Jane Eyre GCSE English

ENGLISH LITERATURE 1B: JANE EYRE

→ Topics
● Jane Eyre
○ About the novel
○ Characters
■ Jane Eyre
■ Edward Rochester
■ Bertha Mason
■ St.John
■ Mr Brocklehurst
■ Helen Burns
■ Mrs Reed and Children
○ Themes
■ Marriage
■ Gender roles
■ Education
■ Appearance
■ Supernatural
■ Morals and ethics
■ Foreignness
■ Secrecy and deception
■ Family
■ Religion
○ Quotations

ABOUT THE NOVEL:
AUTHOR’S INTENTIONS:
● Bronte w
rote the book to challenge ideas + stereotypes about:
○ Gender roles
○ Society and class
○ Religion
○ Children
○ What it means to life a moral + happy life
● Another reason for writing the novel → B ronte’s father, Patrick w
as expected to die
○ Home was the church parsonage
○ Would be kicked out + have no place to live
○ Had to find a means to live after her father died
○ Ironic → f ather outlived all the children

→ I nfluences From Bronte’s Life:
● ‘Jane Eyre’ i s not an autobiographical novel but is influenced substantially by Charlotte Brontë's own life
● Brontë family moved to the Parsonage at Haworth in 1820
○ Harsh climate of the Yorkshire moors was familiar t o Charlotte
○ After death of her mother, an a unt moved into the parsonage
■ Denied the warmth of a mother’s love → has many surrogate mother figures in the novel
■ Seems to attach to her home life
● Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge
○ Charlotte started there in 1 824, with Emily Brontë and her two older sisters.
○ Charlotte and Emily were brought home after Maria and Elizabeth died
■ Maria w as a model for Helen Burns
■ Charlotte stated that c ritics who saw the character as too good to be true were wrong, and
that it was an i maginative but true portrait

● Charlotte had worked as a governess
● While studying in Brussels, Charlotte became infatuated with M Heger, head of the Pensionnat Heger
○ Unattainable but d esirable man
○ Influence o n the creation of a romantic hero in her own writing → Rochester in ‘Jane Eyre’
● Charlotte stayed at Rydings (a country house) with her friend Ellen Nussey
○ Inspiration for the attractive f eatures of Thornfield
○ Visited North Lees Hall Farm t ogether → property owned by the Bronte family
○ Contained a room with p arallels to Bertha’s attic
■ Belonged to a mad woman
■ Killed in a fire in the 17th century

CHARACTERS:
JANE EYRE:
● Jane Eyre is the protagonist of the novel → story narrated by her
● Novel focuses on her relationships w ith other characters and her character development
● Bildungsroman novel → explores Jane’s p ersonal + moral development a s she grows up
○ Passionate + strong willed even at a young age
■ Unusual at the time
■ Women + children expected to be modest + not hold/express strong feelings and emotions
○ Hard-working + keen to improve through learning
■ St.John admires her work ethic + ‘unflagging energy’

→T heme: Foreignness and Outsiders:
● Afraid that she will never find a true sense of home or community
○ Jane feels the need to belong somewhere, to find ‘kin’ or at least ‘ kindred spirits’
○ Desire tempers her equally intense need f or autonomy and freedom
● In her search for freedom, Jane also struggles with the question of w hat type of freedom she wants
○ Rochester
■ Offers Jane a chance to liberate her passions
● Such freedom could also mean e nslavement
● Rochester’s mistress → sacrificing her dignity and integrity for sake of her feelings
○ St. John Rivers
■ Offers Jane the freedom to act unreservedly on her principles
● Opens the possibility of e xercising her talents fully by working with him in India
● Freedom would also constitute a form of imprisonment
● Would be f orced to keep her true feelings and her true passions always in check
● Begins novel as an orphan living with aunt + cousins → do not like her or take much notice of her
○ Feels o stracized + exiled
○ Think she is ‘ naughty’ and ‘ passionate’
○ Even the servants h ave a ‘bad opinion’ of her
○ Tries to be good + keep out of trouble
○ Tormented b y her cousins → p articularly John
● Mr Brocklehurst tries to make J ane an outsider
○ Claims that Jane is a ‘ liar’
● Thornfield → caught between servants + upper-class guests
○ Doesn’t fit in with either group
○ Time as an outsider means s he spends lots of time observing other people → aids her narrative
● Journey to Moor House
○ Jane is a lone
○ No social status
○ Begs for food + n early dies

● Jane ends up with a family → contrasts to Reeds
● Jane has a strong desire to belong + become l ess of an outsider as novel progresses
○ Lowood → things change as Jane makes friends with H elen + Miss Temple l ooks after her
■ Endures poor conditions + eventually becomes a teacher → enables her to move on +
become a governess
○ Thornfield → has a f amily (Mr Rochester, Mrs Fairfax + Adele) but must leave them
○ Filled with ‘sudden joy’ when Jane finds out she is related to the Rivers family
■ Having r elations is m
ore important than the money she finds out about
● Marries Rochester → begin their own family

→T heme: Conflicting Desires + Morality:
● Passion vs self-control
○ Jane is p assionate → deeply loves Mr Rochester + fights against sadness + jealousy when it
appears he might marry Blanche
○ Shocks St.John with her passionate ‘unfeminine’ words
○ Tries to be s elf-controlled → manages to hide her feelings when questioned by the g ypsy
● Independence vs desire to belong
○ Can be i ndependent + isn’t afraid to s tand up for herself
■ Rebels against the R eeds
■ Makes tough decisions to leave Mr. Rochester + St.John
○ Independence clashes w ith her desire to belong → ultimately r eturns to Rochester
● Jane has strong ideas about right vs wrong
○ Knows she can’t become Rochester’s mistress after Bertha is revealed
■ Even though she is desperate to be with Rochester, she w on’t go against her own
principles
○ Caring → tells Mr Rochester off for speaking unkindly about Bertha
■ Concerned for Blanche’s feelings after Mr Rochester rejects her
● eg/ ‘ she cannot help being mad’
○ Forgives Mrs Reed on her deathbed → offers her ‘full and free forgiveness’
■ Keen to put right past wrongs + not dwell on bitterness
■ Contrasts to passionate behaviour as a child
○ Religious → has strong Christian morals
■ Prepared to sacrifice her life + happiness for God and go to India
■ Ultimately her passion l eads her b ack to Mr Rochester

→W riting about Jane:
● Strong willed
○ Even as a child → will assert herself w hen she b elieves she is right
■ eg/ ‘ How dare I, Mrs Reed? How dare? Because it is the t ruth’
● Jane is prepared to argue with an adult and d efend herself, even as a child
● Challenges child stereotypes
○ Children are meant to be seen but not heard
○ Not meant to have their o wn opinion disagree, answer back
○ Speech to Rochester highlights that despite social difference + different gender, she believes they
are ‘equal’
■ eg/ ‘ I have as much soul as you, and as full as much heart!’
● Brushes aside ‘conventionalities’ and ‘ custom’
● Instead talks about ‘ spirit’

● Independent of spirit
○ In spite of being financially dependent, has confidence in her own views
○ eg/ ‘ I c
are for myself. The more solitary , the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the
more I will respect myself.’
■ Highlights J ane’s awareness
■ Highlights J ane’s determination to look after herself
● Trusts her instincts
○ Rushes back to Thornfield i n spite of only ‘hearing’ Rochester’s voice
○ Shown to be r ight to do this → Rochester is free to marry
● Strong principles
○ eg/ ‘my spirit [...] is willing to do what is right
■ Demonstrates Jane’s determination to follow a moral path

EDWARD ROCHESTER:
● Importance of Rochester:
○ Rochester is a ‘Byronic’ hero due to h ow he is presented by Bronte
■ Dark + brooding
■ Hidden d epths and secrets
■ Determined and p assionate
○ Represents Jane’s passionate and fiery side that she searches for
○ Equal to Jane in wit and intelligence
○ Worthy o f her love
○ Represents the o utside world t hat Jane has little experience in
■ Travelled t he world
■ Brought up differently
○ Redemption as he saves people in the Thornfield fire
○ At the end he recognises and appreciates Jane’s true qualities

→R ochester Through the novel:
● Meets Jane during one of his r are visits to Thornfield Hall
○ Mostly abroad, trying to f orget the betrayal of his family and his miserable marriage to Bertha
○ Falls in love with Jane
● Invites a party of guests to Thornfield, including Blanche Ingram
○ Everyone thought that Rochester will marry Ingram
○ Disguised as a fortune teller to find out more about Jane and how she feels about him
● Proposes to Jane although his first wife B ertha is still alive
○ When this is discovered, he tries to p ersuade Jane to run away with him and b
e his mistress
● Rescues servants from a fire at Thornfield caused by Bertha
○ Bertha dies in the fire
○ Rochester is blinded and loses one of his hands
● Reunited with Jane when she returns and finds him at Ferndean Manor
○ They marry a nd later Rochester regains the sight of one eye
○ Enables him to see their son when he is born

→R ochester’s Character Development:
● Complex personality
○ Past and existence of his w ife h
aunt him
○ Empty lifestyle makes him m ore bitter
○ Love for Jane changes him back to the man he was
○ Even though the way he tried to marry her illegally is questionable
● Bronte wants to make her reader feel sympathy for him → shown through his eventual redemption

● He is allowed happiness after he has suffered and recognised the error of his ways
○ eg/ ‘ I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience
remorse, repentance, the wish for reconcilement to my Maker’
■ He too turns to religion
● His blind and crippled state is a metaphor for his l oss of arrogance and pride
○ Worthy of the love Jane feels for him

→W riting about Rochester:
● He is clearly fascinated by Jane from the moment he meets her
○ He questions her closely a t their second meeting
■ eg/ ‘ He searched my face with eyes that I saw were dark, irate, and piercing.’
○ There is a darkness and mystery a bout him, as well as some hidden danger
● His p ast and present circumstances are a heavy burden t o bear
○ Mrs Fairfax says that he has ‘peculiarities of temper’ that ‘allowances should be made’ f or
‘because he has painful thoughts’
○ Those around him indulge his irrational behaviour
● He is haunted by his past a nd by the responsibility he has towards Bertha.
○ Still determined to find a way to marry Jane
○ His desperation to marry Jane makes him attempt to defy the law
■ ‘Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart, and
constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God’s tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions
what I do.’
● He attempts to save Bertha f rom the fire in spite of the misery she has caused him.
○ ‘It was all his own courage, and a body may say, his kindness, in a way, ma’am: he wouldn’t leave
the house till everyone else was out before him.’
○ His actions in the fire redeem him from his previous moral conduct
→ I magery:
● Bronte uses imagery and symbolism to bring out her characters’ personalities
● Fire i s closely connected with the f iery and passionate Rochester
○ Contrasts with s now and ice imagery a ssociated with the controlled St.John
● The two men in Jane’s life c ould represent c onflicting aspects of Jane’s character
● Her eventual contentment comes from the way in which she reconciles these two aspects of her own
personality

→K ey Quotation: Rochester’s Feelings for Jane
● The strength of Rochester’s feelings for Jane are shown clearly when he speaks of the ‘ good and bright
qualities...all fresh, healthy, without soil and without taint’ → clearly referring to Jane
○ Associates her with the natural world
○ Contrasted with the world of society that he inhibits

BERTHA MASON:
● Importance of Bertha:
○ To challenge stereotypes about c
onventional beauty
○ To show t reatment of women in the 19th century

→F oil to Jane
● ‘I saw the reflection of the visage and features quite distinctly’
○ Mirror image of Jane
○ Relates to when Jane was locked in the Red Room → scared of her own reflection
● Physically a ‘big woman’ compared to ‘little’ J ane
● Different temperaments
○ Mr Rochester says he couldn’t pass ‘ a single hour of the day’ w ith Bertha
○ Mr Rochester loves spending time w ith Jane
● Bertha shows reality of feelings Jane is too scared to show
● Mr Rochester’s former wife → kept secret f rom the reader until Jane’s wedding day
● Story only told from perspective of Mr Rochester → reader cannot be sure of Bertha’s true character
○ Doesn’t appear much + doesn’t speak
○ Mr Rochester says she was beautiful, but after they got married she was ‘intemperate and
unchaste’
● Despite her madness, B ertha is still cunning → knows how to get keys to escape
○ ‘She’s so cunning’ and ‘it is not in mortal discretion to fathom her craft’
■ Witchcraft → relates to tradition of persecuting women
■ Denying h er cleverness
● Subtle similarities between characters
○ eg/ Bertha fed a ‘boiling mess’ i n Thornfield → relates to burnt porridge for Jane in Lowood

→B ertha Mason’s Heritage + Marriage:
● Complex family heritage
○ Half Creole, half English
○ Raised in Jamaica a mong British aristocrat part of family
■ Racial prejudice → often described using a nimalistic/demonic imagery
■ eg/ ‘ snarling, snatching sound’
■ eg/ ‘ this was a demonic laugh’
■ eg/ ‘ goblin laughter’
● Not part of one society or the other → theme of foreignness and outsiders
● Suffers from congenital insanity → madness runs in her family
○ Rochester claims Bertha was young + promiscuous → excesses brought on madness when she was
young
● Theme → marriage
○ Marriage was arranged to Bertha → her family was r ich
○ Failure of their marriage is a clear argument against marrying for money
○ Rochester blames Bertha + family for being tricked into marriage → makes people sympathise
with him

→A ppearance and Characteristics:
● ‘A discoloured face’
● ‘A savage face’
● ‘Fearful and ghastly to me’
● ‘Roll of red eyes’
● ‘Fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments’ a nd ‘her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and
a drunkard’
○ Mixed race → racial prejudice
○ Jane has n ever seen someone mixed race

● ‘A woman, tall and large’ and ‘ big woman’
○ Unconventional feminine attributes
● Called ‘it’, ‘beast or human being’, and ‘ something at least human’
○ Dehumanised
○ Not treated like a human
○ Possible justification for treatment
○ Extreme version of treatment of women at the time

→S imilarities + Differences Between Bertha + Jane:
THEME BERTHA JANE
Outsider ● Foreign ● Orphan

● Does not fit the English ‘norm’ ● No permanent home
○ Broad
○ Dark-skinned
○ Expresses sexuality to Rochester
● Marooned in the attic, away from
everyone
Elemental ● Fire →
Bronte shows p otential dangers ● Air →
‘Jane Eyre’
symbolism of leaving p assion to be left ● Fire →
Helps reader understand s trong
uncontrolled feeling of passion in Jane Eyre
● Represents unleashed, untamed ● Fire imagery i n the red room
passion w ithout any control/reason ○ ‘deep red damask’
○ eg/ t orches the bed curtains ○ ‘rose high’ (play on words → rose =
■ Imagery, such as fallen pink)
candlestick → symbolises ○ ‘red’
destructive passion of ○ ‘crimson’
Bertha ○ ‘mahogany’
● When she torches Thornfield → ● Used to show Jane’s overly passionate
described as : ‘ hair streaming against nature represented through physical objects
the flames’ ● Similar to fire imagery of Bertha
○ Satanic nature
○ Used so reader can appreciate
danger of uncontrolled passion
Escaping ● Locked up in the attic of Thornfield → ● Jane l ocked in the red room overnight →
turns crazy ‘like some mad animal’ described as ‘ like a mad cat’
● Bertha tries to escape h er room ● Jane escapes Thornfield + Rochester
● Doesn’t run away ● Almost d ies
● No prospects → foreign ● Difficult to survive + find a home
● Will not find a job/home due to her
ethnicity
Behaviour ● Sneaks around Thornfield at night to ● Sneaks around Thornfield at night to thwart
thwart Rochester’s plans of remarrying Rochester’s plans of using her to commit
● Supposedly insane ( according to bigamy
Rochester) ● Hears voices i n her head

→S imilarities + differences between Bertha + Charlotte Bronte:
● Bertha is an a lter-ego to C
harlotte Bronte
○ Marriage:
■ CHARLOTTE = fell in love with an unattainable man → Constantin Heger
■ BERTHA = rejected by the man who is supposed to love her
○ Lifestyle:
■ CHARLOTTE = spent most of her life s hut in her father’s house in Yorkshire → away from
big-city culture
■ BERTHA = kept prisoner in a lonely house on the moors
○ Abilities:
■ CHARLOTTE = w omen novelists were common but often seen as inferior + ridiculous in
comparison to men around them
■ BERTHA = only able to show her power to the world in i nsane + destructive ways

ST. JOHN RIVERS:
● Importance of St. John
○ Used to show how r eligion can be used in a controlling manner
○ Used to help Jane m ature in her own morals + beliefs

→F oil to Rochester:
● Rochester:
○ Passionate
○ Eyes described as ‘ flashing’ and ‘ flaming’
○ Marrying Rochester → a bandonment of principle for sake of p assion
● St.John
○ Ambitious and austere
○ Associated with ice, rock and snow
○ Marrying St John w ould mean choosing principle over passion

● He’s described as a handsome man i n Jane’s first description of him
○ eg/ ‘ tall , fair, with blue eyes, and a Grecian profile’
● Suggests that if looks were everything, St John would be perfect for Jane → theme in appearances
○ Bronte shows that looks aren’t everything
■ Neither Jane nor Rochester are a ttractive
■ Both find love in each other and their p ersonalities are what count
● Bronte suggests that in a relationship + marriage, love is key, which is what Jane and Rochester have, not
Jane and St John
○ St.John could also be a foil to Jane
■ St.John says ‘ I am cold’
■ Jane replies saying ‘I am hot, and fire dissolves ice’

→C ontext:
● During the 19th century in Britain, many believed that Christianity was the only true religion
● Seen as noble and right to c onvert people overseas
● St John made his decision to go to India as a missionary and serve God by spreading Christianity a
nd he is
determined to do so

→T heme: Religion:
● All his d
ecisions a re d
riven by his unswerving faith
○ Loves Rosamund Oliver
■ Throws his love away
■ Doesn’t think s he will make a good missionary’s wife
○ Happy to deny himself of such pleasures (like love for Miss Oliver)
■ Feels that they will fade away
■ Loving and serving God is what he believes will give him e ternal happiness and satisfaction
● “Know me to be what I am - a cold, hard man” → warns Jane of his cold personality, o pposite to
Rochester’s p assionate desires
○ Wants Jane to be his wife as she is ‘made for labour not love’
○ Lack of emotional passion c auses Jane to put down his proposal and return to Rochester
○ Jane is not prepared to be in a loveless marriage
● St John uses religion as a means of justifying actions, means of control + being able to judge others
○ “I do not speak to the feeble, or think of them”
■ Quite judgemental and ironic
■ Religion is supposed to be about s preading good to everyone
■ Not about creating divides between those that are “feeble” and those that are “worthy”
● He has very strong faith a bout the fact that what he’s done is correct
○ eg/ “ I am the servant of an infallible master” → full of praise for God
○ eg/ “ It seems strange to me that all round me do not burn to enlist under the same banner”
■ He is c ertain that he’s chosen the right path
■ Surprised that others aren’t burning with desire to follow his path of serving God
● He feels that he knows Jane’s destiny, simply because he is a dedicated follower of God
○ He blatantly tells her:
■ “God and nature intended for you a missionary’s wife”
■ “You are formed for labour, not love”
■ “I claim you - not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service”

→ I magery:
● Stone/rock imagery or coldness imagery is often used to describe him due to his cold, rigid personality
○ “Marble-seeming features”
○ “His high forehead, colourless as ivory”
○ “Marble kisses, or ice kisses”
○ “St John spoke almost like an automation”
■ Almost robot like, no emotion
■ Whole life is fully dedicated to serving God

MR BROCKLEHURST:
● Importance of Mr Brocklehurst
○ Used to show how r eligion can be used in a controlling manner
○ Used to show the t reatment of children in the 19th century

● Physical appearance:
○ Described as a ‘black pillar’ with a face ‘like a carved mask’
○ Stone imagery → represents his cold and imposing nature
○ Relates to stone + pillar imagery o f St.John
● Characteristics:
○ Hypocritical
■ ‘[His daughters] were splendidly attired in velvet silk and furs’
● When his wife and daughter appear at Lowood they are ‘splendidly attired’ and
have ‘elaborately curled hair’
■ To the Lowood students Mr Brocklehurst says:
● “What is that girl with curled hair”
○ Refers to c hild as an object
● “Why has she or any other curled hair?
○ Extremely h ypocritical
○ Clearly he sees the girls at Lowood to be significantly inferior to his own
daughters, showing c lear divides in social class
■ Mr Brocklehurst had also just ordered that Lowood students’ ‘ top-knots must be cut off’
○ Uncaring and harsh
■ ‘My plan in bringing up these girls is... to render them hardy, patient, self denying’
● Many deaths from typhus at Lowood
● Indicates that the conditions i mposed by Brocklehurst are too harsh

→T heme: Religion
● He has a rigid view of Christianity and he uses religion as a means of control
● Tells Jane she has a ‘ wicked heart’ because she doesnt read the Psalms
○ eg/ “ I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to mortify in
these girls the lusts of the flesh”
● Justifies his actions by saying that it’s what God wants
○ God has set as mission for him to deny these girls from even the slightest of luxuries

HELEN BURNS:
● Importance of Helen
○ Used to show how religion can be used in a good way
○ Used to help Jane mature in her own morals + beliefs

● Helen = Jane’s best friend
○ Very pious + almost mentors Jane at Lowood
○ Intelligent, caring + devout to her faith
● Helen is a foil to Jane at Lowood
○ Helen is strong and and mature but she has a submissive and ascetic nature
○ This highlights Jane’s more headstrong and passionate character
○ Helen forgives easily, J
ane h
olds grudges f or long periods of time
● Submissive and meek to M r Brocklehurst and Miss Scatcherd
● Jane is confused by Helen’s patient, loving response to mistreatment, but she’s also awed by Helen’s
brilliance and knowledge

→T heme: Religion
● Strongly religious → believes there’s nothing better than God a nd s preading God’s love
● Represents a m ode of Christianity → stresses tolerance and acceptance + ascetically trusts her own faith
● Endures this life simply because she looks forward to the joys of the next life
○ eg/ ‘ you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about’
■ Believes she will find belonging in heaven than in life on Earth
■ Jane w ants to find love and happiness in this life
● Death by consumption leads Jane to reject self-sacrifice in the name of religion
○ Allows Jane to progress with the Bildungsroman idea
○ Jane chooses 'Resurgam' t o go on Helen's grave (I will rise again)
■ Stressing her faith in the afterlife and for worldly existence
● Stark contrast to M r Brocklehurst and St John's interpretations of religion
● Believes that justice will be found in God in return for the unjust punishments Lowood girls receive
○ eg/ ‘the Bible bids us return good for evil’

MRS REED AND CHILDREN:
● Importance of Mrs Reed and the children
○ Used to p resent Jane as an outsider from the outset of the novel
○ Used to help Jane mature in her own morals + beliefs
■ eg/ forgiving Mrs Reed
→K ey Quotations:
● ‘All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the
servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like the a dark deposit in a turbid well’
○ Listing of people who have wronged Jane → highlights loneliness
○ In her mind all the b ad feelings have been pushed down but are now r esurfacing
■ Water imagery → she is upset
● ‘Why was I always suffering…?’ ‘Why could I never please’ ‘Why was it useless to try to win any one’s
favour?’
○ Passionate questions + rule of three
● ‘I could not answer the ceaseless inward question-why I thus suffered’
○ Dual narrative

→M rs Reed:
● Widow of Jane’s uncle → n o blood tie to Jane
● Lives at Gateshead Hall w ith her three children (John, Eliza + Georgiana)
● Husband asked her to look after Jane and to treat her as a daughter → she doesn’t though
● A stern and cold woman who has no feelings for Jane at all
● In spite of being close to death she refuses to be reconciled with Jane, indeed managing to blame her
○ eg/ ‘You were born, I think, to be my torment’

→J ohn:
● Cruel and unkind → ‘killed the little pea-chicks’
○ Bird imagery is central to the novel → they represent freedom
○ John is described to be ruthless as he kills innocent birds
■ Resembles how he tortures Jane and deprives her of her freedom as a child
■ Jane has to c onstantly hide from him to avoid getting beaten for no reason
● This injustice, how ‘ no-one thwarted’ John for his behaviour reflects Bronte’s life
○ Bronte was n ever equal to her only brother Branwell
○ Father obviously favoured more
● He hits Jane with a book → and her head ‘ached and bled with the blow’
● He commits suicide later in the novel due to g ambling and bringing shame to his family

→E liza:
● Described as ‘headstrong and selfish’ by Jane in her childhood
○ Meet again when Mrs Reed is at her deathbed
■ Eliza's ascetic appearance and crucifix s ignal her religious rebirth
■ Extremely r igid
● She has every aspect of her day planned out
● Jane cannot find any ‘result of her diligence’
● When her mother dies, she p lans to join a convent
● Despite her seeming devotion, Eliza k nows as little about compassion o r love as does Mr. Brocklehurst
● An angry, bitter woman, Eliza offers another n egative image of Christianity
○ All of her work is self-centered
○ Little interest i n her mother's health
○ Doesn’t shed a tear when she dies.
● Always c old, rigid, impassible, Eliza is an example of a character who is too icy, too lacking in generous,
passionate feeling.
● Jane's belief is that ‘ judgement untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human
deglutition’
● Jane seeks a balance between judgment and feeling that will allow her a full, but healthy share in human
joy

→G eorgiana:
● Young Jane describes her as having a ‘spoiled temper’ but was ‘universally indulged’ due to her prettiness
○ Admired very much in the victorian era → ‘ the pink cheeks and golden curls’
● Jane meets her again + she h asn’t changed much
○ She has f eeling without judgment
● Vain and shallow, Georgiana s hows no interest in her brother's death or in her mother's illness
● In a fashion s imilar to Céline Varens → Adele’s mum, Georgiana's mind is fully devoted to recollections of
past parties and "aspirations after dissipations to come."
● Neither Eliza's nun-like life nor Georgiana's fashionable fluff i nterests Jane

THEMES:
MARRIAGE:
→C ontext:
● Female independence often a chieved through financial security → often for money or social status
● For w omen of Bronte’s class, with no money of their own, m arriage was the route to this financial security
● For w omen of higher class, this meant staying in the family home until a suitable marriage came along
● Marriage was seen as a way of securing and growing the family fortune → more of a business
arrangement than a romantic one
● The family of a young lady would offer a dowry in the event of her marriage
○ A young lady would be expected to learn a range of accomplishments, including:
■ Embroidery
■ Piano
■ Languages
○ Learned until such time that a suitable match could be found for her

→J ane’s View on Marriage:
● In ‘Jane Eyre’, marriage is about a combination of three things:
○ Compatibility
○ Passion
○ Ethics
■ Bronte presents her view on marriage throughout the novel
■ She believes that there needs to be a balance between passion and duty to make a
marriage successful
● Jane’s quest is to be loved → sense of belonging + value
○ eg/ ‘ To get some real affection...from whom I truly love, I would willingly...let a bull toss me’
● Jane must learn through the course of the book to g ain the love she deserves w ithout sacrificing and
harming herself in the process

→B lanche Ingram + Mr. Rochester
● People expect Mr Rochester to marry Blanche
○ Suitable match → both from s imilar backgrounds
■ Blanche Ingram is beautiful + comes from a respectable family
■ Wants to marry Rochester because he’s from the upper class + wealthy
● Easily discouraged when he hints that his fortune might be only ‘a third of what was supposed’
● Bronte asserts that marriage based on passion and ignoring role of duty will bring more than loss of
passion

→B ertha Mason + Mr Rochester
● Arranged marriage to Bertha for money
● Entirely based on passion
○ Rochester does nothing to restrain/question his passion
● Ruined Rochester’s life, even before she went mad
● Couldn’t talk to Bertha → mind was ‘ common, low and narrow’
● Bronte suggests a marriage based on money c an’t be successful

→R osamund Oliver + St.John
● Doesn’t marry Rosamund → doesn’t think she’d be a good missionary’s wife
● Shuns his passion c ompletely → o pposite of Rochester
● Thinks it is not God’s will
● Proposes to Jane instead, ‘for my Saviour’s service’
● Admits that he doesn’t love Jane

→J ane Eyre and Mr.Rochester
● Jane believes that a person should:
○ Take care of their duties before they get married
○ Final decision should be based on passion
● Structure of relationship:
○ Well suited
■ Need to be s eparated to experience a time of individual character development
■ Can then enjoy peace together
○ Jane needs to become Rochester’s equal in independence and maturity
■ Physical struggle and emotional torment strengthen her character
■ Turn her from a naive girl into a woman
○ Rochester commits a selfless act
■ Proves that he has seen the error of his former ways i n order to become a whole person
■ Now needs Jane as much as she needs him
○ Better man without his sight and his hand → ironic
■ Better vulnerable than when he was fiercely independent.

→K ey Quotation: Jane on Marriage
● ‘I will not be regarded in the light of a mere money speculation.’
● ‘I do not want a stranger - unsympathising, alien, different from me; I want my kindred’
○ When Jane discovers that she has inherited a large fortune from her dead uncle John
■ St.John suggests that this brings with it the opportunity to marry
■ Jane rejects this suggestion violently w ith that quotation
■ Highlights how unusual Jane’s feelings are in the context of attitudes towards marriage at
that time

GENDER ROLES:
● Bronte wrote the novel Jane Eyre to challenge female stereotypes at the time
○ Jane → strong, assertive, independent and outgoing
○ Unconventionally feminine attributes of the time
● Male characters try to dominate Jane t hroughout the novel
○ John Reed
○ Mr Brocklehurst
○ Rochester
○ St.John

→C ontext:
● 19th century women seen as i nferior to men
● Women had few rights
○ Until they were married they had total control over any property they owned
○ Married women were not allowed to keep their own property → funds went to the husband
○ Wife owed absolute f idelity, service, obedience and society to her spouse
○ Lost separate legal identity
● 1880 → husband and wife seen as possessing separate identities
● Women often dependent on men
○ Women d idn’t have the vote
○ Men earned a living r ather than a women
● Importance of finding a husband is shown by many female characters whose stories end with a marriage
○ eg/ Miss Temple → leaves Lowood when she gets married
○ eg/ Miss Oliver → gives up on St.John + marries Mr Granby
○ eg/ G eorgiana Reed → marries a rich older man
○ eg/ J ane, Diana + Mary → all end up getting married

→J ohn Reed:
● Throws the book at Jane → m istreats her a nd is known to abuse her
○ ‘Accustomed to John Reed’s abuse’
● Verbally abuses Jane → tells her that s he does not have the right to anything in his house and never will
○ Claims the r ight of a gentleman
○ Expects to i nherits the house when his m other dies
■ ‘For they a re mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years’
● Relates to Jane’s social class → John implies that Jane is of a lower social class
○ Calls John a ‘murderer’, ‘ slave-driver’ and ‘Roman emperor’ → emphasizes the c orruption that is
inherent in the ruling classes
○ Class difference translates into physical difference, and Jane believes that she is p hysically inferior
to the Reed children (gives reason for John to bully her)
● Her position as female leaves her vulnerable to the rules of a male tyrant
● John → overindulged only son, described as ‘ unwholesome’ and ‘ thick’ → habitually gorges himself
○ Contrasts to Jane’s thin modest appearance → John Reed is a picture of excess
■ Gluttony feeds his v iolent emotions eg/ bullying + punishing of Jane
● By fighting back when John + his mother torment her, Jane r efuses passivity expected for a women in her
class position
● Locked in the ‘Red Room’ as a result → room that her uncle supposedly died in
○ Relates to l ocking up of Bertha
○ Extreme version of t reatment of women
● Inherited, and then spent, the family fortune → Reed women got into financial trouble → didn’t have much
money themselves

→M r Brocklehurst:
● Bullies Jane when visiting Gateshead → uses religion as a method to control her
● Jane still stands up for herself + challenges Mr Brocklehurst
○ eg/ ‘ I must keep in good health, and not die’
■ Challenging stereotypes of behaviour of children in 1 9th century
● Not meant to:
○ Have their own opinion
○ Disagree
○ Answer back
○ Educated children through c hildren’s books
■ eg/ t hreats → if you vex your mother, she might die due to the ‘wrath of God’
● Witty + straightforward → not expected of women, especially of women as young as Jane

→M r. Rochester:
● Initially b
osses Jane around + treats her like a servant
● Even later when they become closer, he tries to maintain control
○ eg/ ‘ promise me to only stay for a week’ → when she leaves for Gateshead
● Bronte also comments on masculinity
○ Mr Rochester described in a masculine way → ‘ dark, strong, and stern’
○ Not conventionally handsome + has the features of a ‘Byronic hero’
■ Takes its name from extravagant early 1 9th century poet
■ Moody, flawed, mysterious, passionate + s exually desirable
○ Society doesn’t judge Rochester for having mistresses
■ Bronte highlights inequalities → Jane would be judged i f she became his mistress
○ Rochester → used to being obeyed + doesn’t often ask for help
■ When in trouble h e asked Jane for help
■ Needs + gets her help when Mr Mason is attacked
■ Asks for Jane’s advice when considering committing bigamy → doesn’t listen to her advice

● Had relationships with women in Europe
○ Saw them as ‘ inferior’
○ Time he spend with them as ‘degrading’

→S t.John:
● Manipulative + intimidating t owards Jane
○ eg/ ‘ spoke almost like an automaton’
● Treats Jane like a servant + orders her about
○ eg/ ‘when he said “go,” I went; “come,” I came; “do this,” I did it’
■ Jane says ‘ I did not like this servitude’
● Shows that she knows her own mind + does not see herself as inferior to the
opposite g ender
● Wants to marry Jane → says “ you shall be mine: I claim you”
○ More of an order than a proposal → treats her more like an object t hat he owns + can claim
○ Feels like he has the right to control Jane’s destiny + manipulate her
■ eg/ ‘ you are formed for labour, not love’
● Refuses to let Jane travel to India without them being married
○ Rare for a woman to t ravel abroad alone
○ Normally go as a companion to her husband

→U nconventional Female Characters:
● Jane → isn’t pretty, but wins Mr Rochester’s heart
○ Different + intelligent → considered Mr Rochester’s intellectual rival
○ Unusual for 19th century → women expected to be rich, beautiful or from a good family to find a
good husband
● Bronte v alued women with independent spirits like Jane
○ eg/ “ I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will”
■ Portrayed w hen Jane:
● Escapes Brocklehurst
● Rejects St. John
● Comes to Rochester only after e nsuring that they marry as equals
○ ‘Reader, I married him’
■ Jane is the a
ctive force in the sentence
■ More e ven power balance
○ Rochester becomes blind + is dependent on Jane (switching of gender roles)
○ Jane is now Rochester’s ‘prop and guide’ → in control
● Jane voices how she feels about g ender equality →
‘Women feel just as men feel’
● Jane voices her physical desires → dreams of Mr Rochester and ‘ being in his arms’
○ Unusual as women didn’t openly talk about their p hysical desires at the time
● Jane manages to stand up to the male character in the novel as best as she can and she sees herself as
their equal → again challenging stereotypes
● Other independent women:
○ Diana and Mary → love learning and are kind + intelligent
■ Strong + i ndependent
○ Bertha
■ Violent + mad
■ Unconventionally beautiful
● ‘Big woman’
■ Physical appearance reminds Jane of a ‘vampire’
■ Mr Rochester referred to her as ‘impure and depraved’ → didn’t behave as an upper class
woman ws expected to

EDUCATION:
→C ontext:
● Education provides the only route for social mobility in the 1 9th century
● Lowood school d raws heavily on Bronte’s experiences at ‘Clergy Daughters’ School’ at Cowan Bridge
● Carus Wilson → in charge of the school
○ To some extent was the m odel for Rev. Brocklehurst
○ Strict regime
○ Wilson believed in original sin
○ Had a Calvinistic view of predestination → any misbehaviour was seen as a lack of God’s grace
● Maria + Elizabeth fell ill i n 1825 +
died later
● Charlotte + Emily removed from the school
● Later, Charlotte was sent to Roe Head school → father wanted to be sure that c hildren began to acquire
means of earning a living
● In the 1 9th century, education was r elated to class
○ Governesses were normally l ower or middle class
■ Education made them m ore elite than other middle class people
■ They were looked down upon by the rich
● Jane becomes a teacher + governess partly from the lack of jobs available and that she is c apable of this
job

→E ducation in Jane’s Life:
● Motives for education a re that Jane l oves learning and wants to get out of Gateshead
○ eg/ “ School would be a complete change [...] and an entrance into a new life.”
● Early in life, b
ooks are the positive things i n Jane’s life
○ Is her safe haven and escape from the confines of society
○ Gives her a w orld outside of Gateshead and enhances her language
■ eg/ “ Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and
imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting”
● Education in ‘Jane Eyre’ → characters learn:
○ Basic music performance
○ Basic artistic skills
○ Foreign language (eg/ French)
● Makes a person seem cultured, but not to make them actually useful for anything except teaching music,
art, and foreign language
○ “Miss Temple had smiled approbation; she had promised to teach me drawing, and to let me
learn French”
● People she knows hate school, she knows she will like it
● Jane is i nterested in being accomplished in learning and being talented
○ In Lowood → Jane uses learning as a way to:
■ Make friends
■ To be of a h igher class
■ Learn how to respect others due to l ack of outside communication
● eg/ “I had no communication by letter or message with the outer world: school
rules, school duties, school habits"
■ At Lowood, Jane learns to f orgive and to fight for the truth

APPEARANCE:
→C ontext:
● Mid 19th century → ideal beauty for a woman was a product of the desire to appear prosperous
○ Exhibited a w oman’s potential as a mother
● Ideal beauty:
○ Desire for fair skin (indicative of a woman’s social status that d id not require outdoor work)
■ Trend reached its height in Renaissance Europe with Queen Elizabeth I look → often
achieved with makeup that included white lead
● Norm until 2 0th century
○ Pale complexion ideally set off by rosy cheeks + lips
■ eg/ R osamund, for whom St.John has an unrequited passion
○ Slim waist → achieved using a c orset
■ The rest of the effect was created by:
● Sleeves that were set off the natural shoulder (sloping shoulders were considered
very attractive in women
● Large skirts worn over multiple petticoats or a c age crinoline
■ Petticoats + large skirts used to create effect of large hips → considered a good indicator
of a woman’s ability to raise children
● eg/ Jane’s admiration of Blanche Ingram’s shoulders
● Jane chose ivory f or her medium when creating a miniature of beautiful Blanche Ingram + and a veil when
she travelled

→A ppearances in ‘Jane Eyre’
● Almost always inversely related to actual nature of characters in ‘Jane Eyre’
○ eg/ J ane = plain, internally beautiful
○ eg/ I ngram = beautiful, malicious
○ eg/ R ochester = conventionally ugly, turns out to be loving to Jane
● Bronte plays with the conflict between external beauty and internal beauty → key idea
● Bertha Mason + Blanche Ingram described as beautiful → external beauty o bscures an internal ugliness
○ Bertha → beauty + sensuality blinded Rochester to her congenital insanity
■ Only after marriage that he gradually recognised her true nature
○ Blanche → beauty hides haughtiness and pride
■ Beauty also hides her desire t o marry Rochester for his money
● Mr Rochester learned not to judge by appearances → eventually r ejects Blanche despite her beauty
● Jane → lacks the beauty of conventional Victorian heroines → has i nner beauty that appeals to Mr
Rochester
○ Intelligence, wit + calm morality expresses a far greater personal beauty than any character in the
novel
○ Described as ‘plain and ‘ little’
● Bronte intends to highlight the importance of personal development + growth rather than (often false)
appearances
● Rochester → loses hand + eyesight
○ Jane + Rochester on e qual footing in terms of a
ppearance
○ Both must look beyond superficial qualities in order to l ove each other

SUPERNATURAL:
→C ontext: Jane Eyre as a Gothic Novel
● Popular as a genre in nineteenth-century ■ Gypsy + Rochester →
fiction someone who seems familiar
○ ‘Strange places’ and strange
■ ‘Wild and remote places’ ■ Discovery + meeting of
● Thornfield Bertha
● Moor house + journey ● Already met Jane in
there her room
■ ‘Imprisoning places’ ● Thought to be G race
● Lowood Poole
● Gateshead ○ ‘Supernatural’
● Red room ■ Jane believes Bertha is a
○ ‘Question of power ‘ ghost
■ John Reed → powerful ■ Jane is called ‘imp’ and
■ Mr Brocklehurst → powerful ‘sprite’ by Rochester
■ Rochester → powerful ■ Fairytale
■ Helen Burns → vulnerable ● Damsel in distress →
■ Adele → vulnerable Bertha
■ Bertha → vulnerable + ● Jane rescuing
powerful Rochester
● Rich, strong woman ● Clock striking 12 →
● Overpowered b y Cinderella
Rochester ● All of these features are used by Bronte,
○ ‘Perverse, weird and dangerous especially during the Thornfield Hall period
kinds of sexuality’ of the novel
■ Jane + St.John → cousins
■ Jane + Helen
● Dies in her arms in
bed
● First true friendship
■ Jane + Rochester
● Big age gap
■ Bertha → abduction
○ ‘Uncanny moments’

→R ole of Supernatural Forces in ‘Jane Eyre’:
● Supernatural and mystical forces play an important role throughout the novel
○ Immense coincidences → suggests a greater force is at work where this story is concerned.
○ Dreams, premonitions, and visions → they seem to guide Jane as she embarks upon her journey.
● Jane from a young age has a fascination with the magic and the unexplained
○ Such an u nexplainable event r eunites Jane and her Mr. Rochester at the novel's end.

→E xamples of Supernatural Forces:
● The Red Room
○ A symbol in the novel
○ The place where Jane's uncle Mr. Reed passed away
■ Even the adults in the house avoid at all costs
■ Uncleaned → ‘ quiet dust’ (transferred epithet)
■ Haunted
○ Jane, only ten years old → locked in the ominous room without even a candle for comfort

○ Light and dark imagery
■ eg/ ‘deep red damask’ and ‘crimson cloth’ → deep/dark imagery
■ eg/ ‘ white’ and ‘snowy Marseilles’ → c ontrast
○ More supernatural imagery:
■ ‘white face and arms specking the gloom’
■ ‘I thought it was like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp’
● Rochester also describes Jane as how she is describing herself now → another
coincidence
● Makes it more supernatural
● Foreshadows Jane’s and Rochester’s s piritual relationship that has supernatural
elements to it
○ Bronte uses the ‘ghost’ to show the reader Jane’s state of mind → very distressed
○ Jane wants revenge → due to being an adopted child in the victorian era, s he didn’t have many
choices
■ Reed children got away with everything
■ Need for justice was reflected with the appearance of her dead uncle’s ghost, angry that
Mrs. Reed did not keep her promise to look after Jane
■ However Jane needs to learn to another and more controlled way to confront injustice
● Thornfield hall
○ Very gothic and secretive → reflected in the name
○ ‘Strange laughter echoes above them, spooking Jane’
■ When Jane first goes to the third floor
■ Foreshadowing the appearance of B ertha, a key character in the supernatural theme
○ She begins to have thoughts about her current occupation as a governess and women in her
society
■ Begins to feel ‘ confined’ and lets her imagination go wild
■ Further f oreshadows Bertha, who is really imprisoned
● First encounter with Rochester:
○ Jane describes R ochester’s dog Pilot as a ‘Gytrash’ → a spirit dog
○ Connected with her experience in the Red Room
■ One of the visions she had i n the fit was something with ‘ A great black dog behind him’
■ Idea of darkness is reinforced with Jane’s description of Rochester’s appearance → ‘ had a
dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’
○ Spiritual connection b etween the vision that the young Jane saw and what the adult Jane sees
when she first meets Rochester
○ Feeling that the events in Jane’s life a re following some kind of predetermined course
○ However Bronte m ixes realism with this gothic element
■ The ‘Gytrash’ is from B essies stories, meaning part dog and part horse
■ Bronte makes it seem that s omething supernatural is happening → explains cause behind
the events
● Actually was a dog and horse, belonging to Rochester
● Approach/technique: explained supernatural → fits Bronte’s book more
● Pathetic fallacy:
○ The weather reflects Jane’ mood
○ Physical events are guided and influenced by s piritual, or even psychic features
■ eg/ the ‘split’ of the horse chestnut tree
■ eg/ ‘ blood-red’ disc of the moon → Jane sees it
■ eg/ ‘ melancholy wail’ of the wind → Jane hears it
● Jane’s dream:
○ Dreams about children → omen for bad luck
○ Suffering child symbolised the unhealthy marriage → first established by the split tree, also divine
and supernatural
○ Decaying Thornfield → foreshadows the fire and represents the mess of Rochester’s life

● Bertha:
○ ‘Savage face’ → Jane wakes up to someone d estroying her wedding veil → representing how the
marriage will be broken
○ Bertha described as a ‘ vampire’ → supernatural
● Telepathy
○ Rochester calls ‘ Jane! ‘Jane! Jane!’ and she hears it miles away in her head
○ Jane felt that the ‘wondrous shock of feeling’ was real
○ Spiritual connection at its s trongest
■ In the one of the last chapters, Jane discovers that the t imings of when Rochester shouted
for Jane m atched up with when she heard it
■ Jane is m ade aware of her spiritual connection with Rochester

MORALITY AND ETHICS:
● Jane is often t orn between:
○ What she believes to be right
○ What society believes is right
○ Being happy
● To Brontë, ‘conventionality is not morality’
○ Written in P reface to second edition of ‘Jane Eyre’
○ Addressed issues that readers had with the plot of the book
■ eg/ Bronte’s c riticism of religion
■ eg/ u nconventionality of Jane’s marriage to Rochester
■ eg/ fact that the l ead character is a woman
● Events in Jane’s life + p eople who surround her shape morals + define what she believes to be ethically
right
● Inner conflicts arise when Jane’s own m orals contradict ethics of society

→R ochester, Diana, Mary and St.John:
● Doesn’t tell Jane about Bertha
○ Lies by b laming strange events on Grace Poole
○ Intends to c ommit bigamy with Jane → illegal and immoral
○ Wants Jane to be his m istress + live abroad
■ Already shown regret for having other mistresses abroad
● Doesn’t believe he’s being immoral all the time
● Judgement is c louded by desire to be happy
○ Jane sacrifices happiness to do what she believes to be right
○ Rochester sacrifices morality to do what he b elieves makes him happy
■ Rochester’s marriage to Blanche would have been conventional → would not make him
happy
● ‘Conventionality is not morality’
● Rochester’s morality is rewarded
○ Mr Rochester is physically hurt to pay for his sins
■ Looks to God for forgiveness
■ Rewarded with Jane’s return + sight in one of his eyes
○ Happy ending → reward for Jane’s patience and doing the right thing
■ Hints that if she had stayed with Rochester, their relationship would have failed like his
other relationships with mistresses
● Diana and Mary are respectable characters who support Jane → marry for love
● St.John likely to d ie in India →
Jane confident that he will receive his ‘ sure reward’ for his sacrifice

→J ane:
● Has s trong opinions about what is right + wrong → tries to live by these principals
○ Often sacrifices her own happiness for this
○ Eventually manages to balance this with her happiness
● As an adult Jane forgives Aunt Reed e ven though she made her suffer → wants her to die in peace
● Jane forgives Mr Rochester’s lies
○ ‘Must leave him decidedly, instantly, entirely’ → could not live in sin as his mistress
● Sense of morality changes as she moves from place to place

→D iffering Beliefs Throughout the Novel:
● Gateshead
○ Society’s beliefs
■ Being locked up is a justified punishment
■ Elders are considered wiser and are to be respected to all extents
■ Beauty + social standing affects one's w orth and how they are t reated
○ Jane’s Responses
■ Experiencing i njustice c aused Jane to develop an ‘eye for an eye’ attitude
■ Fights back and talks out of turn
● Contrary to ‘be seen and not heard’ motto for children in the 19th century
● Believed it to be r ight to stand up to elders if they disrespect you
○ eg/ stands up for herself against Mrs Reed + John Reed
■ Promises n ever to call Mrs Reed her aunt out of hate
● ‘I will never call you Aunt again as long as I live’
● ‘I will say the very thought of you makes me sick’
● ‘You treated me with miserable cruelty’
■ Does not forgive Mrs Reed for her cruelty in the beginning
● Lowood
■ Girls are expected not to be vain ( no curly hair, fancy clothes etc.)
■ Girls must be o bedient and have a strong faith
■ You should be grateful for what is given to you, even if you are m istreated and not
respected
○ Jane’s Responses
■ New environment ( with Helen Burns) allowed Jane to learn and gain experience
■ Interactions at Lowood helped her s hape the woman she became
■ Punishments f rom authority and behaviours from friendly figures changed her behaviour
● eg/ after guilty name was cleared, Jane was d etermined to excel in her studies
○ ‘I toiled hard, and my success was proportionate to my efforts’
● eg/ b efriends Helen so that she can experience love from someone else
● eg/ continues being a t eacher at Lowood → nature is to give back
○ ‘I would not have exchanged Lowood for all it's priviations for Gateshead
with all it's luxuries’
■ Learnt that p unishment was a l esson not injustice → eg/ ‘wicked people would have it all
their own way’

● Thornfield
■ Jane was a servant a nd was to be treated as servants
■ Masters and subordinates do not have personal relationships
● 20 year age gap between a couple is not to be ignored
○ "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife"
○ Examples
■ Happiness and home-like feelings help new emotions to surface
● Starts to like Rochester f or his inner qualities, not his looks
● Jane d ecides to leave if he m arries Ingram
■ Forgives Mrs Reed → character development
■ Flees a fter m
arriage disaster due to guiding voice
● ‘The answer my mind gave - “Leave Thornfield at once” - was so prompt and
dread’
■ Resists temptation to become a mistress → love does not justify breaking rules
● Almost d ies to e scape Rochester + his immorality
● Willing to give up her leisure + love to stay true to God
● Moorhouse
■ Be grateful f or the kindness of strangers
■ Treat others the way God would want you to treat them (St. John)
■ Do not overstay your welcome
○ Jane’s responses
■ Jane believes God lead her to the Rivers
■ She hides her real identity
■ Jane treats the Rivers like family even b efore discovering their relations
● She repays their kindness by getting a job
● She believes that she should split her 20,000 pounds w ith her cousins
● Jane d oes not hesitate to share her inheritance
○ ‘There was wealth indeed! [...] a mine of pure, genial affections’
■ She is very persistent about rejecting St. John's proposal because she does not truly love
him
● She d ecided to find Rochester and be with him
● Ferndene
■ "Normal" couples have a few years age difference at most
■ Average age for marriage for women is 2 6, men 27 (History of Europe, Britannica )
■ People with disabilities a re viewed with less value
○ Examples
■ Jane still returned to Rochester when everyone else left him
■ Travelled great distances to find Rochester + to make sure he is s afe and protected
■ Still willing to be with Mr. Rochester w ith his disabilities
■ Lives as equals with Rochester

→ I nner Conflicts:
● Respect vs Justice → Mrs Reed + Jane
○ Jane is supposed to r espect Mrs Reed as her a unt and caretaker
○ Since Mrs Reed does not like Jane she mistreats her, making it hard for Jane to t ruly love and
respect her
● Religion vs Romance → Self + Self (decision to marry Rochester)
○ Jane loved Rochester → r eady to marry him
○ Would not be right as he is a lready married → did not want to become his mistress
● True love vs Religious duty → Jane + St.John
○ St.John believed that Jane had to marry him to help carry out his vocation
○ Jane felt she had a r eligious obligation but also wanted to marry for love

FOREIGNNESS:
● 19th century: f oreigners and those who were d ifferent were often prejudiced
○ eg/ Bertha’s treatment c an be used to represent the treatment of foreigners in the 1 9th century
■ Bertha and her brother (from Jamaica) → described negatively i n the novel
● Mr Mason → described as having an ‘odd look’ and his a ccent i s said to be ‘ not
altogether English’
○ Making him seem somewhat i nferior
● Bertha → physical d escription is very wild, almost like that of an animal:
○ ‘purple’ and ‘bloated’ face
○ ‘grizzled hair, wild as a mane’
○ eg/ A dele’s vanity and materialism are considered to be her i rritating traits, and these are put
down to her being French
■ Jane says that Adele’s English education ‘corrected in a great measure her French defects’

→B ertha behaviour are c ompletely different to any
● Foil to Jane → both outsiders d espite other character in the novel
differences →J
ane:
● When we first meet Bertha, she’s described ● Very lonely and detached from those around
as having a ‘ preternatural’ laugh’ (abnormal her as a c hild
and unnatural) ○ She is an o rphan
● Rochester f ound Bertha’s personality ○ Reeds don’t treat her like family
‘totally alien’ to his own since the moment ○ Most of the s ervants have no interest
they married in her
● Rochester locked Bertha up and kept her ● She’s disrespected by some of Rochester’s
secretly hidden away friends, including Blanche Ingram
○ Bertha’s imprisonment s ymbolises the ○ Merely a governess
19th century fear of foreignness ○ Of a lower class than them
○ People with mental illnesses, like ● She s hows sympathy and compassion for
Bertha, were often k ept locked away other outsiders in the novel, as though she
■ No chance of fitting into relates to them
society ○ Adele’s past makes Jane more
● During Jane’s first encounter with Bertha, determined to care for her
Bertha is described as a ‘maniac’ → her ○ Jane says that Bertha ‘ cannot help
physical appearance and well as her being mad’

SECRECY AND DECEPTION:
→F alse Reputation:
● Mrs Reed l abels young Jane as having a ‘bad character’ and an ‘a deceitful disposition’
● Mr. Brocklehurst, is confronted by Mrs. Reed regarding how he should keep a keen eye out for her because
she is a c
ompulsive liar and deceitful
○ “This little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish’
● Mrs. Reed’s deceit was to her own benefit → she is no longer responsible for a burden, Jane

→C onvinced Maid:
● Cover-up involving G race Poole → blamed for strange noises and events
● Whenever Jane sees her she’s behaving normally
● After the f ire in Mr Rochester’s bedroom, Jane overhears a servant asking ‘Doesn’t she know?’
● Jane overhears two servants talking about Grace → gets ‘ good wages’ and does a job that most people
couldn’t do → Jane excluded from the secret
○ Jane knows there is a s ecret at Thornfield → doesn’t ask questions → ‘there was a mystery at
Thornfield’
● Jane describes the attic corridor at Thornfield as being like “Bluebeard’s castle”
○ Bluebeard = folktale character who allows his w ife to enter any room in his castle except one
○ Disobeys the order + finds the dead bodies of Bluebeard’s previous wives inside the forbidden
room
■ Foreshadows f uture events

→F alse Love:
● Mr Rochester uses Ms Ingram in a scheme where they were to be lawfully wedded
○ Intention of bringing out Jane’s jealousy → sparks and flourishes her love for her master
○ Rochester admits to his actions → does not feel remorse or guilt
● Mr Rochester plays charades w ith his guests → pretend to get married to Blanche
● Mr Rochester dresses up as a gypsy → try and m anipulate Jane and Blanche
● Mr Rochester doesn’t tell Jane who he is when they first meet → kept it a secret

→P revious Marriage:
● Mr Rochester keeps his love for Jane secret → Jane suffers because she believes he wants to marry
Blanche
● Biggest deception → Mr Rochester is a lready married → Jane o nly finds out at the altar
● Jane’s wish of eternal happiness and to be treated with respect → becoming a reality u ntil Berta is
revealed
○ ‘It was not my original intention to deceive, as I have deceived you’ ~ Mr Rochester
● Mr Rochester is a victim of secrecy → father +brother didn’t tell him that madness runs in Bertha’s family
● Hides Bertha at Thornfield → hides the truth about strange noises, his marriage + Mr Mason’s visit

→O ther Secrets:
● Mrs Reed d oesn’t tell Jane that she has an Uncle for a long time → known to be dead
● Mr Rochester loses his sight → things are now hidden from him
○ Blindness helps him l earn from his mistakes
● Jane is u sually honest + open with the other characters and with the ‘reader’ who she addresses directly
○ Easier to understand + trust her point of view
○ Bronte uses her as a n arrator → reader only finds out what happens when she does

FAMILY:
→ I nadequate Families:
● Families in ‘Jane Eyre’ are either incomplete or do not function well
● Majority of main characters l ack one or both parents
○ Results in lack of guidance, support or control
■ Jane
■ Reed children
■ Adele
● Parents who do exist o ften are unreliable
○ Do not put their c hildren’s best interests at heart
○ Do not see that they are destroying them
■ Rochester’s father
■ Mrs Reed
● Substitute parents are neglectful, stern/harsh for no reason or biased
○ Mrs Reed x Jane
○ Brocklehurst x Lowood School Girls
● Only exception is Rochester for Adele who r aises her voluntarily

→R eformulated Families:
● Jane is searching for a s ense of belonging, love and family
○ Has several surrogate mothers, to substitute lack of care from Mrs Reed
○ Perhaps due to Bronte’s own lack of motherhood as a child → mother died of cancer i n 1821
■ Bessie → servant at Gateshead
■ Miss Temple → her teacher
■ Mrs Fairfax → housekeeper at Thornfield
● At the beginning → obsessed with finding love to:
○ Establish i dentity
○ Achieve happiness
● Sometimes her independency gets in the way of finding family/love
● Jane fits in at Lowood w here she is more accepted t han at Gateshead
○ “I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations, for Gateshead and its daily
luxuries.”
● Rivers are the only family Jane has a positive relationship with
○ River siblings contrast to Reed siblings → all Jane’s cousins + from respectable families, but
opposite in character
■ One older brother, two sisters
○ Rivers replace Reeds in Jane’s life → shows how her life is getting better
● Freedom with family ties e nable her to establish a new family + beginning

→F amily Ties:
● Connection f rom family ties → centre of plot structure
● Situations between Reeds, Rivers and Jane c ome from q uarrels and separations in previous generations
● Rochester i s also at the mercy of his father and of B ertha Mason’s family history of madness
● Groups of a bsent individuals affect the fate and lives of those who are alive
○ Mr Reed makes his wife adopt Jane
○ Uncle John Eyre's d ecides to l eave his money to Jane
■ Enables the r esolution of the previous problems in the Eyre family
■ Reeds → seen as being part of their mother's rather than their father's family
● Excluded f rom this redemption
○ John i s the v ictim of his mother's indulgence
○ Georgiana and Eliza inherit her vanity and meanness of spirit respectively

● Jane does not feel that she has found her true family u ntil she falls in love with Rochester
○ “I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only
home.” (chapter 22- speaking to Rochester)
● She o nly gets married when she gains financial and emotional independence after receiving i nheritance
and family love of her cousins
● She prays for solace when her wedding is interrupted
● She puts her s urvival in the hands of God when she is poor and starving
● When Jane m arries Rochester, Jane is finally l iberated a nd brings her dual quest for family and
independence to a conclusion
○ “Reader, I married him”.

→F amily Problems:
● ‘Jane Eyre’ highlights family problems
● Eyres are related to Reed and Rivers families, but they are e stranged
○ Reeds don’t approve of Eyres
○ Rivers and Eyre families have a disagreement over money
● Reeds → dysfunctional family
○ John commits suicide
○ Eliza says she will never see Georgiana after their mother’s death
● St.John loves God more than family → prepared to abandon sister to go and work in India as a missionary
● Adele → abandoned by her mother and doesn't know who her father is
○ Makes Jane more determined to take care of her
○ Jane understands what it’s like to have no parents
● Mr Rochester’s family ruined his life by pushing him to marry Bertha

RELIGION:
● To Bronte, ‘self-righteousness is not religion’
○ Written in P reface to s econd edition of ‘Jane Eyre’
○ Addressed issues that readers had with the plot of the book
■ eg/ Bronte’s c riticism of religion
● Three main religious figures = M r Brocklehurst, St. John + Helen Burns
● Bronte j uxtaposes Jane with characters who espouse different religious beliefs
● All of these characters represent a m odel of Christianity which Jane u
ltimately rejects

→M r. Brocklehurst:
● Bronte illustrates danger and hypocrisies evident at the time through B rocklehurst
○ Says there are benefits of privation and humility but he lives an indulgent life and emotionally
abuses Lowood students
■ eg/ B ut we are not to conform to nature’
■ eg/ ‘I wish these girls to be the children of grace’
■ eg/ ‘ I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly and plainly’
■ eg/ ‘ Punish her body to save her soul’
● Mr Brocklehurst’s actions and hypocrisy shows Bronte criticising Evangelicalism → seen as scandalous in
the Victorian era
○ Evangelicalism = belief that human beings are affected by sin and unable to achieve a close
relationship with God
● In reality she was c riticizing how some people use Christianity to hold power over others
● Others use religion as a way to manipulate Mr Brocklehurst as well
○ eg/ ‘“I wish to be a little angel here below”; he then gets two nuts’
■ Challenges child stereotypes
■ Children are smart + manipulative → use Brocklehurst’s naivety to their advantage
● Imagery + metaphors used → eg/ ‘black pillar’

→H elen Burns:
● Acts as a foil to Jane → acceptance + tolerance is a sharp contrast t o Jane’s passion
● Believes in s elf negation and doctrine of forgiveness
● Policy of absolute forgiveness and tolerance
○ Too passive f or Jane to adopt
● Helen represents the New Testament view of ‘turn the other cheek’
○ eg/ ‘We all must die one day’
○ eg/ ‘The illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual’
○ eg/ ‘ The Bible bids us return good for evil’

→S t. John Rivers:
● Practices a Christianity of utter piousness, righteousness and no passion
● He has a Christianity of ambition, glory and self importance → wants to serve God completely
○ eg/ ‘ God had an errand for me’
■ Relates to Rochester → b lames situation on hope e tc
● Believes he must sacrifice himself t o God by going to India → tried to persuade Jane to follow him
○ Jane rejects St. John’s proposal for his take on religion and the l ack of independence
○ St. John urges Jane to sacrifice her passions a nd emotions in order to fulfill her moral duty
■ He offers her a life that would m ake Jane be disloyal to herself
● Jane describes St.John
○ ‘A statue instead of a man’
○ ‘Antique models’
○ ‘Like a Greek face’
○ ‘Athenian mouth and chin’
○ ‘Colourless as ivory’
■ Compares to B rocklehurst → p
illar link
● Black pillar vs white marble
■ Religious connotations → idol
● Cold exterior + unfeeling
● Pure + perfect → Greek
○ ‘Seemed to use [his eyes] rather than instruments’
○ ‘More calculated to embarrass rather than to encourage’
■ Calculated a nd manipulative
■ Eyes → ‘clear enough in a literal sense’ → relates to statue → hard beneath the exterior,
nothing inside
● ‘Had not yet found that peace in God’ → shows how religious beliefs differ to Helen
● ‘Allusions to Calvinistic doctrines’ → religious beliefs relate to Brocklehurst

→J ane:
● Jane looks to God in her own way throughout the book
● As a child, Jane says to avoid hell she ‘ must keep in good health, and not die’ → not very Christian
○ eg/ ‘ I like Revelations, and the book of Daniel, and Genesis…’
■ Reads the Bible as a novel
■ Knowledgeable
● Grows up + tried to l ive in a good + moral way
● Jane’s religious journey is a large part of her journey of self discovery → very real religious faith
○ eg/ when wandering on the moors, she prays to God a nd trusts that h
e will save her + Mr
Rochester
○ eg/ struggles with the fact that she has ‘made an idol’ of Mr Rochester
● She does this when she learns about Bertha and before St. John takes her to Moor House
● She does not adapt any of the three types of Christianity and only returns to Rochester when s he is ready
● Jane’s experiences s hape her outlook on religion and this b rings her and Rochester together through a
spirituality of profound love

QUOTATIONS:
CHARACTER THEME QUOTATION
Jane Marriage ● ‘I do not want a stranger, unsympathising, alien, different from me; I want my
kindred’
● ‘Reader, I married him’
Gender roles ● ‘Naughty’ → as a child

● ‘Passionate’ → as a child
● ‘Unflagging energy’ → called by St. John
● ‘Unfeminine’ words → called by St. John
● ‘I have as much soul as you, and as full as much heart!’ → speaks to Rochester
as his equal
● Calls John a ‘murderer’, ‘slave-driver’, a ‘Roman emperor’
● ‘I am hot, and fire dissolves ice’ → fire imagery (St. John)
Education ● ‘An entire separation from Gateshead and an entrance into a new life’ → social
mobility
Appearance ● ‘Little’
● ‘Plain’
Supernatural ● ‘Half fairy, half imp’

● ‘Sprite’
● ‘Tiny phantoms’
● ‘A great black dog behind him’ → vision in Red Room
● Felt ‘wondrous shock of feeling’ → heard Rochester
Morality ● Offers Mrs Reed ‘full and free forgiveness’

● ‘How dare I, Mrs Reed? How dare? Because it is the truth.’ → stands up for what
she believes in
● ‘I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I
am, the more I will respect myself.’ → Jane’s principles
● ‘My spirit is willing to do what is right’
● ‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an
independent will’
● ‘Must leave him decidedly, instantly, entirely’ → could not live as mistress
● ‘If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the
wicked people would have it all their own way’
● ‘Conventionality is not morality’ → Bronte
Foreignness + ● ‘Bad opinion’

outsiders
● ‘Liar’
● ‘Wicked heart’
● ‘To get some real affection… from whom I truly love, I would willingly… let a bull
toss me’
Secrecy + ● ‘There was mystery at Thornfield’

deception
Family ● Filled with ‘sudden joy’ → finds she is related to Rivers

● ‘I would not have exchanged Lowood with all its privitations, for Gateshead with
all is luxuries’
● ‘Wherever you are is my home- my only home’
Religion ● ‘I must keep in good health and not die’ → originally no belief in God
● ‘I did not like this servitude’ → St.John

Rochester Marriage ● ‘Good and bright qualities… all fresh, healthy, without soil, and without taint’ →
refers to Jane
Gender roles ● ‘Promise me to only stay for a week’

● Saw women as ‘inferior’
● Time he spent with women seen as ‘degrading’
Appearance ● ‘He searched my face with eyes that I saw were dark, irate, and piercing’ →
Byronic hero
● ‘Peculiarities of temper’
● ‘Allowances should be made’
● ‘He has painful thoughts’
● ‘Flashing’ and ‘flaming’ eyes → passionate
● ‘Dark, strong and stern’
● ‘Dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’
Supernatural ● ‘Gytrash’ → half dog/half horse

● ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’ → calls to Jane (in head)
Morality ● ‘I began to experience [...] the wish for reconcilement to my Maker’ → allowed
happiness after suffering
● ‘He wouldn’t leave the house until everyone else was out before him’ →
redemption
Secrecy + ● ‘It was not my original intention to deceive, as I have deceived you’
deception
Religion ● ‘I know my Maker sanctions what I do’ → uses religion to justify actions
General ● Fortune is only ‘a third of what was supposed’ → discouraged Blanche
Bertha Marriage ● Rochester says her mind is ‘common, low and narrow’
Gender roles ● ‘Intemperate and unchaste’ → unconventional feminine attributes
Appearance ● ‘I saw the reflection of the visage and features quite distinctly’ → mirror image of
Jane
● ‘Big woman’
● ‘Discoloured face’
● ‘Savage face’
● ‘Purple’
● ‘Bloated’
● ‘Fearful and ghastly to me’
● ‘Roll of red eyes’
● ‘Blackened inflation of the lineaments’
● ‘Impure and depraved’
Supernatural ● ‘Hair streaming against the flames’ → satanic nature

● ‘Vampire’
● ‘Strange laughter echoes above them, spooking Jane’
Foreignness + ● ‘She’s so cunning’

outsiders
● ‘It is not in mortal discretion to fathom her craft’ → witchcraft
● ‘Snarling, snatching sound’
● ‘Demonic laugh’
● ‘Goblin laughter’
● ‘Like some mad animal’
● ‘Maniac’
● ‘Preternatural laugh’

● ‘Totally alien’
General ● Mr Rochester couldn’t pass ‘a single hour of the day’ with her
● Fed a ‘boiling mess’ → related to Lowood
St. John Gender roles ● ‘God and nature intended for you a missionary’s wife’
● ‘You are formed for labour not love’
● ‘I claim you- not for my pleasure’
● ‘When he said “go”, I went; “come”, I came; “do this,” I did it’
Appearance ● ‘Tall, fair with blue eyes, and a Grecian profile’ → handsome
● ‘I am cold’ → foil to Jane + Rochester
● ‘Know me to be what I am- a cold, hard man’
● ‘Marble seeming features’
● ‘Colourless as ivory’
● ‘Marble kisses, or ice kisses’
● ‘Spoke like an automaton’
● ‘Statue instead of a man’
● ‘Antique models’
Secrecy + ● ‘Seemed to use [his eyes] rather than instruments’

deception
● ‘More calculated to embarrass rather than to encourage’
Religion ● ‘I do not speak to the feeble, or think of them’ → uses religion to justify actions →
criticises religion
● ‘I am the servant of an infallible master’
● ‘My king, my lawgiver, my captain, is the All-perfect’
● ‘It seems strange to me that tall around me do not burn to enlist under the same
banner’
● ‘God had an errand for me’
Mr Education ● ‘My plan in bringing up these girls is… to render them hardy, patient, self denying’
Brocklehurst
Appearance ● ‘Black pillar
● ‘Like a carved mask’
Religion ● ‘They were splendidly attired in velvet silk and furs’ → hypocritical use of religion
● ‘I have a master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world: my mission is to
mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh’
● ‘Punish her body to save her soul’
● ‘I wish these girls to be the children of grace’
Helen Burns Religion ● ‘You must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about’
● ‘The Bible bids us return good for evil’
● ‘We all must die one day’
● ‘The illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual’
Mrs Reed + Gender roles ● ‘The pink cheeks and golden curls’ → ideal appearance
Children
● ‘Accustomed to John Reed’s abuse’
● ‘For they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years’
Appearance ● ‘Unwholesome’
● ‘Thick’
Family ● ‘All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all his
mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like
the a dark deposit in a turbid well’
● ‘You were born, I think, to my torment’

● ‘Killed the little pea-chicks’

● ‘Ached and bled with the blow’
● ‘Headstrong and selfish’
● No ‘result of her diligence’
● ‘Spoiled temper’
● ‘Universally indulged’

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ENGLISH LITERATURE 1B: JANE EYRE

Outsider ● Foreign ● Orphan

Gender roles ● ‘Naughty’ → as a child

Supernatural ● ‘Half fairy, half imp’

Morality ● Offers Mrs Reed ‘full and free forgiveness’

Foreignness + ● ‘Bad opinion’

Secrecy + ● ‘There was mystery at Thornfield’

Family ● Filled with ‘sudden joy’ → finds she is related to Rivers

Gender roles ● ‘Promise me to only stay for a week’

Supernatural ● ‘Gytrash’ → half dog/half horse

General ● Fortune is only ‘a third of what was supposed’ → discouraged Blanche

Gender roles ● ‘Intemperate and unchaste’ → unconventional feminine attributes

Supernatural ● ‘Hair streaming against the flames’ → satanic nature

Foreignness + ● ‘She’s so cunning’

Secrecy + ● ‘Seemed to use [his eyes] rather than instruments’

● ‘Killed the little pea-chicks’

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