YOUNG ADULT READERS

CHARLOTTE
STAGE 3

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specially-written stories for learners of English.
BRONTË
Charlotte Brontë JANE EYRE

CHARLOTTE BRONTË JANE EYRE

STAGE 3
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is an orphan, and all alone in the world. But she is no ordinary
young woman; despite her lonely and unhappy childhood, she is determined
to succeed at a time when women had little freedom. When she meets the
enigmatic Mr Rochester, however, her independent spirit is put to the test.
Will Jane ever find the happiness she desires so much?

In this reader you will find:

- Background information about this novel
- A short biography of Charlotte Brontë
- Glossary of difficult words
- Comprehension activities
- PET-style activities
- Exit test

Tags
Love Society

STAGE 1 Elementary 600 headwords A1

STAGE 2 Pre-Intermediate 800 headwords A2 KET
STAGE 3 Intermediate 1000 headwords B1 PET
YOUNG ADULT ELI READERS
STAGE 4 Upper Intermediate 1800 headwords B2 FCE
STAGE 5 Advanced 2500 headwords C1 CAE
STAGE 6 Proficiency Unabridged Texts C2 CPE

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MAIN CHARACTERS

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BEFORE YOU READ

Vocabulary
1a Jane Eyre was published in 1847, when Victoria had been queen
for ten years. Answer the following questions to help you
imagine what life was like in a rich house in Victorian England.

1 How did rich people keep their houses warm?

____________________________________________________
2 What was life like for children of wealthy families?
____________________________________________________
3 What could these children do for entertainment?
____________________________________________________
4 Who did the cooking, cleaning and washing in a rich house?
____________________________________________________
5 How did people travel long distances?
____________________________________________________
6 What do you think the class structure was like in Victorian
England?
____________________________________________________

1b Discuss the following in pairs.

• Would you have liked to live in Victorian times? Why/not?
• What was life like for a poor person in those times?

2a Read this short summary of Chapter One, then decide which

adjectives might best describe Jane.

■ orphan ■ unhappy ■ lonely ■ timid ■ confident

■ sociable ■ rebellious ■ imaginative ■ afraid ■ brave

Jane Eyre is sent to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents
die, when she is only a few months old. About a year later, her uncle
also dies and life becomes more difficult for her. Her aunt does not
want her in the house and her cousins treat her badly. She has no
one to protect her. She is often punished for what her aunt sees as
bad behaviour.

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 2b Jane lives in a very big house. Match each room with its definition
and what you might find in it.
1 ■ ■ drawing a small room for x bed; wardrobe;
room eating breakfast mirror; fireplace;
chairs and other
furniture for
storing clothes
2 ■ ■ bedroom b large, formal room y small table and
for relaxing and chairs; fireplace
seeing visitors
3 ■ ■ breakfast c room for sleeping z sofas and chairs;
room and storing large fireplace
clothes and
other personal
possessions

Grammar
2 3 Use the prompts below to make questions. Then listen out for
them in the first chapter of Jane Eyre.

1 where / she/ go (present perfect)

____________________________________________________
2 what / you / want (present simple)
____________________________________________________
3 what / you/ do / behind the curtain (past continuous)
____________________________________________________
4 you / hear / her (simple past)
____________________________________________________
5 how / you can / hit your young master (simple past)
____________________________________________________
6 why / I / suffer in this way (simple past)
____________________________________________________
7 Miss Eyre / you / be / ill (present simple)
____________________________________________________
8 you / like / go to school (present conditional)
____________________________________________________

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 Chapter One

‘Unjust! – Unjust!’

2 There was no possibility of going for a walk that dark, November

afternoon, there was a cold wind and it was raining heavily. I was glad
– I never liked long walks. I hated going back into the house feeling
cold to my bones, back to the house where I was constantly told off
by Bessie, the nurse, and where I felt so inferior to my cousins Eliza,
John and Georgiana Reed.
That afternoon I went into the drawing room*. There, lying on
a sofa was my aunt, Mrs Reed, surrounded by my cousins, her three
‘little darlings’. A bright* fire was burning in the fireplace, and the
children, who were not arguing or crying, seemed perfectly happy.
She looked up when she saw me but did not ask me to join them.
‘Until I have heard from Bessie, and seen with my own eyes, that you
are learning to be a more sociable, more likeable child, Jane,’ she said,
‘then you will have none of the nice things that contented, happy
little children are allowed to have.’
I started to ask what I had done wrong, but my aunt told me to be
silent and to go somewhere out of the way. I went into the next room,
a small breakfast room, which I liked because it had a bookcase. I
took out one of my favourite books, A History of British Birds, climbed
onto the window seat*, closed the curtain behind me and opened the

drawing room (old fashioned) living room with chairs and window seat a place to sit under a window
sofas
bright giving out a lot of light

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15
AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES

Reading Comprehension
1 Answer the following questions.

1 Who lives in the house that Jane finds on the moors?

___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
2 What does Jane tell them her name is?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
3 How long is Jane ill?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
4 What does Jane tell them about herself?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
5 What does St John do to help Jane?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
6 What arrives in the post?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
7 What does St John ask Jane?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
8 What is her reaction?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
9 What happens when St John discovers Jane's real surname?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Grammar
2 Choose the correct form of the verb in brackets.

1 ‘Who _____________ it?’ Rochester asked. (be)

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 2 ‘Your servants _____________ me, Pilot _____________ me!’ I
said. (recognise)
3 I _____________ towards him and he _____________ his hand
out to touch mine. (walk / reach)
4 ‘_____________? Is it Jane? My living Jane?’ he said, his hand
now holding tightly onto my fingers. (I dream)
5 ‘It is,’ I answered. I kissed his eyes that could not see me, I
pushed aside his hair and kissed his forehead. ‘It is Jane, and I
_____________ you.’ (never leave)

Vocabulary
3 Find fifteen words from this chapter in the wordsearch below,
and discover what Jane finds.

M I S S I O N A R Y M
B F K I T C H E N K A
E O T R B R E A D I R
G R C H I L D U H S R
G T M I L K E L E S I
A U S E C R E T L E E
R N O B L I N D P D D
V E E X H A U S T E D
E U N G R A T E F U L
I N Q U I S I T I V E

Speaking
4 Think about the following questions, then discuss your answers
in pairs.

• Have you enjoyed reading Jane Eyre?

• Which of the characters did you like best?
• Which did you like least?
• Were you surprised when you found out about Bertha Mason,
had you guessed that Rochester was already married?
• Do you think Jane and Rochester will be happy together?

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FOCUS ON...

Charlotte Brontë
(1816 – 1855)
English novelist, Charlotte Brontë, was the third child of six
born to Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria. When
Charlotte was five years old, the family moved to the
Parsonage in Haworth – a small hill-top town in Yorkshire.
Their mother died the following year, and their aunt
Elizabeth moved in to look after the children.

School life
At the age of eight, Charlotte was sent away with her elder
sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, and her younger sister, Emily,
to a newly opened school for girls. Conditions were harsh;
Maria and Elizabeth became ill there, and died at home of
tuberculosis the following year. Charlotte and Emily were
taken away from the school and, apart from short periods
at two other schools, were educated at home. Now the
eldest child, Charlotte helped to look after her brother,
Branwell, and her sisters Emily and Anne. Clergy Daughters’ School (Cowan Bridge).

Feeding the Imagination

From an early age, the Brontë
children invented stories.
They created imaginary
worlds called Angria and
Gondal. They wrote poems,
articles and stories based
on the adventures of some
toy soldiers their father had
bought for Branwell – all
in microscopic writing.
Charlotte’s stories became
increasingly complicated;
she was already interested
in exploring the complex
relationships between
people. You can see examples
of the young Brontë’s work
in the museum next to the
Parsonage in Haworth. Their
father encouraged them
to learn about the outside
world and wrote in a letter
to a friend that he could talk
to his children as he could
to any adult. Charlotte in
particular was interested
in politics, although at the
time this was not thought a
suitable interest for a young
woman.

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Working Life
Charlotte became a governess for a number of families in Yorkshire, but she never stayed more
than a few months at a time, probably because she missed her father, brother and sisters. In
1842, Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels, where they learnt French in return for teaching
English. Charlotte became unhappy at the school – Emily had left, and she seems to have fallen
in love with Constantin Heger who ran the school, but was already married. Charlotte used her
experiences in Brussels as inspiration for her later novels The Professor and Villette.

A childrens’ room.

Writing under a Tragedy strikes

different name Charlotte’s brother Branwell became
increasingly addicted to alcohol and opium.
In 1846 she and her sisters published a
He died in 1848. Emily died a few months
small collection of poems under the names
later and Anne the following year. Charlotte
Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. According to
started to make short visits to London, where
social conventions of the time writing was
she met some influential writers of the time,
a rather scandalous occupation for women.
but she was always pleased to return home.
The following year, the sisters, still using
In 1854, Charlotte agreed to marry Reverend
their pseudonyms, had three novels accepted
Nicholls, though she was not in love with him.
for publication – Jane Eyre (Charlotte),
Charlotte was pregnant with her first child
Wuthering Heights (Emily) and Agnes Grey
when she died (probably of pneumonia) in
(Anne).
1854 at the age of 38.
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FOCUS ON...

Fashion
At the beginning of the Nineteenth
Century, fashionable middle and
upper class women wore simple
‘Empire’ style clothes, but by the
time Victoria came to the throne in
1837, women’s dresses were much
more complex. They were often
highly decorated with lace and had
large sleeves. The shoulders and
skirts were wide, while the waist was
made to look tiny. Women always
wore hats when they were out and
their clothes always covered their feet
and ankles.

It was not until the beginning of the Twentieth Century

that women began to dress in a more liberal, more
liberated way.
Fashion and the way people dress is an important theme
throughout Jane Eyre. The hypocrisy of Mr Brocklehurst is
highlighted when his wife and daughter arrive dressed in
the latest fashion, when he has just ordered the cutting
of the girls' hair. Jane describes Mr Rochester’s female
guests as a flock of ornate birds. The first Mrs Rochester
on the other hand has wild hair and a simple white dress
– her lack of care over her appearance is used here as an
indication of her mental illness.
Jane however is always dressed plainly. At first this is out
of necessity but later this is her choice. Mrs Fairfax has to
ask her to wear something more elegant when she is to
meet Mr Rochester for the first time. Jane refuses to accept
Mr Rochester's jewels and expensive dresses, and this
helps her to keep her freedom and independence.
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FOCUS ON...

The Parsonage
The childhood home of the Brontës in Haworth is now a museum. The house is decorated and
furnished as it was when Charlotte and her family lived there. It is a warm, comfortable house
and it is easy to imagine the children growing up there. Behind the house is a museum where
you can see the children's stories of Angria and Gondal written in tiny letters, as well as many
of their possessions. If you are a fan of the Brontës it is well worth a visit.

Adaptations and Inspiration

There have been many adaptations of Jane who plays Jane, Mia Wasikowska, is nineteen
Eyre for TV, radio and the theatre, and 18 which is the age Jane is when she meets
films. The novel has also been the inspiration Rochester; Michael Fassbender is a tyrannical
of many novels, the most famous are Daphne Rochester and the film is full of suspense – as
du Maurier’s Rebecca, Wide Sargasso Sea in the book, we don’t find out the truth until
by Jean Rhys, which tells the early story the end.
of Bertha Mason, and Jasper Fforde’s 2001
science fiction fantasy, The Eyre Affair.
The first adaptations were often quite
different from the original book, but more
recently, scriptwriters have stayed closer to
the text. The latest film version, released in
2011, is directed by American Cary Fukunaga.
It is a close retelling of the story, with well-
researched costumes and historical detail.
Unlike many previous versions, the actress Jane Eyre (2011).

Task
When was Jane Eyre first published? ______________________
What name was it published under? ______________________
What was the inspiration for Lowood School? _______________
What inspired Thornfield Hall? ______________________
How old was Charlotte when she finished Jane Eyre? _________

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