Book: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Bronte
Publication: 1847
Pages: 286
Completion Date: 5/10/25
The book follows the story of Jane Eyre, starting from her life as a child in the home of her aunt & cousins as she is an orphan. She is about ten years old. The only person treating her well is the servant girl, Bessie. Her aunt decides to send her away to a school for wayword girls & orphans. She attends school there for eight years learning the subjects of reading, writing, French, piano, painting & sewing. At the end of her schooling, she moves to another town to become the governess of Miss Adela Varens, the ward of Mr Rochester of Thornfield Estate. He arrives after Jane has been working for three months and conducts an interview at that time. He stays on for several weeks – always treating Jane somewhat aloofly. One night, there is a fire in his bedroom and Jane puts it out, thus saving his life. He left the next day for several weeks.
When he returns, he is occupied by a group of people who stay for two weeks, several of whom are attractive ladies seeking a husband. These young women stayed for a number of days and it was during this time that Jane fell in love with Mr. Rochester, her employer. One evening while Mr. Rochester is out, a gypsy comes to the door in order to charge the girls and Jane a shilling to have their fortunes read. After a lengthy discussion with Jane, it turns out the gypsy is actually Mr. Rochester who is trying to find out her & the other lady’s feelings towards him. The next day, an old friend of his named Mr. Mason comes for a visit. That night, for reasons we never learn, Mr. Mason is bitten (the reader is led to believe it is by Ms. Poole, the servant girl) in the middle of the night. Mr Rochester doesn’t want his guests to know, so he has Jane look after him until he can get a doctor to come. They patch Mason up and get him out of the house before sunrise.
Later, Bessie’s husband comes to find Jane. Jane’s cousin, John Reed (who bullied her as a child) has committed suicide and Mrs. Reed is very sick and wishes to see Jane. Jane makes the 100 mile journey and stays for several weeks, but Mrs. Reed still hates Jane. After her death, Jane sees the one daughter off to a convent in Europe and another one off to a good marriage. She then returns to Thornfield.
Once she returns, she finds Mr. Rochester in the garden. Jane thinks he planning his wedding to Miss Ingram – one of the visiting young ladies. Jane is making plans for Adela Varens to attend a school and then she will find another employer to take her so she is not there any longer after he is married. After a very long conversation of constant ebbing & flowing between Edward Rochester & Jane, he finally tells Jane that he is actually in love with her asks her to marry him and she agrees. They spend the next month preparing for the wedding. At the wedding, the priest asks if there is anyone who objects to the wedding & Mr. Mason steps forward, saying that Edward is already married to his sister. It comes out that there is a deranged woman living in the attic with Ms. Poole and she is actually the one who bit Mr. Mason & set fire to Mr. Rochester’s bedroom. She is absolutely mad with no possible return to sanity and Edward kept her locked up for the past ten years — pretending that he was not married. His plan was to marry Jane as he loved her the most of any woman he had ever met and await the time for his insane wife to pass away. Jane could not agree to this as she was highly principled. She crept out of the house a few nights afterwards and took a coach as far as her money would take her. When exiting the coach, she left her purse and now had not even 1-cent to her name. She was wandering around, sleeping outside and trying to find food, to no avail. At last, she came upon a small cottage and asked for help. As it was raining and the residing family could tell from her speech that she was not truly a beggar, they let her come in. She slept for 3 days while gaining back her strength. She stayed there for awhile with St. John, Diana & Mary Rivers – three siblings. St. John was the local pastor and dreamed of going to India as a missionary. The two ladies, after several weeks, returned to their homes in nearby cities. St John allowed Jane to stay in a nearby cottage and start a school for young girls. It is soon after this that the Rivers family finds out that their uncle has died and left them 30 pounds each. His estate was very large and he left the remaining fortune of 20,000 pounds to an unknown person. As their father & uncle quarreled a long time ago over money, if was of no issue to them that more money did not come to them.
About nine months later, a lawyer finds Jane and tells her that her uncle died & left her 20,000 pounds. At this time, she realizes that she is staying at the home of her unknown cousins. She elects to split the 20,000 pounds four ways, so that each of them get 5,000 pounds and she keeps 5,000 pounds for herself. As St. John is getting ready to move to India, he asks Jane to marry him – not for love, but because she is God-fearing, hard-working, thrifty and would make a good “missionary wife.” She declines as she wants to marry for love. After several weeks of continuing to have the same conversation and coming up with the same answer, she decides to go back to Thornfield to see Edward, before returning to see St. John and giving him her final answer.
When she gets to Thornfield, she sees the house is burned to the ground. She inquires at the inn where Edward is now staying. She goes there, meets the servants & finds out that he is blind & without one hand due to an injury in the fire. She silently takes a glass of water to Edward, who finally realizes it is her. They talk for a short bit and he wants her to stay with him. She thinks that it is to be his nurse, but it turns out that he is again asking her to marry him. Now that he is widowed and free from his former wife, she agrees to marry him. They do so in three days and she cares for him the remainder of his life. After two years, his sight in one eye returns somewhat – enough that he can walk around without assistance – but not enough to read & write. Soon after this, they have a son. Edward is now humbled by what God has done for and to him as he was arrogant before the fire. Jane finally states that no woman was ever nearer to her husband than she was & that they love each other unconditionally and forever.
I did not learn much from this book that can help increase my prospects for success after prison. It did help me get one more “classic book” checked off my list.
I am now about halfway through the list of books to read. I believe this book report is #65 and there is a total of 121 books currently on my list.
