Summary:
Jane stays in bed to recover for a few days and the rivers siblings look after her. Jane gets better and Hannah tells her about Mr Rivers who lost the family fortune in a bad business deal. Mary and Diana were forced to work as governesses. She tells them that her real name isn’t really Jane Elliot and St John tries to find her a job. Jane becomes friendly with the two sisters, on the other hand, St John seems distant and quiet towards Jane. St John finds a job for Jane – running her own school – secretly hoping she will turn the offer down. Mary and Diana believe that he will go on a missionary posit to India soon. St John tells them that their Uncle John has died and they have nothing because all his money went an unknown relative. Jane finds out that Uncle John was the man who led Mr Rivers into his bad business deal. Rosamond Oliver is introduced into the novel. Jane starts at her school but doesn’t really like the work. St John visits Jane and tells her he made the wrong career decision himself once – leading Jane to think about her options. Rosamond comes along and starts talking to John, Jane thinks that they like each other. Jane starts to settle in at the school and her pupils begin warming to her. She starts having nightmares about Rochester. Jane tells St John that he should marry Rosamond. He says that he loves her but doesn’t want to ruin his duty to god by becoming a missionary. He believes that she would make a terrible missioners wife. St John sees something on the edge of Jane’s paper and tears it off. Jane is confused by this as St John rushes off. St John later comes back. He mainly tells Jane the story of herself… an orphan, which went to Thornfield and disappeared after almost marrying Rochester. St John knows it is Jane but is waiting for her to reveal it herself. He tells Jane that he has a letter from Mr Briggs, demanding that Jane Eyre be found as her Uncle John Eyre is dead and has left her a huge fortune. Jane tells the truth and lets it known that she is really Jan Eyre. St John then tells Jane he found out from the paper he ripped off her drawing – it was her signature. They find out they’re in fact cousins. Jane is happy that she does have a real family. Christmas comes and John tells Jane that he is upset because Rosamond is engaged. He later tells Jane to learn Hindustani. He starts to begin a hold over Jane and becomes more possessive and powerful over her. He then asks her to go with him to India and to become his wife. Jane explains that she would like to go to India with him as a missionary but not as his wife -because she doesn’t love him. He insists that she marries him and continues to put pressure on her. Eventually, St John has overpowered Jane too much this time and she is considering marrying him most likely because she feels forced to, but at that moment she hears what she thinks is Rochester’s voice. Jane can hear Rochester calling her and she thinks something bad has happened. Jane thinks about her ‘hearing Rochester’ and decides to leave and return to Thornfield. When Jane arrives at Thornfield it is just burnt remains of a fire. She finds out that Bertha set the house on fire and Rochester tried to save everyone including Bertha…bertha jumped from the roof and Rochester lost his sight and hand. Jane goes to Ferndean, Rochester’s new home. Jane walks in and goes to give Rochester a glass of water; he senses that Jane is in the room, even though he cannot see her. Rochester reaches out for her and Jane promises never to leave him. Rochester proposes to Jane again. Rochester tells Jane he called he name a few nights earlier…although…Jane doesn’t tell him she heard it. They get married, Jane writes to her cousins, still staying in contact with her new found family. Jane tells the reader that she is retelling her story after being married to Rochester for ten years now. She explains that they live as equals and a happily married. Rochester starts to regain his sight, Jane gives birth to a child, and Rochester can see his child clearly. The novel finishes with an update of what has happened to everyone else – Mary and Diana are both married now, St John went to India.
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2 comments:
Do you have an overall view of the novel? Can you sum up main themes?Can you say what the novel's strengths are? What do you think of the ending?
Overall view = the novel is very unique and 'different'. It's unlike anything i have read before in terms of the amount of description and language. I believe the book could've be better at the start...getting through the first ten or so chapters was a struggle as i found it quite boring and it didn't particularly provide me any enjoyment per se. However, the book became more interesting half way through because as the reader, i wanted to follow Jane and her 'situations'. Her complaining and constant kind of 'whining' was boring too. I didnt really think the book was a good as it supposed to be , but as i progressed it became more interesting.
Main themes = love, independence and social class. But also, i would say religion as a theme is important as it comes up quite a bit throughout the novel.
Strengths = i believe a huge strength of the novel is that Jane Eyre (the character)talks to her readers. Perhaps Bronte did this in order to communicate her own feelings and ideas about things that happened in her past, in addition to making it more personal with the readers - so they themselves can identify with both Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre.
The ending = Jane Eyre was a little bit of a unpredictable novel really - as so many things had happened and there were many twists and turns. But i'd say it could've more or less been pretty much predicted and expected that she would live happily ever after. It was good to finally see Jane happy - in the end.
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