Jane Eyre book report by Charlotte Brontë from class 5 VWO
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Module
Engels
Level
VWO / Gymnasium
Book
Jane Eyre
This book report is about Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. It contains the following (literary) components:
- Main character (development, conflict)
- Setting (place, time, time duration, social setting, weather)
- Motifs
- Narrator
- Style
- Literary assignment: linking a symbol to the book...
Literary knowledge
Characters
The protagonist of the book is Jane Eyre, a young woman, who was raised as a orphan by Mr. and
Mrs. Reed, Jane’s aunt and uncle. “I suppose you are an orphan. Are not either your father or your
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, mother dead?’ ‘Both died before I can remember.’” (Brontë, 2015, p. 53). In addition, Jane is clever,
has an appetite for learning, values self-sufficiency, love, justice, and equality. “Twenty thousand
pounds shared equally, would be five thousand each – enough and to spare: justice would be done –
mutual happiness secured.” (Brontë, 2015, p. 466).
After her uncle perished, Jane began to be treated as an outcast, for Mrs. Reed did not consider her
family. This would include being excluded and severe punishment such as being locked up in the red-
room. “‘Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there.’ Four hands were immediately laid
upon me, and I was borne upstairs.” (Brontë, 2015, p. 6). However, despite the poor treatment Jane
endured, she was, as merely a ten-year-old girl, still quite confident, but overly driven by passion and
emotion. “A child cannot quarrel with its elders, as I had done – cannot give its furious feelings
uncontrolled play, as I had given mine – without experiencing afterwards the pang of remorse and
the chill of reaction.” (Brontë, 2015, p. 38). Her cruel upbringing initiated a strong desire for justice
and a striving for righteousness. At Lowood, Jane befriends Helen Burns, who inspires and assists
Jane to improve her self-control through spiritual and religious development. “‘Heathens and savage
tribes hold that doctrine; but Christians and civilised nations disown it.’ ‘How? I don’t understand.’ ‘It
is not violence that best overcomes hate – nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.’ ‘What
then?’ ‘Read the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He acts; make His word
your rule, and His conduct your example.’” (Brontë, 2015, p. 63). When Jane begins to work as a
governess at Thornfield Hall, she has already become an well-educated woman with proper self-
control and relative independence. Yet, her longing for sincere love remains unfulfilled. However,
this changes as Jane grows closer to Mr. Rochester and their mutual love results in a marriage
proposal. Although, prior to the proposal, Mr. Rochester’s supposed want to marry Blanche Ingram,
provoked a somewhat present feeling of jealousy in Jane, hence her self-control is limited. “if a
woman in my position could presume to be jealous of a woman in Miss Ingram’s. But I was not
jealous: or very rarely; the nature of the pain I suffered could not be explained by that word. Miss
Ingram was a mark beneath jealousy: she was too inferior to excite the feeling.” (Brontë, 2015, p.
221). As the wedding draws nearer, Jane comes to realise the disadvantages to matrimony. For
example, Jane’s womanhood and relative poverty would make her reliant on Mr. Rochester and his
wealth, contradicting her values regarding freedom and independence. In addition, Mr. Rochester’s
previous and legally ruling marriage to Bertha Rochester makes Jane feel as simply a mistress, which
does not correspond to her dignity. “‘Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning
by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire – I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is
sophistical – is false.’” (Brontë, 2015, p. 366). Jane’s escape from Thornfield emphasises her strong-
willed character and the importance of her values, because despite her desire for Rochester’s love,
she still manages to decide to flee. This strong will again shows, when Jane continues her escape
through harsh and dreadful conditions without thinking of giving up. At the local girls’ school, Jane
finds pleasure in teaching and is able to satisfy her need to live autonomously, yet the aching desire
for love and company continues to grow. Unexpectedly, Jane inherits a great amount of money,
which enables her to live self-sufficiently even further. In addition, she discovers her familial relations
to the River family, which excites her a great deal, for she has never known any real family. “and the
young and stately gentleman who had found me almost dying at his threshold was my blood relation.
Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch! This was wealth indeed! – wealth to the heart! – a mine of
pure, genial affections.” (Brontë, 2015, p. 465).
Although inheriting twenty thousand pounds, Jane decides to equally share the great sum of money
with her cousins, due to her selflessness, which shows how Jane maintains her generous character,
despite wealth. “Now the wealth did not weigh on me: now it was not a mere bequest of coin – it was
a legacy of life, hope, enjoyment.” (Brontë, 2015, p. 466). When St. John proposes to Jane to become
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