Jane+Eyre


 * Plot** :
 * Jane lives as an orphan with the Reeds. Life at the Reeds is harsh for Jane because she is treated with scorn and malice. Mrs. Reed locks Jane in the red room, and Jane becomes ill after apparently seeing Mr. Reed's ghost. Jane stands up to Mrs. Reed and for the first time shows confidence and a sense of fighting for justice. This propels Mrs. Reed to send Jane to Lowood immediatley.
 * Jane is sent to Lowood school. Her first years are terrible for Jane because the hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst runs the establishment. Once Brocklehurst is gone, the school turns uphill. At Lowood Jane meets Helen Burns, a girl who faithfully follows a Christian doctrine that Jane does not agree with. Jane favors justice over forgiveness. Jane eventually becomes a teacher and accepts a governorss position at Thornfield.
 * Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield, Mr. Rochester's estate, and tutors Adele. Jane hears laughter in the house that is blamed on Grace Pool, but Jane becomes suspicious. A fire occurs in the middle of the night in Rochester's bedrooom, which Jane helps extinguish. Rochester brings guests to Thornfield and forces Jane to sit with them; Jane reveals her insecurities when she compares her plainess to Blanche Ingram's beauty. Rochester disguises himself as a gypsy and tells his guests' fortunes. He says that Jane will soon find happiness. Jane loves Rochester, and the gypsy scene signifies that Rochester is beginning to love her too. Rochester later proposes to Jane, which she accepts. In the middle of the night, someone rips up Jane's wedding veil. On Jane and Rochester's wedding day, a man halts the marriage because Rochester is supposedly already married to Bertha Mason. Rochester takes the party to the tower where Bertha is locked up. Bertha is a wild beast, a polar opposite of Jane. Jane leaves Thornfield out of respect for herself.
 * Jane has nowhere to go and literally starves as she travels aimlessly. She is taken in by St. John Rivers and his two sisters. She teaches at a rural school, Morton, while at Marsh End. Jane finds out that St. John is her cousin and for the first time in her life, Jane has real family. She also has a large inheritance of 20,000 pounds, which she splits with the Rivers. St. John proposes marriage to Jane because he wants her to be his wife while on missionary. Jane rejects his constraining proposal; this marriage would remove her freedom and independence. Jane still loves Rochester and returns to him.
 * Jane goes back to Thornfield, only to find it damaged by a large fire. She finds out that Bertha started a fire and committed suicide. Upon trying to save Bertha, Rochester was blinded and slightly deformed by the fire and smoke. Jane accepts him anyways and they live in happiness as equals. Jane is narrating the story from 10 years after their marriage. They live at Ferndean, have a son, and Rochester has gained his sight back in one eye.

**Characters** :
 * Jane Eyre - the protagonist of the novel. She is a Romantic trapped in a Victorian society because she values independence over the order and strucutre of her society. She is rebellious and resists her destiny as a lower class woman.
 * Edward Rochester - the master of Thornfield. Rochester is dark and mysterious. He had many affairs, one of which was with Adele's mother, Celine, although Rochester claims that Adele is not his child. Jane falls in love with Rochester, but he is already married to Bertha Mason.
 * Mrs. Reed - Jane's aunt who hates Jane. She only keeps Jane because it was the death wish of her late husband. She sends Jane away to Lowood school at an early age.
 * Bessie - the maid at Gateshead. She exhibits kindness towards Jane and even visits Jane at Lowood School.
 * John Reed - Mrs. Reed's cruel son. He beats up Jane when they are younger, and he later becomes a failure in life. He runs up debts and commits suicide.
 * Eliza and Georgiana Reed - John Reed's sisters who do not get along. Georgiana is beautiful and marries into wealth, whereas Eliza marries the church.
 * Helen Burns - Jane's friend at Lowood School. Helen teaches Jane of religious values and eventually dies from consumption.
 * Mr. Brocklehurst - the hypocritical owner of Lowood School. He gives no money to the school, forces the students to eat small portions of food, and yet he is portly and lives a life of luxury. After too many of the children die from disease, someone else takes over the school.
 * Ms. Temple - the nice teacher at Lowood. Jane looks to Ms. Temple for guidance.
 * Ms. Scatcherd - the harsh teacher at Lowood.
 * Ms. Fairfax - the housekeeper at Thornfield.
 * Grace Pool - works at Thornfield. She is hired to look after Bertha Mason, and Rochester tells Jane that the laughter she hears is all due to Grace Pool.
 * Bertha Mason - Rochester's wife. Bertha's brother and father tricked Rochester into marrying Bertha. Soon after their marriage, she became insane and like a beast. No longer a "she," Bertha is merely an "it." She is locked in a room on the third story of Thornfield, but often escapes. She sets Thornfield on fire and commits suicide.
 * Adele Varens - who Jane teaches at Thornfield. Her mother abandoned her, and Rochester took her in at Thornfield.
 * Celine Varens - Adele's mother. Rochester had an affair with Celine in France, but is convinced that Adele is not his daughter.
 * Blanche Ingram - a beautiful guest at Thornfield. She is of the upper class and wants to marry Rochester. Jane becomes jealous of Blanche.
 * St. John Rivers - Jane's cousin at Morton. He is zealously religious. He proposes marriage to Jane because he wants a wife to go with him on his missionary work. Jane refuses him because their relationship is not based on love.
 * Mary and Diana Rivers - St. John's sisters. They have a close relationship and are ambiable to Jane.
 * Rosamond - loves St. John, but he does not return her affection.

England, 1800s. Gateshead, Lowood school, Thornfield, Marsh End, Ferndean
 * Setting **:


 * Images **:
 * Fire & Ice: Fire represents Jane's passion, anger, and spirit while ice represents the force trying to extinguish her passionate nature. Fire also describes the kindred spirits between Rochester and Jane as they grow together. The ice and cold appear with barren landscapes symbolizing emotional desolation, loneliness and even death.

> ** Symbols **:
 * Themes **:
 * Marriage is only successful when both partis are equals. Jane and Rochester work as a couple once they are monetarily equal, have equal social standing, and are physical equals.
 * One must find one's inner self and confidence in order to break society's barriers.
 * One must maintain individuality in order to fullly find love and acceptance on one's terms.
 * Religion is ambiguous; it is what we make of it.
 * Love versus autonomy: Jane grew up as an orphan without familial love, and throughout the novel she searches for any kind of love.
 * Moral Duty versus Autonomy: Throughout the novel, Jane faces a series of choices that put her desires to follow moral obligation and desire to maintain personal freedom at conflict. Along with her moral duty, she is on a quest throughout the novel to find love and to be loved. Her initial refusal of Rochester's proposal of marriage signifies Jane's innate desire to retain her free will and autonomy. Jane believes that while although she loves Rochester, she can not follow through with marrying an already legally wed man. She believes that marrying Rochester will redeem Jane as a mistress and she will lose respect for herself. Another instance of the conflict between moral duty/quest for love versus autonomy is evidenced by St. John's proposal of marriage. Jane acknowledges that St. John is a great man with many admirable qualities, but she realizes that his proposal is based upon a desire for partnership rather than love.
 * the red room - The red room symbolizes the oppression that Jane must face in her journey towards becoming herself. Jane faced punishment in the red room for acting out of turn, and it serves as a constant reminder that Jane is a woman of the lower class with no money. The red room, along with the secret room at Thornfield where Bertha lived, are both symbols of the truth beneath the lavish facades of Victorian aristocrats. The red room is where Ms. Reed's hypocrisy and inhospitable nature towards Jane reaches its height, which contrasts with the more motherly character with concern about Jane's wellbeing that she puts forth in public. Similarly, Bertha's room is where Rochester's sordid past lives on, secretly cloistered so that Rochester can live a life he chooses for himself; therefore, the room restrains the ignoble side of Rochester that would prevent him from following a path of his choosing and that clashes with his perceptions of nobility that he makes evident in his witty conversations with Jane about society.
 * Bertha Mason- Bertha Mason may be interpreted as a symbol of Britain's fear of other cultures at the height of its imperialism. She may also be interpreted as a symbol of the time period's common "trapped" Victorian wife. Victorian wives were never expected to travel or work outside of the house and typically became frustrated and anxious with no outlets. Bertha's insanity may be interpretated as an exxageration of this frustration or a foreshadowing threat of what could happen to women if they maintain this lifestyle. In this novel, Bertha's insanity could serve as a warning to Jane of what completely giving in to Rochester could bring upon Jane emotionally and psychologically.

**Structure** : The novel follows a five part structure. While not clearly brocken up into acts, like a Shakespearean five part play, the chapters can be grouped together based on where Jane is in her life, litrally and figuratively. At Gateshead, Jane feels oppressed by the Reeds and exhibits no restraint when she lashes out at Mrs. Reed. At Lowood, Jane is more subdued. She is quieter and does not act out of place as she did at Gateshead. At Thornfield, Jane's lack of restraint appears again. She does not act as though she were only a servant of the house, but she is not as hasty as she was at Gateshead. At Marsh End, Jane again becomes more subdued. However, when presented the opportunity to marry St. John, she refuses not only him but also the act of becoming a subordinate who does what everyone wants her to do. At Ferndean, Jane has found herself. She is a balance between freedom and restraint, a Romantic and Victorian.

**Types of Novel:** bildungsroman, romance, mystery/Gothic, Victorian, Romantic

**Bildungsroman **- a novel about the early years of somebody's life, exploring the development of his or her character and personality **Victorian **- structure of social class **Romantic **- focus on individual, learning from mistake, using emotion to express ideas **Gothic **- darker tone and mood, death, elements of supernatural (red room, ghost) __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Romantic vs. Victorian __ Jane has romantic tendencies to follow her emotions, but she is still stuck in a Victorian society because she sets herself against classes and the society divides the classes as well.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Five distinct stages of development: Jane’s childhood at Gateshead, her schooling at the Lowood School, her time as Adèle’s governess at Thornfield, her time with the Rivers family at Morton and at Marsh End, and her marriage to Rochester at Ferndean
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Form and structure of the Lowood school
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When Mr. Brocklehurst brings his daughters all dressed up, contrasts the lecture on frugality; hypocrisy
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Conforms to work in the charity- self deprecating
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Emotions overcome her reason with Mr. Rochester
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Willing to let her emotions take the lead
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Standing up for herself against Mr. Rochester and St. John
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chapter 2- sent to the red room, getting into Jane’s head
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The fire scene- murderous
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hears the whispers of Mr. Rochester
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Grace stabs Mr. Mason
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bertha Mason sets the house on fire and jumps to her death
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Rochester first thinks Jane is a ghost when she enters after he is blind

Romantic: reason can't explain everything; imagination of emotion; intuition and instincts (aka "natural" feelings); introspection; individualism- love for nature, primitism (like of society came from urbanization); importance of the past - Jane exhibits romanticism by means of explaining her emotional reactions to events throughout the novel. Her conflict of moral duty versus autonomy is exhibited through her romanticism because she bases many of her decisions off her intuition and instincts, such as her decision to deny Rochester and St. John' proposals of marriage.

Victorian: idealized accounts of difficult lives; social unrest; realism- virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers were punished; emphasized truth, justice, love, brotherhood; central moral lesson; believed humans could better themselves; credited w/ inventing childhood (stopping child labor); social commentary novel; strict class structure - Jane Eyre proposes the theme that virtue and hard work would be rewarded and that Jane's studies eventually led to her character development as a strong, admirable Victorian woman.
 * Doubles** :
 * Eliza/Georgiana v. Diane/Mary
 * E&G are always separate, D&M are always together. E&G mirror the turbulence of Gateshead, D&M mirror the campanionship at Marsh End. The names Mary and Diana invoke purity and virginity, while the names Eliza and Georgiana are more unconventional. Jane's desire for family is satisfied with Mary and Diana, where it was not with Eliza and Georgiana.
 * Thornfield v. Ferndean
 * The name Thornfield sounds harsh (thorns). This is where Bertha existed, Jane and Rochester's relationship failed, Rochester had control over Jane, and the house even burns down. The name Ferndean sounds pleasant (ferns). It is simpler, rustic, and where Jane has more equality in the relationship.
 * Thornfield's complicated layout with many places to hide mirrors the chaos and secrets in their relationship. The simple layout of Ferndean mirrors their final open relationship without secrets.
 * Thornfield burning is symbolic of the burning of Jane and Rochester's problems and the secrets within the house.
 * Jane is essentially shipped off to the other places, but has a desire to go to Ferndean. There exists the least conflict at Ferndean because she chooses her destiny.
 * Lowood v. Morton
 * Lowood is constraining and the conditions are harsher. Jane is not there on her own terms. The setting is secluded, dark, and disease-ridden.
 * Morton gives more freedom and is more of a home for Jane. Jane feels good about herself and is more content.
 * Both show Jane's growth from a follower to a leader and the confidence and independence that comes with the role. Both schools provide structure in Jane's life and prevent her from being too outspoken.
 * Education commentary: At Morton, female and male students are treated equally.
 * Rochester v. St. John
 * Rochester is mysterious and has dark features. Jane accepts Rochester in the end.
 * St. Joh is religious, bright (has light blue eyes), and acts coldly towards Jane after she refuses him. He only wants a companion in marriage.
 * Both are refused by Jane and both act manipulatively towards Jane. St. John uses religious manipulation, whereas Rochester makes an emotional appeal.
 * Theme: love is a greater bonding force than just duty.
 * Ms. Temple v. Ms. Scatcherd
 * Scatcherd is a more harsh and demanding teacher. She leads by punishment. Even her name sounds harsh.
 * Temple is an amiable and comforting teacher. She leads by example. Her name sounds more pleasant.
 * Both help Jane learn something about herself. They help build autonomy.
 * Brocklehurst v. St. John
 * Both are clergyman who rely on religion for their livelihoods. Both are stoic, do not show their emotions to anyone, and try to be the Victorian ideal. Both try to contorl Jane.
 * St. John has good intentions. Brocklehurst is selfish and corrupt. Jane is more accepting of St. John than Brocklehurst.
 * Gateshead/Thornfield v. Lowood/Marsh End
 * Jane runs away/escapes from Gateshead and Thornfield. She acts too bold for her status and out place. She is outspoken. The names suggest a blockage and difficulty to get through. Gateshead's red room mirrors Thornfield's room with Bertha; both are at the top of the house, secret, and represent suffering.
 * Jane is more subdued and calm at Lowood and Marsh End. She acts as a more ideal Victorian woman because she has Victorian models to look towards.
 * Theme: in order to grow, one must physically move around.