Jane Eyre

A detailed Summary of Jane Eyre

In Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, Jane goes through many changes in her life. She begins at Gateshead Hall and continues on to Lowood Institution, Thornfield Manor, Moor House, and Ferndean Manor. Each step in her life marks new development for Jane. At each new place she travels, there is a man in her life that poses as a challenge to Jane. Because of this, she is forced to grow as a person and learns that she should not live inferior to men. As Jane grows throughout the book, one of the most important things she learns is to rule her heart with her mind.

The story of Jane Eyre begins at Gateshead Hall. As a child here, she becomes entirely swept up in an emotional tantrum, which proves to be the most painful memory of her childhood. She lives with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, who treats her with the least amount of respect and love. Jane, feeling alone, has all that she can do to stand to be there. John Reed poses as the domineering male figure in the household. With the numerous amounts of rivalries between the two, Jane is always accused of being at fault. Jane's word means nothing in the house. "Why was I always suffering, always brown-beaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was

Both Adele Varens and Blanche Ingram are products, or rather victims, of the kind of life where men have dominance. When Jane first meets her, Adele is a coquette in training, while Blanche flaunts her mastery of the art: "Whenever I marry...I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage; his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror." From reading this passage it is obvious that Blanche will conform to her husbands way of life. She will not have her own morals and be independent of her husband. She, like many other people of this Victorian period, lives as inferiors to men.

Because of the situation between her and Rochester, she ends up leaving the mansion without telling anyone where she was going. After much brutal travel, she finds herself in a place called the Moor House. It is here where she is introduced to Hannah, Mary, and St. John. St. John is a more complicated case and poses a different type of challenge onto Jane. He is not a hypocrite, but his belief in Pauline theology makes him fear his own sexuality and view female sexuality as a threat to his purity of vision. His selective praise of her as "docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant..."(449) expresses his desire to subdue her to his needs. When he proposes that she accompany him to India as his wife, her reason tells her that "he prizes me as a soldier would a good weapon; and that is all."

At the end of the novel, Jane seeks to find out what is most important to her; Rochester. As she makes her way there, she meets Mr. Rochester's old butler and finds out the Thornfield Mansion had burnt down and Rochester no longer lived there. When she found out that he was residing in Ferndean Hall, she continued her journey there. It is here where Jane is posed with yet another one of Rochester's challenges. However this is different in a sense because it is due to Rochester's disabilities that Jane must help him out and therefore becomes dependent of her. It is not until now that Jane finds her real, spiritual and physical love for Rochester. She says, "All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever" (p.469). Rochester no longer demands a subservient being to boost his ego; he dem

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Approximate Word count = 1618
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous