-hearted, and want St. John to stay in England.
• John Eyre: Jane’s paternal uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune and wished to adopt her when she was 15. Mrs. Reed prevents the adoption out of spite towards Jane.

19.6 Character Sketch of the protagonist, Jane Eyre

As it was earlier titled ―Jane Eyre: An autobiography‖ it is supposed that Charlotte Bronte created the character of Jane Eyre infusing elements of her own life. This is evident at many points in the book when Jane voices the writer‘s radical opinions on religion, social class and gender. Like Jane, Charlotte Bronte also struggled to strike a balance between love and freedom.

Jane Eyre although the heroine of the novel is a plain Jane with ordinary looks and remains so till the end of the novel. This was a deviation from the Cindrella theme which Charlotte Bronte reversed in the novel. However, what is striking in her character is her sense of self-worth and dignity, a commitment to justice and principle, implicit faith in The Almighty, a passionate disposition and strength of will. For a person endowed with such characteristics, external beauty becomes quite insignificant and puny. Orphaned in early childhood and almost abandoned by her caretaker Aunt Reed, Jane feels suffocated at Gateshead where she is continuously ill-treated, tormented and humiliated by her aunt and her cousins. She feels ostracised and exiled and feels that she will never find the comfort of a home or community.She desperately wishes to belong somewhere, to have kins and the comfort of ―kindred spirits‖. This reflects her fierce desire for autonomy and freedom.

Jane’s independence and ability to make decisions for herself is one of her strong traits and also projects the status of women in the Victorian era. As a young woman, small and of relatively low social standing, Jane encounters men during her journey, of good, bad, and morally debatable character. Though deeply in love with Mr. Rochester , she believes in the importance of women‘s independence and does not give in to his wish of being his mistress after the disclosure of his living first wife is made . The feminist elements of her personality are evident in her struggle for freedom and her effort to maintain a position in life devoid of any debts to others. She tries to assert her identity in a male-dominated society. Also her strong sense of morality makes her refuse to be Mr. Rochester‘s paramour.

Thus Jane Eyre is an honest, intelligent, upright, dignified individual who values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her struggles depict her belief in gender and social equality as she strives to challenge the Victorian mores and prejudices against women and the poor. Though the novel is a sentimental saga of her trials and tribulations throughout life it does establish her triumph in asserting herself and maintaining her own dignity and courageously surmounting the several hurdles she faces.

19.7 Excerpts from Jane Eyre

Quote 1: “Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humor…fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from fairy tales and older ballads…With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way.” Chapter 1, pg. 7

Quote 2: “‘And you ought not to think yourself on equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.’

‘God will punish her: He might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? …Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don’t repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney, and fetch you away.'” Chapter 2, pg. 10

Quote 3: “What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question–why I thus suffered; now at the distance of–I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.” Chapter 2, pg. 12

Quote 4: “No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day. Yes, Ms. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heart-strings, you thought you were only uprooting my bad propensities.” Chapter 3, pg. 18

Quote 5: “‘I scarcely knew what school was; John Reed hated his school, and abused his master; but John Reed’s tastes were no rule for mine… [Bessie] boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed…Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life. ‘I should indeed like to go to school,’ was the audible conclusion of my musings.” Chapter 3, pg. 20-21

Quote 6: “‘But I feel this Helen: I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me. I must resist those who punish me unjustly. It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.'” Chapter 6, pg. 50

Quote 7: “‘No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough; if others don’t love me, I would rather die than live–I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen. Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and lit it dash its hoof at my chest.'” Chapter 8, pg. 60

Quote 8: “Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” Chapter 12, pg. 96

Quote 9: “‘You have saved my life: I have a please in owning you so immense a debt. I cannot say more. Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of creditor for such an obligation: but you: it is different;–I feel your benefits no burden, Jane…I knew,’ he continued, ‘you would do me good in some way, at some time;–I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not…strike delight to my very inmost heart so for nothing…My cherished preserver, good night!'” Chapter 15, pg. 133

Quote 10: “Most true is it that ‘beauty is in the eye of the gazer.’ My master’s colorless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth,–all energy, decision, will,–were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me,–that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.” Chapter 17, pg. 153

Quote 11: “My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature: of whom I had made an idol.” Chapter 25, pg. 241

Quote 12: “I know no weariness of my Edward’s society: he knows none of mine, any more than we each do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms; consequently, we are ever together. To be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long: to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking. All my confidence is bestowed on him, all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in character–perfect concord is the result.” Chapter 38, pg. 397

19.8 Jane Eyre: An Overview

Charlotte Bronte‘s magnum opus, Jane Eyre‘s widespread popularity can be gauged by the fact that the novel had several film and television adaptations. Published in 1847, the novel was filmed by several Hollywood and Television producers‘ right from 1910 as silent and black and white films to latest adaptations of the novel till 2011. Not only was it adapted for films, radio, television and theatre, it inspired a number of rewritings and reinterpretations. In 2003 Jane Eyre ranked 10th in the BBC‘s survey, The Big Read.

The novel titled Jane Eyre: An autobiography was originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell which Charlotte Bronte had adopted. She revealed her identity to her publisher only after the success of the novel.

Jane Eyre, the novel consists of 38 chapters and most of the editions of the book are approximately 400 pages long. Originally it was published in three volumes, which was the common publishing format of the 19th century.

Themes in the novel – Charlotte Bronte deals with various themes in the novel viz. Morality, gender-relations, God and Religion, social class, love and passion, feminism, atonement and forgiveness and quest for home and family. The book thus mirrors the conventions of the patriarchal Victorian society and has all the elements of social criticism.

Use of literary motifs and symbols – The novelist uses many motifs from Gothic fiction combining romanticism with Gothicism which makes Jane Eyre a distinctive Victorian novel. Gothic motifs like the Byronic hero in the form of the character Mr. Rochester, the Gothic manor called Thornfield Hall, the mad woman in the attic, Bertha, who is Mr. Rochester‘s wife and the mystery surrounding Thornfield Hall –all create a Gothic atmosphere of suspense.

Literary allusions from The Bible and fairy tales, John Bunyan‘s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Milton‘s Paradise Lost and allusions from Walter Scott‘s poetry have also been used in the novel. Biblical figures like Samson and Greek mythical figures like Apollo have been referred to in the novel several times.

The autobiographical element in the novel is pronounced and obvious. Jane is similar to Charlotte Bronte physically who was a small, plain-looking woman like her heroine. The novelist wanted to show that a heroine could be strong and intelligent without being beautiful. Besides Charlotte Bronte was aware of the malpractices and injustice among practitioners of Christianity which she has portrayed through the character of Mr. Brocklehurst. The Jane‘s experiences at Lowood school where her dearest friend Helen Burns dies of tuberculosis is reminiscent of Charlotte losing her elder sisters Elizabeth and Maria in the same manner. John Reed in the novel is modelled on the character of Charlotte Bronte‘s only brother Branwell who became an alcoholic. Finally Jane Eyre, her protagonist takes up the role of a governess as she herself did gives her the opportunity to describe and showcase the oppressive social conventions of 19th century Victorian society.

The sentimental strain in the novel is due to the Gothic effects in the novel. The sentimental novel of the 18th century viz The Augustan Age relied on emotional responses of the charcters and readers focusing on distress, tenderness and emotions. Gothic and sentimental novels were popular forms of fiction in the late 18th century. Charlotte Bronte‘s Gothic allusions are reminiscent and indicative of the sentimental novel of the 18th century literary genre.

Charlotte Bronte‘s style of writing is typical of the 19th century Gothic novel as it is clear and concise. It is refined, educated, precise as well as intricate. Although the phrases and clauses she use are complex and elaborate yet they are balanced as exact. The very first sentence in the novel tells the reader precisely that she is glad that she does not have to take a walk with her cousins:

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. (1.1.2)

The story is narrated through dialogues and descriptive passages. The pronounced autobiographical element makes the tone of the novel authorial.

Reference

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