The next part of the novel which interests me is the first love scene between Jane and Mr Rochester on Midsummer Eve in the Orchard during the storm where they fall for each other. The next day Jane learns that the great horse chestnut was struck by lightning and half of it has split away. This is a prophecy in disguise meaning that a strong relationship will be split and one of the parties will move away. This prophecy comes true when Jane leaves Thornfeild hall when she finds out about Mr Rochester’s wife. Than when a sprout appears at the remains of the great horse chestnut this means that Jane and Mr Rochester will start afresh, and this happens after Mr Rochester’s wife dies in the fire at Thornfeild hall.
Mr Rochester’s unhappy childhood has had a considerable affect on his perception of people. As he was shipped off to Jamaica at a young age by his farther and been shunned from his fathers and brothers life. As from his life in Jamaica he received no love from any one he was able to be tricked into marring a beautiful insane woman. From these experiences he was hardened into not taking things at face value and trusting women until he knew them well. This is shown when he interrogates Jane frequently and doesn’t believe Jane drew and painted her pictures herself but in the end trusts Jane as he falls in love with her.
Jane’s school life is interesting as throughout her whole school life she has only two real friends one being Helen Burns and her teacher Miss Temple but they are both not long with Jane. Helen dies midway through Jane’s first summer at Lowood and not long after Miss Temple leaves to get married and Jane is pretty much left on her own to survive the cold and prevent starvation. School was to Jane the first place in Jane’s where she felt the happiest as she would rather be at Lowoods with all its preservations than be at Gateshead with all its luxuries. Jane excelled at school learning to speck French and German fluently and learnt to draw which were all extras at Lowood. Here after Jane was called a lair in front of the whole school by Mr Brocklehurst but was later cleared of this charge by Miss Temple this showed Miss Temples compassion for her students by going through the trouble of getting evidence to prove of Jane’s innocence.
Mr Brocklehurst is a hypocrite and a cruel man and has been shown up a number of times during the novel. He was shown to be a hypocrite and cruel at the same time where he ordered the hair of girl to be cut off because it was curly. Then a few minutes later his daughters walked in with their hair in curls and said noting to them about their curly hair. He was shown cruel again when he got Jane to stand on a stool and he pronounced her a lair in front of the whole school. Another area where he is cruel is in the children’s food supply, as he provides them just enough to live. Mr Brocklehurst is a lot like Mrs Reed in that he is keeping up his appearance to others by overseeing the running of a poor child’s school with no real interest in the school. Mr Brocklehurst just like Mrs Reed as that she doesn’t care about Jane, just that she looks good in front of others looking after an orphaned child.
The part of the book which I found the most exciting was the whole build up and story about Mr Rochester and his mad wife. Right at the end of the tour given to Jane by Mrs Fairfax you begin to suspect something strange after hearing eerie laughter from the room on the third floor and sees a strange woman called Grace Poole came out of one of the rooms.
“a laugh, struck my ears. It was a curious laugh – distinct, formal, mirthless. I stopped. The sound ceased, only for an instant. It began again, louder – for at first, though very distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peel that seemed to echo in every lonely chamber, though it originated but in one, and I could of pointed out the door whence the accents came from.”
Tension is built up at the start of this paragraph by the author by her use of short sentences and commas making the reader take in what has been said quicker. Then when Jane’s bedroom door opens in the middle of the night and she hears the same eerie laugh just outside her door; this builds up the tension. The person thought by Jane to be Grace Poole is heard go back up the stairs because of what Miss Fairfax told Jane on her first encounter with the laugh.
“ ‘Some of the servants, very likely,’ she answered; ‘ perhaps Grace Poole.’ “
When Jane goes into the hall to investigate she is surprised to see a candle burning just outside her room. That made me ask myself what is a candle doing there? This builds up tension and suspicion, and made me sit up in my seat in anticipation of finding the answer. Soon Jane realises that the room is full of smoke and realises the smoke is coming from that Mr Rochester’s room and where there’s smoke there’s fire and rushes off down the hall. Jane finds Mr Rochester’s room engulfed in flames and saves him by throwing his basin of water over ‘the bed and its occupant’. I was surprised like Jane that Mr Rochester didn’t want anyone to know about this; and would only reflect on the suspect that Jane came up. Which made me come to the conclusion that there is more to this then what meets the eye. . The next day Jane investigates into the matter and gets a strange answer out of Grace Poole to the question of
‘ Has anything happened here? I thought I heard the servants all talking together a while ago.’
And Grace Poole answers
“ Only master had been reading in his bed last night; he fall asleep with his candle lit and the curtains got on fire; but, fortunately, he awoke before the bedclothes or the woodwork caught, and contrived to quench the flames with the water in the ewer.”
This makes think that Grace Poole is trying to cover up her tracks by giving a false story to Jane. The plot thickens later when Jane and Mr Rochester are getting married and in the middle of the ceremony Mr Mason enters the church abruptly and Jane gets the worst surprise of her life when Mr Mason claims that Mr Rochester is already married. Mr Rochester admits this says his wife Bertha Mason is a mad woman and Jane enters a state of shock and disbelief. Mr Rochester isn’t happy and shows Jane who he is married to and then it all makes sense Jane is taken up to the top floor and sees Grace Poole sitting over a fire. Then Jane sees her and gives a description of Mr Rochester’s wife:
“ What it was , weather 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.”
The mysterious goings on of Thornfeild Hall came together but Jane could not rest she left Mr Rochester to get away from Thornfeild Hall and bad memories to start afresh some where else.
Jane's only real young friend at Lowood School was Helen Burns who serves as a foil to as well as to . While Mr. Brocklehurst embodies an evangelical form of religion that seeks to strip others of their excessive pride or of their ability to take pleasure in worldly things, Helen represents a mode of Christianity that stresses tolerance and acceptance. Mr Brocklehurst uses religion to gain power and to control others; Helen ascetically trusts her own faith and turns the other cheek to Lowood's harsh policies. Although Helen manifests a certain strength and intellectual maturity, her efforts involve self-negation rather than self-assertion, and Helen's submissive and ascetic nature highlights Jane's more headstrong character. Like Jane, Helen is an orphan who longs for a home, but Helen believes that she will find this home in Heaven rather than Northern England. And while Helen is not oblivious to the injustices the girls suffer at Lowood, she believes that justice will be found in God's ultimate judgement God will reward the good and punish the evil. Jane, on the other hand, is unable have such blind faith. Her quest is for love and happiness in this world. Nevertheless, she counts on God for support and guidance in her search.
is an opposite of Edward Rochester. Whereas Rochester is passionate, St. John is austere and ambitious. Mr Rochester's eyes are often described by Jane as flashing and flaming, whereas she constantly associates St. John with rock, ice, and snow. Marriage with Rochester represents the relinquishment of principle for the consummation of passion, but marriage to St. John would mean giving up passion for principle. When he invites her to come to India with him as a missionary, St. John offers Jane the opportunity to make a more meaningful contribution to society than she would as a housewife. At the same time, life with St. John would mean life without true love, in which Jane's need for spiritual contentment would be filled only by a retreat into the recesses of her own soul. Independence would be accompanied by loneliness, and joining St. John would require Jane to neglect her own legitimate needs for love and emotional support. Jane’s pondering over of St. John's proposal shows her to comprehend that, in a weird way, a large part of your personal freedom is found in a relationship of mutual emotional dependence.
By
John
Dolan