Summary:
Third phase of Jane’s life, Jane arrives at Thornfield, Mrs Fairfax, Thornfields housekeeper is waiting for Jane. Mr Rochester the owner of Thornfield manor is away, Jane will be looking after Adele. She is eight and a French girl. Jane hears ‘haunted’ kinds of laughter and Mrs Fairfax has a go at Grace for it, she tells Jane that Grace is to blame for the strange goings on. Jane settles in at Thornfield and seems to like it. Jane meets Mr Rochester unknowingly, a man falls off his horse, Jane goes to help him - she doesn’t know that it is Mr Rochester, then she finds out it is Mr Rochester has just returned home and has just fallen off his horse. The next day he invites Jane and Adele to dinner, Jane thinks he is a bit brusque and offhand, Mrs Fairfax explains he has had a difficult past. Rochester starts to become chattier with Jane, possibly indicating his likeness towards her. Rochester comes clean to Jane about Adele and explains he had a relationship with Adele’s mum Celine, this broke off after he learnt that Celine was with someone else and only wanted him for his money. Celine claims that Adele is Rochester daughter, however, he denies this. Rochester brought Adele to England so she would have a better life because Celine abandoned her. ‘Strange’ things continue to occur around Thornfield; Jane hears a lot of noises and sinister laughing. On one particular occasion she hears a door open and sees that Rochester’s room is on fire – she saves his life. He rushes up to the 3rd floor -a very unuaual reaction considering your room has just been on fire! When he comes back basically he says not to worry, “I have found it all out, it is just as I thought.” He tells Jane to keep quiet about what has happened. So the rest of the staff, think it was an accident and Rochester is too blame, still, nobody really cares and everyone just forgets about it.
After saving his life, Jane realises she has feelings for Rochester, it disheartens her to think he is going away to a party for a few days and Blanche Ingram is going to be there. Blanche is sort of the equivalent of a socialite and Jane knows she is no match for Blanche.
Characters:
Mr Rochester –Has just be introduced, he is the owner of Thornfield, Jane’s employer. He is very wealthy, but he seems a bit of a dark horse, there is something about him that you cannot quite put your finger on which provides a lot of suspense and wander. He is a bit unusual in the way that he talks to Jane without a care – not caring about the differences in their roles, lives, social class.
Mrs Fairfax - Not much has been said about her, but she is the housekeeper at Thornfield – she also seems to know a lot about Rochester’s past. She lies to Jane that the noises she hears are Grace Poole laughing and stuff.
Adele - Jane takes care of Adele she is sort of like her teacher. Adele seems like a spoilt French girl, there is speculation that Rochester is Adele’s dad as he and Celine (Adele’s mum) had a relationship, in which Celine didn't really care for him. However Celine abandoned Adele so Rochester brought her to England. But why would he do this, if he believes Adele isn't his daughter?
Grace Poole - We briefly hear of her…we don’t really know much about her yet, only that she works at Thornfield and apparently it is her who makes the evilly laughter and noises.
Blanche Ingram - Blanche is a socialite, we haven’t heard much about her character in detail yet but we know that Jane doesn’t like the idea of Blanche being near Rochester; probably because Jane knows there is no way she could ever compete with Blanch for Rochesters affections.
Symbols/themes/motifs:
Fire - obviously goes nicely with the fire in Rochester's room, it could however represent the anger inside Jane and a troubled spirit as a reult of events from her past. In my opinion, i think Bronte may use these elements to reveal 'traits' and 'characteristics' of her characters ie Fire may be used to show the strength of character in Jane or the mysterious 'not quite right/not quite sure' character of Rochester.
Developments:
There have clearly been developments in the novel as far as scene/setting is concerned. At the beginning of chapters 5…10 Jane was travelling to lowood, now at the beginning of 11…16 Jane is travelling to Thornfield. It is Jane’s ‘third chapter’ – she has already been through a lot but has adapted to change well. I didn’t like the description or changes of scenery at first, but to be honest, it probably makes the book better. I think this because it makes it seem more interesting and Bronte tries to engage the reader by making these changes, the reader may feel they want to read on then to see how Jane is going to ‘cope’ if you like, next or what is going to happen I n the next stage of her life. Where Bronte has added her own experiences into the book, for example, Jane’s time at Lowood, Jane as a governess. I feel that this is an effective way to make the reader relate more, after finding out certain information about the author and seeing how she has put it into her work, makes the reader obtain more interest. I for one have found the book more interesting as I have found out about Charlotte Bronte along the way. The book is developing nicely probably because things seem to make more sense when the reader can see where the author is coming from - a different point of view.
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3 comments:
These are good commenst Chantelle. You're right to pick out the mystery that surrounds Rochester and his protection of Adele. I like the way you comment on how the reader is getting involved and how the changes of location are important in this.
It's also a good point you make about how we enjoy seeing how Jane copes in these new surroundings.
Your thinking about the fire imagery is good. You might like to develop this further e.g. is there a metaphorical fire within Jane?
I'm glad that you're getting in to the novel now and developing more knowledge about the author.
Keep asking questions of the text - and trying to answer them.
With Don mentioning 'is there a metaphorical fire within Jane?' - after thinking about this maybe 'the fire' within Jane is hurt that she has experienced in the past, or desire inside to 'keep going' eventhough it may be easier to just give up in certain situations. The phrase 'burning rage' or something similar springs to mind. Perhaps Jane is still angry about situations from her past. There a people who keep their thoughts/feelings inside, until they 'explode', perhaps this is the fire that is presently contained inside of Jane. Or maybe Jane is the type of person that forgives but finds it hard to forget...that 'fire' could just be a flicker of light at the moment however it may serve as a trigger later.
Thats very interesting... I think that the idea of a fire of determination within Jane is probably very true- she doesn't seem to be too depressed after all the bad things that happened to her.
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