Jane Eyre - Events

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Chapter 1

  • Dreary November afternoon 
  • Gateshead
  • Mrs. Reed has forbidden Jane to play with her Eliza, Georgiana, and John
  • She sits in the drawing room window seat reading Bewick’s History of British Birds
  • John bullies Jane for being a lowly orphan who is only permitted to live with the Reeds because of his mother’s charity. 
  • He hurls a book at her,Jane finally erupts and they fight
  • Mrs. Reed holds Jane responsible and sends her to the “Red-Room” as punishment.
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Chapter 2

  • Miss Abbott and Bessie Lee escort Jane to the red-room 
  • She resists but they lock her in 
  • She catches a glimpse of her ghastly figure in the mirror 
  • She is shocked by her meager presence and begins to reflect on the events that have led her to such a state
  • Her kind Uncle Reed brought her to Gateshead after her parents’ death and his dying wish was that wife raised Jane as her own
  • She imagines Uncle Reed’s ghost is in the room and that he has come to take revenge on his wife for breaking her promise. 
  • Jane cries out in terror 
  • Her aunt believes that she is just trying to escape and she ignores her pleas. 
  • Jane faints in exhaustion and fear.
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Chapter 3

  • When she wakes Jane is in her bedroom in the care of Mr. Lloyd, and Bessie 
  • She disapproves of Mrs Reed's treatment of Jane 
  • Jane remains in bed the following day and Bessie sings her a song 
  • Mr. Lloyd speaks with Jane about her life at Gateshead
  • He suggests to Mrs Reed that Jane should be sent away to school
  • Jane is excited at the possibility of leaving
  • She learns more of her history when she overhears a conversation between Bessie and Miss Abbott. 
  • Jane’s mother was Uncle Reed's sister 
  • She fell in love with Jane’s father, an impoverished clergyman. 
  • The family disapproved and Jane's mother was cut off by her father when they married
  • They died from typhus soon after Jane's birth
  • Jane’s father had caught it while caring for the poor
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Chapter 4

  • Jane has been enduring even crueler treatment while waiting for news of her schooling for two months
  • She is finally told she may attend Lowood school and introduced to Mr. Brocklehurst, 
  • Mr. Brocklehurst questions Jane about religion
  • He is offended when she says she finds psalms uninteresting. 
  • Mrs Reed warns Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane is a liar
  • Mr. Brocklehurst says he intends to tell Jane’s teachers
  • Jane is so hurt by this that she defends herself and Mrs. Reed accepts defeat for once
  • Bessie tells Jane that she prefers her to the Reed children
  • Before Jane leaves for school Bessie tells her stories and sings her lovely songs.
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Chapter 5

  • Four days later
  • Jane boards the 6 a.m. coach alone and travels to Lowood
  • It is dark and rainy when she arrives and she is led through the grim building  
  • The following day Jane is introduced to her classmates 
  • She learns the daily routine lasts from before dawn until dinner
  • Miss Temple is the superintendent of the school and the kindest of Jane’s teachers
  • Miss Scatcherd is unpleasant,and treats Helen Burns badly
  • Jane and Helen become friends, 
  • Jane learns Lowood is a charity school for female orphans; the Reeds have paid nothing
  •  Mr. Brocklehurst oversees every aspect of its operation and even Miss Temple must answer to him
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Chapter 6

  • Second morning 
  • Girls are unable to wash as the water in their pitchers is frozen
  • Jane quickly learns that life at the school is harsh 
  • Girls are underfed, overworked, and forced to sit still during seemingly endless sermons. 
  • She takes comfort in her new friendship with Helen, 
  • She impresses Jane with her knowledge and ability to endure cruel treatment from Miss Scatcherd. 
  • She tells Jane that she practices  Christian endurance, loving her enemies and accepting her privation. 
  • Jane disagrees with the tolerance of such  injustice but Helen ignores her 
  • She believes she is a poor student and punishes herself for daydreaming about home and family when she should be studying
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Chapter 7

  • First month at Lowood
  • Mr. Brocklehurst spends most of his time away from the school
  • When he returns Jane is nervous because she remembers his promise to her Mrs. Reed 
  • Jane inadvertently drops her slate
  • He is furious and tells her she is careless
  • He orders Jane to stand on a stool while he tells the school that she is a liar
  • He forbids the other students to speak to her for the rest of the day.
  • Helen makes Jane’s day of humiliation endurable by smiling at Jane every time she passes
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Chapter 8

  • At five o’clock the students leave and Jane collapses to the floor.
  • She is certain that her reputation is ruined, but Helen assures her that most ogirls felt more pity for Jane than revulsion 
  • She tells Miss Temple that she is not a liar and about her tormented childhood at Gateshead
  • Miss Temple believes Jane and writes to Mr. Lloyd asking for confirmation
  • She offers Jane and Helen tea and seed cake
  •  She publicly declares Jane's innocence when Mr. Lloyd’s letter arrives and backs up Jane’s story
  • Jane devotes herself to her studies. 
  • She excels at drawing and makes progress in French
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Chapter 9

  •  Spring, 
  • Life at Lowood briefly seems happier
  • The damp forest dell is a breeding-ground for typhus and  more than half the girls fall ill 
  • Jane remains healthy and plays outdoors with Mary Ann Wilson.
  • Helen is dying of consumption.
  • Jane sneaks into Miss Temple’s room to see Helen one last time. 
  • Helen promises Jane she feels little pain and is happy to be leaving the world’s suffering
  • Jane takes Helen into her arms and they fall asleep
  • Helen dies during the night and Miss Temple removes Jane from the bed in the morning. 
  • Her grave is  unmarked
  • Fifteen years after her death, Jane has a gray marble tablet placed there bearing the word Resurgam, Latin for “I shall rise again.”
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Chapter 10

  • Mr. Brocklehurst’s negligent treatment of the girls is found to be one of the causes of the typhus epidemic 
  • A new group of overseers is brought in to run the school. 
  • Conditions improve and Jane excels in her studies for the next six years. 
  • After two years as a teacher Jane is ready for a change, partly because Miss Temple got married and left school. 
  • She advertises for post as a governess and accepts a position at Thornfield Manor
  • Jane is visited by Bessie 
  • Georgiana attempted to run away with Lord Edwin Vere
  • Eliza foiled the plan by revealing it to Mrs. Reed. 
  • John has fallen into a life of debauchery and dissolution.
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Chapter 10

  • Jane uncle, John Eyre, appeared at Gateshead seven years ago.
  • He did not have the time to travel to Lowood and went away to Madeira
  • Bessie has married and has a young son, Bobby
  • Bessie returns to Gateshead and Jane leaves for her new life at Thornfield
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Chapter 11

  • Jane’s driver is late picking her up from the station at Millcote. 
  • She arrives at Thornfield at nighttime. 
  • Although she cannot distinguish much of the house’s facade from among the shadows, she finds the interior “cosy and agreeable.” 
  • Mrs. Fairfax is waiting for Jane. 
  • Jane learns that Mrs. Fairfax is the housekeeper, not the the owner of Thornfield
  • Mr. Rochester travels regularly and the manor’s management to Mrs. Fairfax. 
  • Jane learns that she will be tutoring Adèle, an eight-year-old French girl whose mother was a singer and dancer. 
  • Mrs. Fairfax tells Jane about Rochester
  • He is an eccentric man whose family has a history of extreme and violent behavior. 
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Chapter 12

  • Jane finds life at Thornfield pleasant and comfortable. 
  • Adèle is exuberant and intelligent but spoiled and somtimes petulant. 
  • Jane is often restless and collects her thoughts while pacing Thornfield’s top-story passageway. 
  • A few months pass
  • Jane is out walking alone watching the moon rise when she perceives a horse approaching. 
  • It remonds her of a story Bessie told her of a spirit called a Gytrashwhich disguises itself as a mule, dog, or horse to frighten “belated travellers.” 
  • A dog then appears and she realizes that the horse has a rider.
  • As it passes the horse slips on ice and its rider tumbles to the ground. 
  • Jane helps him to his feet and introduces herself 
  • He has a dark face, stern features, and a heavy brow and is not quite middle-aged
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Chapter 12

  • Jane finds life at Thornfield pleasant and comfortable. 
  • Adèle is exuberant and intelligent but spoiled and somtimes petulant. 
  • Jane is often restless and collects her thoughts while pacing Thornfield’s top-story passageway. 
  • A few months pass
  • Jane is out walking alone watching the moon rise when she perceives a horse approaching. 
  • It remonds her of a story Bessie told her of a spirit called a Gytrashwhich disguises itself as a mule, dog, or horse to frighten “belated travellers.” 
  • A dog then appears and she realizes that the horse has a rider.
  • As it passes the horse slips on ice and its rider tumbles to the ground. 
  • Jane helps him to his feet and introduces herself 
  • He has a dark face, stern features, and a heavy brow and is not quite middle-aged
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Chapter 13

  • The following day
  • Mr. Rochester invites Jane and Adèle to have tea with him.
  • He is abrupt and cold toward them,
  • He seems charmed by Jane’s drawings. 
  • Jane mentions to Mrs. Fairfax that she finds Rochester “changeful and abrupt,” 
  • Mrs. Fairfax suggests that his mannerisms are the result of a difficult personal history. 
  • Rochester was a family outcast
  • His older brother inherited Thornfield when thier father died,
  • Rochester has owned Thornfield for nine years, since the death of his brother.
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Chapter 13

  • The following day
  • Mr. Rochester invites Jane and Adèle to have tea with him.
  • He is abrupt and cold toward them,
  • He seems charmed by Jane’s drawings. 
  • Jane mentions to Mrs. Fairfax that she finds Rochester “changeful and abrupt,” 
  • Mrs. Fairfax suggests that his mannerisms are the result of a difficult personal history. 
  • Rochester was a family outcast
  • His older brother inherited Thornfield when thier father died,
  • Rochester has owned Thornfield for nine years, since the death of his brother.
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Chapter 13

  • Jane hears strange, eerie laughter echoing through the house
  • Mrs. Fairfax summons Grace whom she orders to make less noise and to “remember directions.”
  • Mrs. Fairfax explains that she is a rather unbalanced and unpredictable seamstress who works in the house.
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Chapter 14

  • Jane sees little of Rochester during his first days at Thornfield. 
  • One night, however, in his “after-dinner mood,” Rochester sends for Jane and Adèle. 
  • He gives Adèle the present she has been anxiously awaiting, and while Adèle plays, Rochester is uncharacteristically chatty with Jane. 
  • Rochester asks Jane whether she thinks he is handsome
  • She answers “no” without thinking
  • By Rochester’s voluble reaction Jane concludes that he is slightly drunk. 
  • Jane feels awkward  when Rochester’s commands her to converse with him makes
  • He goes on to argue that her relationship to him is not one of servitude. 
  • Their conversation turns to the concepts of sin, forgiveness, and redemption. 
  • Jane is intrigued by Adele's mentions her mother 
  • Rochester promises to explain about her situation later
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Chapter 15

  • A while later, Rochester tells Jane to tell her about his and Adèle’s pasts. 
  • He had an affair with Adèle’s mother, a singer and dancer named Celine Varens. 
  • He discovered that Celine was having an affair and ended the relationship. 
  • Rochester denied that Adèle is his daughter as she doesnt look like him. 
  • Rochester brought Adèle to England when Celine abandons her
  • Jane lies awake brooding about the strange insights
  • She hears fingers brushing against the walls and an eerie laugh in the hallway. 
  • She hears a door opening, hurries out of her room and sees smoke coming from Rochester’s door. 
  • Jane dashes into his room and finds his bed curtains ablaze. 
  • She douses the bed with water, saving Rochester’s life. 
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Chapter 15 cont'd

  • Rochester’s reaction is to visit the third floor of the house. 
  • “I have found it all out, it is just as I thought.” 
  • He inquires whether Jane has heard eerie laughter before, 
  • She answers that she has heard Grace Poole laugh in the same way.
  • “Just so. Grace Poole—you have guessed it,” Rochester confirms. 
  • He thanks Jane for saving his life and asks her not to tell anyone
  • He sleeps on the library sofa for the remainder of the night.
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Chapter 16

  • Next morning
  • Jane is shocked to learn that the near tragedy of the night before has caused no scandal. 
  • The servants believe Rochester fell asleep with a lit candle by his bed
  • Even Grace Poole shows no sign of guilt or remorse. 
  • Jane cannot imagine why an attempted murderer is allowed to continue working at Thornfield. 
  • She realizes she is beginning to have feelings for Rochester
  • She is disappointed that he will be away from Thornfield for several days. 
  • He has left to attend a party with Blanche Ingram
  • Jane scolds herself for being disappointed
  • She resolves to restrain her flights of imaginative fancy by comparing her own portrait to one she has drawn of Blanche Ingram
  • She notes how much plainer she is than the beautiful Blanche.
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Chapter 17

  • Rochester has been gone for a week
  • Jane is dismayed to learn that he may choose to depart for continental Europe without returning
  • According to Mrs. Fairfax, he could be gone for more than a year 
  • A week later Mrs. Fairfax receives word that Rochester will arrive in three days with a large group of guests. 
  • Jane continues to be amazed by the normal relations Grace Poole enjoys with the staff. 
  • She overhears the servant's discussion of Grace’s high pay
  • Jane realises she doesn’t know the truth about Grace Poole’s role
  • Rochester with a party of elegant aristocratic guests. 
  • Jane joins the group but watches them from a window seat. 
  • Blanche Ingram and her mother treat Jane with disdain and cruelty. 
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Chapter 18

  • The guests stay at Thornfield for several days. 
  • Rochester and Blanche compete as a team at charades. 
  • Jane believes that they will be married soon though they do not seem to love one another. 
  • Blanche would be marrying his for his wealth, he for her beauty and her social position. 
  • One day, a strange man named Mr. Mason arrives at Thornfield. 
  • Jane dislikes him at once because of his vacant eyes and his slowness, 
  • She learns from him that Rochester once lived in the West Indies, as he himself has done. 
  • One evening, a gypsy woman comes to Thornfield to tell the guests’ fortunes. 
  • Blanche Ingram goes first and returns looking disappointed.
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Chapter 19

  • Jane goes in to the library to have her fortune read
  • She  overcomes her skepticism and she finds herself entranced by the old woman’s speech. 
  • The gypsy seems to know a great deal about Jane 
  • She tells her that she is very close to happiness. 
  • She has told Blanche Ingram that Rochester was not as wealthy as he seemed, accounting for her mood. 
  • As the woman reads Jane’s fortune her voice slowly deepens
  • Jane realizes that the gypsy is Rochester in disguise. 
  • She reproaches Rochester for tricking her and remembers thinking that Grace Poole might have been the gypsy. 
  • When Rochester learns that Mr. Mason has arrived, he looks troubled.
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Chapter 20

  • The same night, Jane is startled by a sudden cry for help. 
  • She hurries into the hallway, where Rochester assures everyone that a servant has merely had a nightmare. 
  • After everyone returns to bed, Rochester knocks on Jane’s door. 
  • He needs her help and asks whether she is afraid of blood. 
  • He leads her to the third story of the house and shows her Mr. Mason, who has been stabbed in the arm. 
  • Rochester asks Jane to stanch the wound and then leaves, ordering Mason and Jane not to speak to one another. 
  • In the silence, Jane gazes at the image of the apostles and Christ’s crucifixion that is painted on the cabinet across from her. 
  • Rochester returns with a surgeon, and as the men tend to Mason’s wounds, Rochester sends Jane to find a potion downstairs. 
  • He gives some of it to Mason, saying that it will give him heart for an hour. 
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Chapter 20 cont'd

  • Once Mason is gone, Jane and Rochester stroll in the orchard, 
  • Rochester tells Jane a hypothetical story about a young man who commits a “capital error” in a foreign country and proceeds to lead a life of dissipation in an effort to “obtain relief.” 
  • The young man then hopes to redeem himself and live morally with a wife, but convention prevents him from doing so
  • He asks whether the young man would be justified in “overleaping an obstacle of custom.”
  • She realises he secretly is refering to himself 
  •  Jane’s reply is that such a man should look to God for his redemption, not to another person. 
  • Rochester asks Jane to reassure him that marrying Blanche would bring him salvation. 
  • He then hurries away before she has a chance to answer.
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Chapter 21

  • Jane has heard that it is a bad omen to dream of children
  • She dreams of being looked out of thornfild with a baby for seven nights
  • John Reed has committed suicide,
  • Mrs. Reed, has suffered a stroke and is nearing death. 
  • Jane goes to Gateshead, where she is reunited with Bessie. 
  • Eliza is plain and plans to enter a convent while Georgiana is as beautiful as ever. 
  • The sister have not got on since Eliza ruined Georgiana’s hopes of eloping 
  • Jane tries to patch things up with Mrs. Reed, but she is still hostile
  • Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from her father’s brother, John Eyre. 
  • He declares that he wishes to adopt Jane and bequeath her his fortune. 
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Chapter 21

  • The letter is three years old
  • Out of malice, Mrs. Reed did not forward it to Jane when she received it.
  • Desipte her aunt’s behavior, Jane tries once more to smooth relations with her
  • Mrs. Reed refuses and dies at midnight
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Chapter 22

  • Jane remains at Gateshead for a month as Georgiana doesnt want to be alone with Eliza
  • Georgiana goes to London to live with her uncle whilw Eliza joins a convent in France. 
  • Eliza eventually becomes Mother Superior of her convent while Georgiana marries a wealthy man. 
  • Jane receives a letter from Mrs. Fairfax
  • Rochester’s guests have left and Rochester has gone to London to buy a new carriage—a sure sign of his intention to marry Blanche. 
  • As Jane travels toward Thornfield, she anxiously anticipates seeing Rochester again, and yet she worries about what will become of her after his marriage. 
  • As she walks from the station at Millcote, Jane encounters Rochester. 
  • He asks her why she has stayed away from Thornfield so long and  she replies,“I have been with my aunt, sir, who is dead.” 
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Chapter 22

  • Rochester asks Jane whether she has heard about his new carriage
  • “You must see the carriage, Jane, and tell me if you don’t think it will suit Mrs. Rochester exactly.”
  • Jane surprises herself by expressing the happiness she feels in Rochester’s presence:
  • “I am strangely glad to get back again to you; and wherever you are is my home—my only home.”
  • Mrs. Fairfax, Adèle, and the servants greet Jane warmly.
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Chapter 23

  • After  two weeks, Jane encounters Rochester in the gardens. 
  • He invites her to walk with him, and Jane accepts. 
  • Rochester confides that he has finally decided to marry Blanche Ingram 
  • He tells Jane that he knows of an available governess position in Ireland that she could take. 
  • She expresses her distress at the  distance between Ireland from Thornfield. 
  • They sit on bench under a chestnut tree, 
  • “we will sit there in peace to-night, though we should never more be destined to sit there together.” 
  • He tells Jane that he feels as though they are connected by a “cord of communion.” 
  • Jane sobs—“for I could repress what I endured no longer,” she tells us, “I was obliged to yield.” 
  • Jane confesses her love for Rochester, and to her surprise, he asks her to be his wife. 
  • She suspects that he is teasing her
  • He convinces her by admitting that he mention marrying Blanche to make her jealous. 
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Chapter 24

  • Mrs. Fairfax treats Jane coldly because she doesn’t realize that Jane was engaged to Rochester when she allowed him to kiss her. 
  • She still disapproves after she learns the truth
  • Jane feels unsettled when Rochester calls her Jane Rochester. 
  • Jane explains that everything feels impossibly ideal, like a fairy-tale or a daydream. 
  • Rochester certainly tries to turn Jane into a Cinderella-like figure
  • He tells her he will dress her in jewels and in finery befitting her new social station, 
  • Jane becomes terrified and self-protective. 
  • She has a feeling that the wedding will not happen and decides to write her uncle 
  • If John Eyre were to make her his heir she would be on more equal footing with Rochester and feel less uncomfortable about the marriage.
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Chapter 25

  • The night before her wedding, Jane waits for Rochester, who has left Thornfield for the evening. 
  • She is restless and walks in the orchard, where she sees the split chestnut tree. 
  • When Rochester arrives, Jane tells him about strange events that have occurred in his absence. 
  • The preceding evening, Jane’s wedding dress arrived with an expensive veil 
  • Jane dreamt that she tried to make her way toward Rochester on a long, winding road with a crying child inher arms 
  • Rochester dismisses the dream as insignificant
  • she tells him about a second dream in which Jane loses her balance and the child falls from her knee. 
  • The dream  roused Jane from her sleep and she perceived “a form” rustling in her closet. I
  • t was savage-looking woman who took Jane’s veil and tore it in two. 
  • Rochester tells her that it Grace Poole and was “half-dream, half-reality.” 
  • He will give her a full explanation when they have been married for a year and a day. 
  • Jane sleeps with Adèle for the evening and cries because she will have to leave the sleeping girl.
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Chapter 26

  • Sophie helps Jane dress for the wedding and Rochester and Jane walk to the church. 
  • Jane notes a pair of strangers reading the headstones in the churchyard cemetery. 
  • When Jane and Rochester enter the church the two strangers are present. 
  • tThe priest asks if anyone objects to the ceremony
  • One of them answers: “The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of an impediment.” 
  • Rochester attempts to proceed with the ceremony, but the stranger explains that Rochester is already married
  • His wife is Bertha Mason, whom Rochester wed fifteen years earlier in Jamaica. 
  • The speaker is Mr. Briggs, Mr Mason's London soclitor 
  • He produces a letter from Richard Mason affirming that Rochester is married to Mason’s sister
  • Mr. Mason steps forward to corroborate the story. 
  •  Rochester admits that his wife is alive and that in marrying Jane he would have been knowingly taking a second wife. 
  • No one in the community knows of his wife because she is mad,
  • Rochester keeps her locked away under the care of Grace Poole. 
  • He promises them all that Jane was ignorant of Bertha’s existence
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Chapter 26 cont'd

  • He orders the crowd to come to Thornfield to see her and they climb to the third story. 
  • Rochester points out the room where Bertha bit and stabbed her brother, and then he lifts a tapestry to uncover a second door. 
  • In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.
  • Bertha attempts to strangle Rochester: “this is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know.” 
  • Jane leaves the room with Mason and Briggs, who tells her he heard abour the wedding via a letter from John Eyre
  • The two men are acquaintances and Mason was in Madeira when John received Jane’s letter. 
  • Approaching death, John asked Mason to hurry to England to save his niece. 
  • After the wedding crowd disperses, Jane locks herself in her room 
  • She thinks about the almost calm manner in which the morning’s events unfolded and how it seems disproportionate to the immense effect those events will have on her life. 
  • She prays to God to be with her
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Chapter 27

  • After falling asleep Jane realises she must leave 
  • Rochester is waiting in a chair outside her room 
  • She is silent to Rochester’s assurances that he never meant to wound her and pleas of forgiveness
  • She tells  the reader she forgave him on the spot. 
  • She suddenly feels faint and Rochester carries her to the library  
  • He proposes to leave for the South of France to live together as husband and wife
  • Jane refuses as no matter how Rochester views the situation she will always be his mistress while Bertha is alive
  • Rochester explains why he does not consider himself married
  • His father left his estate to Rowland and sent Rochester to Jamaica to marry Bertha, who was to inherit 30,000 pounds. 
  • Bertha was beautiful, so Rochester belived he was in love and agreed to marriage. 
  • Shortly afterwards, Rochester learned Bertha’s mother was mad and living in an insane asylum and her younger brother was a mute idiot 
  • Rochester’s father and brother had known about their unpromising genes but promoted the marriage for the money 
  • Bertha was soon prone to violent outbreaks of temper and driving her to madness.
  • Rochester’s father and brother had died and Rochester was alone with a mad wife and huge fortune. 
  • He considered killing himself but returned to England and placed Bertha at Thornfield “in safety and comfort: [to] shelter her degradation with secrecy, and leave her.”
  •  Rochester travelled the continent in search of a woman to love. 
  • He was met with disappointment and sank into debauchery. 
  • His mistresses were “the next worse thing to buying a slave.”
  •  Then he met Jane. 
  • Rochester tells her she enchanted him from the start.
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Chapter 27 cont'd

  • Bertha was soon prone to violent outbreaks of temper and driving her to madness.
  • Rochester’s father and brother had died and Rochester was alone with a mad wife and huge fortune. 
  • He considered killing himself but returned to England and placed Bertha at Thornfield “in safety and comfort: [to] shelter her degradation with secrecy, and leave her.”
  •  Rochester travelled the continent in search of a woman to love. 
  • He was met with disappointment and sank into debauchery. 
  • His mistresses were “the next worse thing to buying a slave.”
  •  Then he met Jane. 
  • Rochester tells her she enchanted him from the start
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Chapter 28

  • Jane spends all her money riding as far as she can in a coach and is forced to sleep outside.
  • She spends much of the night in prayer and begs for food the next day
  • One farmer gives her a slice of bread. 
  • The next day Jane sees a light shining across the moors,  follows it and comes to a house
  • Through the window she sees Diana and Mary Rivers studying German while their servant Hannah knits.  
  • They are waiting St. John 
  • Jane knocks on the door, but Hannah refuses to let her in. 
  • She collapses on the doorstep and cries, “I can but die, and I believe in God. Let me try to wait His will in silence.”
  •  St. John answers “All men must die, but all are not condemned to meet a lingering and premature doom, such as yours would be if you perished here of want.” 
  •  They ask her some questions, and she tells them her name is Jane Elliott
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Chapter 29

  • Jane spends three days recuperating in bed.
  • The next day she follows the smell of baking bread into the kitchen and finds Hannah. 
  • Jane criticizes Hannah for judging her unfairly and Hannah apologizes. 
  • Hannah tells the story of Mr. Rivers
  • He lost most of the family fortune in a bad business deal. 
  • Diana and Mary were forced to work as governesses and are at Moor House because their father died three weeks ago. 
  • Jane tells her story and admits Jane Elliott is not her real name. 
  • St. John promises to find her a job.
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Chapter 30

  • Jane befriends Diana and Mary 
  • Theyadmire her drawings and give her books . 
  • St. John remains distant and cold but never unkind. 
  • A month passes 
  • Diana and Mary must return to their posts as governesses. 
  • St. John has found a position running a charity school for girls in the Morton and Jane accepts
  • St. John presumes that she will soon leave the school out of restlessness
  • His sisters suspect he will leave England for a missionary post 
  • St. John tells his sisters that their Uncle John has died and left them nothing because all his money went to another relative. 
  • Uncle John led Mr. Rivers into his disastrous deal
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Chapter 31

  • Rosamond Oliver provides Jane with a cottage. 
  • Jane begins teaching but finds the work degrading and disappointing. 
  • St. John visits Jane and reveals that he used to feel he had made the wrong career choice until he heard God’s call
  • He plans to become a missionary
  • Rosamond Oliver appears, interrupting thier conversation
  • Jane believes that Rosamond and St. John are in love
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Chapter 32

  • Jane’s students become more endeared to her and she becomes popular
  • She has nightmares involving Rochester. 
  • Jane continues to pay attention to  St. John and Rosamond
  • Rosamond visits the school when she knows St. John will be there. 
  • Rosamond asks Jane to draw her portrait and she is working on it one day when St. John visits her 
  • He gives her a book of poetry (Sir Walter Scott’s Marmion) and looks at the drawing. 
  • She offers to draw him a duplicate and declares he should marry Rosamond. 
  • St. John admits that he loves her and is tempted by her beauty but refuses to allow affection to interfere with his duty 
  • He feels Rosamond would make a terrible missionary's wife. 
  • St. John notices something on the edge of Jane’s paper
  • He tears off a tiny piece and hurries from the room with a peculiar look on his face
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Chapter 33

  • One snowy night, Jane sits reading Marmion when St. John appears at the door. 
  • He tells the story of an orphan girl who became the governess at Thornfield Hall and disappeared after nearly marrying Edward Rochester
  • Jane has been cautious not to reveal her past and she does not immediately identify herself to him. 
  • He has recevied a letter from Mr. Briggs telling him it is important that Jane Eyre is found.because her uncle has died and left her 20,000 pounds.
  • Jane is only interested in whether Mr. Briggs has sent news of Rochester, but St. John tells her this is far less important 
  • Jane reveals herself, as she knows St. John has guessed already. 
  • She asks him how he knew and he shows her that he tore her signature from her drawing 
  • She asks why Mr. Briggs sent him the letter
  • St. John explains that they are cousins as John Eyre is his mother's brother and his name is St. John Eyre Rivers.
  • Jane is overjoyed to have found a family at last and she decides to divide her inheritance between them so that they each inherit 5,000 pounds.
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Chapter 34

  • Jane closes her school for Christmas and spends it with her cousins at Moor House. 
  • Diana and Mary are delighted with the improvements Jane has made at the school but St. John seems colder and more distant than ever. 
  • He tells Jane that Rosamond is engaged to a rich man named Mr. Granby. 
  • One day, he asks Jane to give up her study of German and instead to learn “Hindustani” with him
  • St. John exerts a greater and greater influence on Jane and his power becomes almost uncanny.
  • This leaves Jane feeling empty but she follows his wishes.
  • He eventually asks her to go to India with him as his wife 
  • She agrees to go to India but refuses to marry him because they are not in love 
  • St. John harshly insists, declaring that to refuse his proposal is the same as to deny Christianity 
  • He abruptly leaves the room.
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Chapter 35

  •  St. John continues to pressure Jane to marry him for a week.
  • She resists as kindly but her kindness makes him insist more bitterly
  • Diana tells Jane she would be a fool to go as St. John considers her a tool to aid his cause.
  • St. John prays for Jane and she is overcome by his powers of speech 
  • She is almost compelled to marry him but she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name from a great distance. 
  • Jane believes that something terrible has happened to him and St. John’s spell over her is broken
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Chapter 36

  • Jane wondering whether or not it was Rochester’s voice and whether Rochester might actually be in trouble. 
  • She finds a note from St. John urging her to resist temptation but  boards a coach to Thornfield
  • As she travels, she reflects on how much her life has changed in a year 
  • She now has friends, family, and a fortune
  • She is shocked to find Thornfield a charred ruin 
  • She goes to the Rochester Arms to learn what has happened. 
  • She learns Bertha set the house ablaze several months earlier 
  • Rochester saved his servants and tried to save his wife but she flung herself from the roof
  • Rochester lost a hand and went blind 
  • He now lives at Ferndean deep in the forest with two elderly servants 
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Chapter 37

  • Jane goes to Ferndean  and sees Rochester reach a hand out of the door, testing for rain. 
  • His body looks the same, but his face is desperate and disconsolate. 
  • Rochester returns inside, and Jane approaches the house. 
  • She knocks, and Mary answers the door. 
  • Jane carries a tray to Rochester 
  • He realizes Jane is in the room and  thinks she must be a ghost or spirit 
  • He catches her hand and takes her in his arms
  • She promises never to leave him. 
  • The next morning they walk through the woods and Jane tells Rochester about her experiences the previous year. 
  • She has to assure him that she is not in love with St. John
  • He asks her again to marry him and she says yes
  • Rochester tells Jane that a few nights earlier he called out her name and thought he heard her answer
  • She does not wish to upset or excite him in his condition so does not tell him about hearing his voice at Moor House
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Chapter 38

  • Jane and Rochester marry with the parson and the church clerk as witnessess and she writes to her cousins with the news. 
  • St. John never acknowledges this but Mary and Diana write back with their good wishes. 
  • Jane visits Adèle at her school, finds her unhappy and moves her to a more congenial school, 
  • Adèle grows up to be a mild-mannered young woman.
  • Jane writes she is telling her story after ten years of marriage
  • She describes it as inexpressibly blissful as they live as equals and she helps him to cope with his blindness 
  • After two years Rochester began to regain vision in one eye and was able to see that thier newborn son had his eyes 
  • She writes that Diana and Mary have found husbands who she and Rochester see once a year and that St. John went to India
  • She notes that St. John's last letter announced that he was dying and she does not believe that she will hear from him again but does not grieve him as he has fulfilled his promise and done God’s work
  • She closes her book with a quote from his letter in which he begs Jesus to come for him quickly
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Chapter 23

  • Convinced and elated, Jane accepts his proposal.
  • A storm breaks and they hurry indoors through the rain.
  • Rochester helps Jane out of her wet coat, and kisses her.
  • Jane looks up to see Mrs. Fairfax watching, astonished.
  • That night, a bolt of lightning splits the same chestnut tree under which Rochester and Jane had been sitting that evening.
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Comments

MollySeymour

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I am having trouble remembering what happens in each of the chapters. This resource really helped me in my final exam.

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