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1Jane Eyre
Plotoverview
Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel, wealthy aunt. A servant named
Bessie provides Jane with some of the few kindnesses she receives, telling her stories and
singing songs to her. One day, as punishment for ghting with her bullying cousin John Reed,
Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in the red-room, the room in which Jane’s Uncle Reed died. While
locked in, Jane, believing that she sees her uncle’s ghost, screams and faints. She wakes to nd
herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly apothecary Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that
Jane be sent away to school. To Jane’s delight, Mrs. Reed concurs.
Once at the Lowood School, Jane nds that her life is far from idyllic. The school’s headmaster is
Mr. Brocklehurst, a cruel, hypocritical, and abusive man. Brocklehurst preaches a doctrine of
poverty and privation to his students while using the school’s funds to provide a wealthy and
opulent lifestyle for his own family. At Lowood, Jane befriends a young girl named Helen Burns,
whose strong, martyrlike attitude toward the school’s miseries is both helpful and displeasing to
Jane. A massive typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood, and Helen dies of consumption. The epidemic
also results in the departure of Mr. Brocklehurst by attracting attention to the insalubrious
conditions at Lowood. After a group of more sympathetic gentlemen takes Brocklehurst’s place,
Jane’s life improves dramatically. She spends eight more years at Lowood, six as a student and
two as a teacher.
After teaching for two years, Jane yearns for new experiences. She accepts a governess position
at a manor called Thorn eld, where she teaches a lively French girl named Adèle. The
distinguished housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax presides over the estate. Jane’s employer at Thorn eld is
a dark, impassioned man named Rochester, with whom Jane nds herself falling secretly in love.
She saves Rochester from a re one night, which he claims was started by a drunken servant
named Grace Poole. But because Grace Poole continues to work at Thorn eld, Jane concludes
that she has not been told the entire story. Jane sinks into despondency when Rochester brings
home a beautiful but vicious woman named Blanche Ingram. Jane expects Rochester to propose
to Blanche. But Rochester instead proposes to Jane, who accepts almost disbelievingly.
The wedding day arrives, and as Jane and Mr. Rochester prepare to exchange their vows, the
voice of Mr. Mason cries out that Rochester already has a wife. Mason introduces himself as the
brother of that wife—a woman named Bertha. Mr. Mason testi es that Bertha, whom Rochester
married when he was a young man in Jamaica, is still alive. Rochester does not deny Mason’s
claims, but he explains that Bertha has gone mad. He takes the wedding party back to Thorn eld,
where they witness the insane Bertha Mason scurrying around on all fours and growling like an
animal. Rochester keeps Bertha hidden on the third story of Thorn eld and pays Grace Poole to
keep his wife under control. Bertha was the real cause of the mysterious re earlier in the story.
Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane ees Thorn eld.
Penniless and hungry, Jane is forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food. At last, three siblings
who live in a manor alternatively called Marsh End and Moor House take her in. Their names are
Mary, Diana, and St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Rivers, and Jane quickly becomes friends with
them. St. John is a clergyman, and he nds Jane a job teaching at a charity school in Morton. He
surprises her one day by declaring that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large fortune:
20,000 pounds. When Jane asks how he received this news, he shocks her further by declaring
that her uncle was also his uncle: Jane and the Riverses are cousins. Jane immediately decides to
share her inheritance equally with her three newfound relatives.
St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he urges Jane to accompany him—as his
wife. Jane agrees to go to India but refuses to marry her cousin because she does not love him.
St. John pressures her to reconsider, and she nearly gives in. However, she realizes that she
cannot abandon forever the man she truly loves when one night she hears Rochester’s voice
calling her name over the moors. Jane immediately hurries back to Thorn eld and nds that it has
been burned to the ground by Bertha Mason, who lost her life in the re. Rochester saved the
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servants but lost his eyesight and one of his hands. Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence,
Ferndean, where he lives with two servants named John and Mary.
At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon marry. At the end of her
story, Jane writes that she has been married for ten blissful years and that she and Rochester
enjoy perfect equality in their life together. She says that after two years of blindness, Rochester
regained sight in one eye and was able to behold their rst son at his birth.
Summary per chapter
Summary: Chapter 1
The novel opens on a dreary November afternoon at Gateshead, the home of the wealthy Reed
family. A young girl named Jane Eyre sits in the drawing room reading Bewick’s History of British
Birds. Jane’s aunt, Mrs. Reed, has forbidden her niece to play with her cousins Eliza, Georgiana,
and the bullying John. John chides Jane for being a lowly orphan who is only permitted to live
with the Reeds because of his mother’s charity. John then hurls a book at the young girl, pushing
her to the end of her patience. Jane nally erupts, and the two cousins ght. Mrs. Reed holds
Jane responsible for the scu e and sends her to the “red-room”—the frightening chamber in
which her Uncle Reed died—as punishment.
Summary: Chapter 2
Two servants, Miss Abbott and Bessie Lee, escort Jane to the red-room, and Jane resists them
with all of her might. Once locked in the room, Jane catches a glimpse of her ghastly gure in the
mirror, and, shocked by her meager presence, she begins to re ect on the events that have led
her to such a state. She remembers her kind Uncle Reed bringing her to Gateshead after her
parents’ death, and she recalls his dying command that his wife promise to raise Jane as one of
her own. Suddenly, Jane is struck with the impression that her Uncle Reed’s ghost is in the room,
and she imagines that he has come to take revenge on his wife for breaking her promise. Jane
cries out in terror, but her aunt believes that she is just trying to escape her punishment, and she
ignores her pleas. Jane faints in exhaustion and fear.
Summary: Chapter 3
When she wakes, Jane nds herself in her own bedroom, in the care of Mr. Lloyd, the family’s kind
apothecary. Bessie is also present, and she expresses disapproval of her mistress’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, and he suggests to Jane’s aunt that the girl be sent away to
school, where she might nd happiness. Jane is cautiously excited at the possibility of leaving
Gateshead.
Soon after her own re ections on the past in the red-room, Jane learns more of her history when
she overhears a conversation between Bessie and Miss Abbott. Jane’s mother was a member of
the wealthy Reed family, which strongly disapproved of Jane’s father, an impoverished clergyman.
When they married, Jane’s wealthy maternal grandfather wrote his daughter out of his will. Not
long after Jane was born, Jane’s parents died from typhus, which Jane’s father contracted while
caring for the poor.
Summary: Chapter 4
“I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never
come to visit you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you
treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick. . . .”
About two months have passed, and Jane has been enduring even crueler treatment from her
aunt and cousins while anxiously waiting for the arrangements to be made for her schooling. Now
Jane is nally told she may attend the girls’ school Lowood, and she is introduced to Mr.
Brocklehurst, the stern-faced man who runs the school. Mr. Brocklehurst abrasively questions
Jane about religion, and he reacts with indignation when she declares that she nds the psalms
uninteresting. Jane’s aunt warns Mr. Brocklehurst that the girl also has a propensity for lying, a
piece of information that Mr. Brocklehurst says he intends to publicize to Jane’s teachers upon
her arrival. When Mr. Brocklehurst leaves, Jane is so hurt by her aunt’s accusation that she cannot
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stop herself from defending herself to her aunt. Mrs. Reed, for once, seems to concede defeat.
Shortly thereafter, 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.
Summary: Chapter 5
Four days after meeting Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane boards the 6 a.m. coach and travels alone to
Lowood. When she arrives at the school, the day is dark and rainy, and she is led through a grim
building that will be her new home. The following day, Jane is introduced to her classmates and
learns the daily routine, which keeps the girls occupied from before dawn until dinner. Miss
Temple, the superintendent of the school, is very kind, while one of Jane’s teachers, Miss
Scatcherd, is unpleasant, particularly in her harsh treatment of a young student named Helen
Burns. Jane and Helen befriend one another, and Jane learns from Helen that Lowood is a charity
school maintained for female orphans, which means that the Reeds have paid nothing to put her
there. She also learns that Mr. Brocklehurst oversees every aspect of its operation: even Miss
Temple must answer to him.
Summary: Chapter 6
On Jane’s second morning at Lowood, the girls are unable to wash, as the water in their pitchers
is frozen. Jane quickly learns that life at the school is harsh. The girls are underfed, overworked,
and forced to sit still during seemingly endless sermons. Still, she takes comfort in her new
friendship with Helen, who impresses Jane with her expansive knowledge and her ability to
patiently endure even the cruelest treatment from Miss Scatcherd. Helen tells Jane that she
practices a doctrine of Christian endurance, which means loving her enemies and accepting her
privation. Jane disagrees strongly with such meek tolerance of injustice, but Helen takes no heed
of Jane’s arguments. Helen is self-critical only because she sometimes fails to live up to her
ascetic standards: she believes that she is a poor student and chastises herself for daydreaming
about her home and family when she should be concentrating on her studies.
Summary: Chapter 7
For most of Jane’s rst month at Lowood, Mr. Brocklehurst spends his time away from the school.
When he returns, Jane becomes quite nervous because she remembers his promise to her aunt,
Mrs. Reed, to warn the school about Jane’s supposed habit of lying. When Jane inadvertently
drops her slate in Mr. Brocklehurst’s presence, 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, and he forbids the other
students to speak to her for the rest of the day. Helen makes Jane’s day of humiliation endurable
by providing her friend with silent consolation—she covertly smiles at Jane every time she passes
by.
Summary: Chapter 8
Finally, at ve o’clock, the students disperse, and Jane collapses to the oor. Deeply ashamed,
she is certain that her reputation at Lowood has been ruined, but Helen assures her that most of
the girls felt more pity for Jane than revulsion at her alleged deceitfulness. Jane tells Miss Temple
that she is not a liar, and relates the story of her tormented childhood at Gateshead. Miss Temple
seems to believe Jane and writes to Mr. Lloyd requesting con rmation of Jane’s account of
events. Miss Temple o ers Jane and Helen tea and seed cake, endearing herself even further to
Jane. When Mr. Lloyd’s letter arrives and corroborates Jane’s story, Miss Temple publicly declares
Jane to be innocent. Relieved and contented, Jane devotes herself to her studies. She excels at
drawing and makes progress in French.
Summary: Chapter 9
In the spring, life at Lowood brie y seems happier, but the damp forest dell in which the school
resides is a breeding-ground for typhus, and in the warm temperatures more than half the girls fall
ill with the disease. Jane remains healthy and spends her time playing outdoors with a new friend,
Mary Ann Wilson. Helen is sick, but not with typhus—Jane learns the horri c news that her friend
is dying of consumption. One evening, Jane sneaks into Miss Temple’s room to see Helen one last
time. Helen promises Jane that she feels little pain and is happy to be leaving the world’s su ering
behind. Jane takes Helen into her arms, and the girls fall asleep. During the night, Helen dies. Her
grave is originally unmarked, but fteen years after her death, a gray marble tablet is placed over
the spot (presumably by Jane), bearing the single word Resurgam, Latin for “I shall rise again.”
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Summary: Chapter 10
After Mr. Brocklehurst’s negligent treatment of the girls at Lowood 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 dramatically for the young girls, and Jane excels in her studies for the next six
years. After spending two more years at Lowood as a teacher, Jane decides she is ready for a
change, partly because Miss Temple gets married and leaves the school. She advertises in search
of a post as a governess and accepts a position at a manor called Thorn eld.
Before leaving, Jane receives a visit from Bessie, who tells her what has happened at Gateshead
since Jane departed for Lowood. Georgiana attempted to run away in secret with a man named
Lord Edwin Vere, but Eliza foiled the plan by revealing it to Mrs. Reed. John has fallen into a life of
debauchery and dissolution. Bessie also tells Jane that her father’s brother, John Eyre, appeared
at Gateshead seven years ago, looking for Jane. He did not have the time to travel to Lowood and
went away to Madeira (a Portuguese island west of Morocco) in search of wealth. Jane and
Bessie part ways, Bessie returning to Gateshead, and Jane leaving for her new life at Thorn eld.
Summary: Chapter 11
Jane’s driver is late picking her up from the station at Millcote. When she nally arrives at
Thorn eld it is nighttime. Although she cannot distinguish much of the house’s facade from
among the shadows, she nds the interior “cosy and agreeable.” Mrs. Fairfax, a prim, elderly
woman, is waiting for Jane. It turns out that Mrs. Fairfax is not, as Jane had assumed from their
correspondence, the owner of Thorn eld, but rather the housekeeper. Thorn eld’s owner, Mr.
Rochester, travels regularly and leaves much of 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 also tells Jane about Rochester, saying that he is an eccentric man
whose family has a history of extreme and violent behavior. Suddenly, Jane hears a peal of
strange, eerie laughter echoing through the house, and Mrs. Fairfax summons someone named
Grace, whom she orders to make less noise and to “remember directions.” When Grace leaves,
Mrs. Fairfax explains that she is a rather unbalanced and unpredictable seamstress who works in
the house.
Summary: Chapter 12
Jane nds life at Thorn eld pleasant and comfortable. Adèle proves to be exuberant and
intelligent, though spoiled and at times a bit petulant. Nonetheless, Jane is frequently restless and
collects her thoughts while pacing Thorn eld’s top-story passageway. One evening a few months
after her arrival at Thorn eld, Jane is alone watching the moon rise when she perceives a horse
approaching. It calls to her mind the story Bessie once told her of a spirit called a Gytrash, which
disguises itself as a mule, dog, or horse to frighten “belated travellers.” Oddly enough, a dog then
appears as well. Once she realizes that the horse has a rider, the uncanny moment ceases. Just
after the horse passes her, it slips on a patch of ice, and its rider tumbles to the ground. Jane
helps the man rise to his feet and introduces herself to him. She observes that he has a dark face,
stern features, and a heavy brow. He is not quite middle-aged. Upon reentering Thorn eld, Jane
goes to Mrs. Fairfax’s room and sees the same dog—Pilot—resting on the rug. A servant answers
Jane’s queries, explaining that the dog belongs to Mr. Rochester, who has just returned home with
a sprained ankle, having fallen from his horse.
Summary: Chapter 13
The day following his arrival, Mr. Rochester invites Jane and Adèle to have tea with him. He is
abrupt and rather cold toward both of them, although he seems charmed by Jane’s drawings,
which he asks to see. When Jane mentions to Mrs. Fairfax that she nds Rochester “changeful
and abrupt,” Mrs. Fairfax suggests that his mannerisms are the result of a di cult personal
history. Rochester was something of a family outcast, and when his father died, his older brother
inherited Thorn eld. Rochester has been Thorn eld’s proprietor for nine years, since the death of
his brother.
Summary: Chapter 14
Jane sees little of Rochester during his rst days at Thorn eld. 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.
When Rochester asks Jane whether she thinks him handsome, she answers “no” without
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