jane eyre summary quick overview
Jane Eyre is a classic novel of English literature written by Charlotte Brontë
in 1947. The novel tells the experiences of Jane, an orphan, from her unhappy childhood in the care
of her wealthy but cruel aunt, to her adult life. The main themes of the novel are social hierarchy,
religious beliefs, the importance of one's principles,
and the quest and pursuit of true love. If you do not want to waste your time,
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jane eyre book summary
she's an orphan her mother was my husband's sister
Jane Eyre becomes an orphan following her parents' death from typhus.
Shortly before his death, Jane's maternal uncle, John Reed, wishes that Jane comes to live with him
and his wife Sarah in their mansion, Gateshead Hall. The Reeds are wealthy,
but Sarah Reed deeply dislikes Jane, sees her as a burden, and along with her own three children,
John, Georgiana, and Eliza, treat Jane with appalling cruelty. Because of this, Jane lives
a miserable childhood at Gateshead Hall. Only Bessie, the house's nursemaid, is kind to Jane.
During a particularly cruel punishment inflicted by Mrs. Reed, in which Jane
is locked up in the Red Room -the very room where Jane's uncle died nine years prior-,
Jane experiences terrible visions of what she believes to be her uncle's ghost,
and soon faints. The Red Room is quite significant to the plot, and it's only one of two scenes in
the entire novel featuring supernatural elements. Following this unfortunate incident, Jane is sent
away to Lowood Institution, a charity school for orphan girls. Lowood is run by Mr. Brocklehurst,
to whom Mrs. Reed confides that Jane 'has a tendency for deceit. Mr. Brocklehurst himself is
not a very nice man. He's a religious zealot that believes in harsh discipline, and thus he keeps
the residents at Lowood Hall hungry and cold, while providing good care for his own children.
Life at Lowood Hall is not much better for Jane than it under Mrs. Reed's tutelage.
Cruel punishments are doled out for even minor infringements of the rules. Helen Burns, one of
Jane's few friends at the facility, is lashed because of 'poor stance' and dirty nails, for example.
Later, typhus breaks out at Lowood Hall. Helen dies, and the harsh regime maintained by Mr.
Brocklehurst is revealed. A governing committee is established to rein in his power, and Jane becomes
a teacher amidst a far better environment. Jane spends eight long years at Lowood Hall.
bye
Following her departure, she gets a job as governess at Thornfield Hall, a gloomy,
sprawling mansion that is home to a young French student, Adele Varens -whom Jane will
be teaching-, and also to Edward Rochester, a taciturn man who's the master of the house.
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Adele was left in Edward's care after her mother Celine abandoned her. The young girl might or
might not be Edward's daughter, the novel is deliberately ambiguous about this point.
The character of Adele is also important in the context of Jane's own development as a person,
and how she has evolved from being an unhappy child at Gateshead. Jane shows care and
compassion towards Adele, unlike most people in Jane's own life. Adele does not always listen
or particularly cares about learning, however. She's a young girl of eight or nine who spends
a lot of her time showing off her pretty clothes and dancing, a skill she learned from her mother.
Adele is shown as quite precocious. In the next century, she would probably have been
recognized as a Lolita type, but in Bronte's era, this would have been unthinkable and
this aspect is not even hinted at. Edward and Jane grow closer,
and spend many evenings together, though their relationship remains pure.
Soon however, Thornfield Hall is beset by strange happenings. An odd laughter is heard in the
mansion's empty rooms. One of the houseguests, Mr. Mason, is attacked by an unknown assailant.
And a fire breaks out in Edward's room, but disaster is averted after Jane wakes him up
and throws water on him and the rising blaze just in time.
The fire incident awakens Jane's nascent feelings for Edward, but he unexpectedly leaves the
following morning. Edward returns a few days later, along with Blanche Ingram, a beautiful,
talented, but snobbish and woman, and several guests. Edward appears poised to marry Blanche,
stirring feelings of jealousy in Jane. Near the wedding date, Edward says that
he will miss Jane, adding that Jane will soon forget about him. This prompts Jane to finally
open up and confess her feelings for him. Edward, in turn, proposes marriage to her.
Soon after, a woman enters Jane's room and damages her wedding attire. Jane suspects one of the house
servants, and believes that the incident does not bode well for her upcoming wedding to Edward. Her
fears are realized when, at the altar, Mr. Mason and a lawyer, Mr. Briggs, say that the wedding
cannot go ahead, as Edward is already married to Mr. Mason's sister, a woman called Bertha.
Distraught, the truth is revealed. Edward was indeed married to Bertha, who succumbed to
madness shortly after the wedding, and was locked in Thornfield Hall's attic. Bertha -a Creole- was
the person whose strange laugh could be heard, and also the culprit of damaging Jane's wedding veil.
Bertha had only managed to escape the attic when her carer, Grace, got drunk and fell asleep.
Following the disastrous wedding attempt, Edward asks Jane to move with him to southern
France and live together as husband and wife, even though they cannot be legally married.
After pondering this, Jane decides to stick to her Christian principles and refuses.
She leaves the next morning. The end of the story sees Jane returning
to Thornfield Hall after hearing Edward's voice calling her from afar. Upon her return,
the mansion is a blackened heap of ruins. Jane learns that, in her madness, Bertha burned the
house down and jumped from the roof to her death. Edward sustained serious injuries in the blaze,
he lost a hand and is now blind, and is afraid that Jane will reject him.
She does not. Now that Bertha is gone, they can marry. They move into a small house in the woods,
and two years later, Edward regains his sight in one eye and sees their newborn soon.
conclusion. Jane Eyre accurately captivates the Victorian society where the story is set.
Both Mrs. Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst for example are archetypes of the hypocrisy
that permeated such society, while recounting Jane's life story, from childhood to maturity,
and how her determination to find true love and resilience in the face of adversity
and hostility even enables her to become the person she always deserved to be.
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