Section Key Events and Themes

1. Ch 1-4: Jane Eyre is a 10 year old orphan living in the

Jane’s estate of her cruel and oblivious aunt Mrs Reed.
childhood She is constantly tormented by her cousin John
at Reed who bullies her throughout her childhood.
Gateshead Even the person whom she is closest to, a nurse
called Bessie, she at times calls strict and mean.
Jane has a troubled childhood and after the
events with the red-room in chapter 2 Mrs Reed
has enough of her and decides to send her to a
school.
2. Ch 5-9: Jane leaves Gateshead and heads over to
Jane’s Lowood school. Throughout chapter 5 she
education observes the new environment as she settles in.
at Lowood She also discovers a friend called Helen Burns.
School Together they endure the harsh winter at
Lowood. In chapter 7 Jane once again meets Mr
Brocklehurst whom she dislikes. He rants about
the conditions about the school before publicly
humiliating her by calling an 'interloper and an
alien' while she stands on the 'pedestal of
infamy'. Overall Jane settles into the school very
well and as the Summer months come she begins
to love it there. Jane begins to explore the
surrounding natural beauties near Lowood in her
free time with her new friend Mary Wilson
however soon the school is struck by a virus and
over half of the students become ill.
Unfortunately, soon Helen also becomes sick yet
Jane does not find out about this until the last
moment. She encounters the nurse who tells her
that Helen will not last long and though given
strict instructions not to visit Helen she sneaks
off at night. The two meet in Ms Temple's room
where they have their final conversation. Jane,
then proceeds to fall asleep with Helen in her
arms. Unfortunately Helen dies her sleep and she
is taken away in the morning. (Honestly such a
heart-breaking moment :((( The chapter ends
with Jane telling us that Helen's grave was never
 labelled with anything but 15 years later Jane
labels it with 'Resurgam' which comes from latin
verb 'Resurgo' and which means 'I shall rise
again/I shall rise up'.
 

3. Ch 10-27: Having finished her education at Lowood she

Jane at decides to teach there for a year. However,
Thornfield afterwards she wants to move on with her life
and so puts out an advertisement in the paper.
Shortly after, she receives a reply from a certain
Mrs Fairfax whom she assumed was the parent
of her soon-to-be student Adele. However, when
she leaves Lowood and arrives at Thornfield she
learns that Mrs Fairfax is actually simply a
housekeeper. Over the next few days Jane settles
in and Mrs Fairfax tours her around the premises
however at one point the two her a creepy
laughter echo through the corridors. This turns
out to be Grace Bull, a servant at the house, who
Mrs Fairfax scolds (foreshadowing). We are also
introduced to Mr Rochester who we learn is an
eccentric individual with a rough past. Jane
settles in well at Thornfield and enjoys teaching
Adele who she finds is smart but spoilt at times.
At one point Jane is out at night watching the
moon when she sees a silhouette who she thinks
is a mystical spirit called a Gytrash. However it
turns out to be a traveller with his dog who we
later learn is the owner of Thornfield Mr
Rochester. Over the next few weeks Jane and Mr
Rochester get to know each other and he takes
particular interest in her art. Jane learns the
history of Rochester's family and of his (ex)
mistress Celine. One night, Jane is awoken by a
eerie laugh and then having followed it out of
her room she finds Mr Rochester's bedroom on
fire. She quickly helps him and Mr Rochester
 storms off however does not tell Jane what he
found out.

4. Ch 28-35:
Moor
House and
St. John

5. Ch 36-38:
Reunion
and
marriage
to
Rochester