Jane is intrigued by Rochester and suspense is built up to when Jane meets him because of the things that Jane has heard about Rochester. Jane thinks Rochester’s relationship with Thornfield is strange because he never stays there “Mrs Fairfax said he seldom stayed here longer than a fortnight at a time […]” Mrs Fairfax is telling Jane that Mr Rochester is never at Thornfield for more than two weeks. Jane doesn’t understand why he doesn’t want to stay in such a big house.
In chapter 15 of the novel Jane and Rochester’s relationship has started to develop since she has become governess at Thornfield, "You never felt jealousy, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love.” They start to talk about feelings and start to spend time together. One night, Jane hears noises coming from the room above her “on hearing a vague murmur, peculiar and lugubrious, which sounded, I thought, just above me” Jane wishes that she had kept her candle burning because she says “the night was drearily dark; my spirits were depressed.” It was pitch dark so she can’t see anything and she is starting to get scared. She then starts to calm down, because she assumes it must be the dog Pilot, but then she hears laughter and is frightened. This causes tension because she starts to think everything is alright, but things aren’t. The supernatural is introduced when Jane describes the laughter she hears: “a demonic laugh-low, suppressed, and deep”. After the fire Rochester talks to Jane “what have you done to me, witch, sorceress?” he speaks to Jane as if she is a witch. This also fits in with the supernatural theme because a witch is a supernatural creature.
Grace Poole lives in Thornfield hall but she is a strange character and the mystery about her fits in with the gothic literature. Jane notices how strange Grace Poole’s laugh is. Jane is confused as Grace Poole is sat sewing in Rochester’s room after the fire “[…] marking the countenance of a woman who had attempted murder, and whose intended victim had followed her last night to her lair and charged her with the crime she wished to perpetrate. I was amazed-confounded” if Grace had tried to kill Rochester, then she couldn’t be acting as if nothing happened because she showed no remorse Jane is confused and Grace seems even stranger. Jane starts to think about Grace’s behaviour “she would thus descend to the kitchen once a day […] only one hour in the twenty-four did she pass with her fellow servants below […] the strangest thing of all was that not a soul in the house noticed her habits” she appears even more mysterious because it is clear that she doesn’t spend time with any of the other servants and this increases the sense of secrecy about her character, and what confuses Jane even more is none of the servants seem to notice how strange Grace’s behaviour is. In the novel, the other servants discuss Grace Poole when Jane leaves the room “I once, indeed, overheard part of a dialogue between Leah and one of the charwomen, of which Grace formed the subject. Leah had been saying something I had not caught, and the charwoman remarked – ‘she gets good wages, I guess?’. ‘Yes.’ Said Leah; […]” the charwoman is assuming Grace Poole gets paid a lot of money but the mystery is what does she do to get a higher wage than the other servants, because all she does is sew and help Leah. It is obvious something is going on “The charwoman was going on; but here Leah turned and perceived me, and she instantly gave her companion a nudge. “Doesn't she know?" I heard the woman whisper. Leah shook her head, and the conversation was of course dropped. All I had gathered from it amounted to this,--that there was a mystery at Thornfield […]” The servants know something about Grace Poole that may explain her strange behaviour, which is why they don’t notice her strange habits. Jane realises that there is something strange happening in Thornfield, and she is excluded from it, and the mystery increases.
Jane and Rochester’s relationship continues to develop in chapter 17. At the appearance of Blanche Ingram Jane starts to make a careful study of the woman in the drawing room. This reveals a preoccupation with the woman with the woman she suspects Rochester may be in love with. She starts to think about Blanche Ingram’s description “as far as person went, she answered point for point both to my picture and Mrs Fairfax’s description […] but her face? Her face was like her mothers […]”. She is comparing what Blanche Ingram looks like to what Jane thought she looked like, because she is curious and wants to compare herself to Blanche. In this chapter Mason is introduced “his manner is polite, his accent, in speaking, struck me as being somewhat unusual-not precisely foreign, but still not altogether English.” His peculiar accent creates mystery as it raises questions about where the ‘stranger’ has come from. Jane describes his appearance “his complexion was singularly sallow […] for a handsome and not an unamiable-looking man, he repelled me exceedingly: there was no power in that smooth-skinned face of a full oval shape: no firmness in that aquiline nose and small cherry mouth; there was no thought on the low, even forehead, no command in that blank, brown eye.” Jane thinks he is very handsome by the way she describes his face, but there is something about him that Jane finds strange, but she doesn’t know what. In this section of the novel a gypsy is in the house. Blanche Ingram is the first to see her. Mystery and suspense is created when Jane describes Blanche’s response to the gypsy, the effect of not showing the actual meeting with the gypsy herself is it makes the reader want to read on because they don’t know what was said to her. Her reaction was cold, as if she felt no different. Jane describes her “[…] and she met all eyes with one of rebuff and coldness, she looked neither flurried nor merry: she walked stiffly to her seat, and took it in silence.” She is trying to make everyone think everything is fine but it’s not, its obvious that what the gypsy has told her has affected her, and she isn’t as relaxed as she wants to look. “[…] really your organs of wonder are easily excited: you seem by the importance you all […] ascribe to this matter absolutely to believe we have a genuine witch in the house […]” she is trying to make the other guests feel silly for believing in witchcraft, because she doesn’t seem to believe in it. Jane is last to visit the gypsy. Our fist impressions of her are mysterious because she is wearing a red cloak and is covering her chin. She also has a non-lit candle beside her. It is strange for a gypsy to cover her face. The gypsy examines her face and uses it as a way of revealing Jane’s inner thoughts and feelings. In her eyes the gypsy sees: “it looks soft and full of feelings […] it is sad […] that signifies melancholy resulting from loneliness” the gypsy thinks that Jane is sad because she is lonely, but her eyes show she has a lot of emotion. Her mouth reveals: “it delights at times in laughter […] it would be silent on much the heart experiences.” Jane does laugh and can be happy but when it comes to talking about her true feelings she goes quiet, she only talks of intellectual matters. The gypsy examines her brow and forehead and says: “but in the brow; and that brow professes to say, -‘I can live alone, if self-respect and circumstances require me to do so.” Her brow shows she can be independent if she wants to be, “reason sits firm and holds the reigns, and she will not let the feeling burst away and hurry her to wild chasms.” Her reasoning and conscience rules over her feelings. Mystery surrounds the gypsy as to how she knows so much about Jane, but then the gypsy is revealed as Rochester. He reacts strangely to finding out Mason is at Thornfield “Mr. Rochester was standing near me; he had taken my hand, as if to lead me to a chair. As I spoke he gave my wrist a convulsive grip; the smile on his lips froze: apparently a spasm caught his breath.” Rochester acts shocked to see Mason, because he wasn’t expecting him. His reaction creates a sense of mystery surrounding Mason, why would Rochester be so shocked to see someone he knows, what happened between them in the past?
The beginning of chapter 20 sets the scene. Jane went to bed relaxed after hearing Rochester taking Mason cheerfully to his room. During that night, the moon is shining and wakes her up “I had forgotten to draw my curtain, which I usually did, and also to let down my window-blind, the consequence was, that the moon, which was full and bright (for the night was fine)” she describes the moon and just as she is about to close her blinds. She hears someone scream out. Jane is startled by the blood-curdling scream, and then she hears someone cry out and bumps and noises “Good God! What a cry! […] I now heard a struggle; a deadly one it seemed from the noise; and a half-smothered voice shouted-‘Help! Help! Help!’ three times rapidly” the noises she hears suggests there is a struggle going on upstairs, then there is silence. Rochester tries to calm his guests down by saying “be composed all of you: I’m coming […] a servant has had the nightmare that is all. She is an excitable nervous person […] now then, I must see you all back to your rooms; for till the house is settled, she cannot be looked after.” He makes an excuse that a servant had a nightmare, but Jane knows that it wasn’t true because of the noises she heard. Mason was attacked by Bertha, she wounded him. Rochester gives Jane some strange instructions “You will not speak to him on any pretext--and--Richard, it will be at the peril of your life if you speak to her: open your lips--agitate yourself- -and I'll not answer for the consequences." She must not speak to Mason while she is wiping his wounds, this is surrounded by mystery because Rochester probably thinks Mason will tell Jane something he doesn’t want her t know.
The theme of supernatural is developed through the significance of dreams in the novel. Jane’s opinion is she believes in superstition relating to dreams and what they might mean. This is shown when she talks about having her own presentiments. Also, she heard Bessie talking about a dream she had about a little child. Jane knows “to dream of children was a sure sign of trouble, either to one’s self or one’s kin”. Jane’s superstitions about dreaming are aroused when she repeatedly begins to dream about an infant, making her nervous and unsettled. Jane links the attack on Mason and the terrible news about her family to the dreams she has been having. She was woken up by Mason’s cry when she was having the dream and she had the same dream again and this time when she woke up she found a man waiting for her in the morning, he was Bessie’s husband who was bringing the bad news of the Reed family. Mrs Reed was ill and was on her deathbed. “I grew nervous as bedtime approached and the hour of the vision near” Jane begins to become afraid to sleep because she knows she will have the same dream over and over again. Jane has a dream when she is engaged to Rochester, it was about her being separated from Rochester where “it was a dark and gusty night2 and she dreamed that she wished she was with Rochester and there was a barrier dividing them, which symbolises Rochester’s wife, Bertha. She was “following the windings of an unknown road”. It was raining and she was carrying a baby in her hands. Rochester was on the road in front of her “I strained every nerve to overtake you, and made effort on effort to utter your name and entreat you to stop.” Jane’s dreams could be expressing her fears of marrying Rochester. Jane has a second dream where Thornfield is “a dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owls.” Thornfield was a ruin and she still carried the baby in her arms. “I heard the gallop of a horse at a distance on the road; I was sure it was you.” Jane dreams that she was at Thornfield Hall and Rochester was galloping away from her for many years to another country. This symbolises their separation when Jane runs away after her interrupted marriage to Rochester. She climbed a thin wall with the baby in her hands and the wall crumbled and she lost her balance and fell then she woke up. This is exactly what happened to Bertha, she stood at the top of the ruins the only difference is Bertha jumper off but in Jane’s dream she fell.
Bertha was Rochester’s wife, but she suffered from hereditary madness. She rips Jane’s wedding veil, which suggests that she is jealous of Jane because she is so close to Rochester. When Bertha looms over Jane during the night Jane describes how horrible she looks “Fearful and ghastly to me--oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face--it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!” the rolling of the eyes in the head of the spectre suggests the person is not quite of sane mind. Redness could also suggest evil. Bertha has affected Jane and she feels pure terror “I was aware her lurid visage flamed over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the second time in my life--only the second time--I became insensible from terror.” Psychological terror has a physical impact on Jane, the same as when she was in the Red Room. Rochester had married Bertha fifteen years before, but was not told of her madness until after they were married “Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations? Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!--as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before. Bertha, like a dutiful child, copied her parent in both points.” Rochester is revealing to Jane all about Bertha and her family tricked him into marrying Bertha. The madness and hereditary disease Bertha suffers from fits in with the gothic tradition.
Just before Jane leaves Thornfield, she has a dream “I watched her come-- watched with the strangest anticipation; […] white human form shone in the azure, inclining a glorious brow earthward. It gazed and gazed on me. It spoke to my spirit: immeasurably distant was the tone, yet so near, it whispered in my heart - "My daughter, flee temptation." "Mother, I will." She has a dream that something was talking to her, telling her to leave Thornfield. She believes her dream is warning her that things might not work out as she planned and also Mrs Fairfax told her life is going to be hard, which is why she believes in her dreams so much. Jane leaves Thornfield and goes to St John Rivers at Marsh Glen, where they take her in and look after her. She then later finds out that they are her cousins and Jane is delighted to find that she has a family. Supernatural thing happen to Jane when she is separated from Rochester “I might have said, "Where is it?" for it did not seem in the room-- nor in the house--nor in the garden; it did not come out of the air- -nor from under the earth--nor from overhead. I had heard it-- where, or whence, for ever impossible to know! And it was the voice of a human being--a known, loved, well-remembered voice--that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently.” Jane and Rochester have a supernatural connection, because Rochester is speaking to her in her head, she can hear him. At the end of the novel, when Jane and Rochester are reunited, Rochester says “As I exclaimed 'Jane! Jane! Jane!' a voice--I cannot tell whence the voice came, but I know whose voice it was--replied, 'I am coming: wait for me;' and a moment after, went whispering on the wind the words--'Where are you?'” it seems as if Rochester had the same supernatural feeling as Jane, that they somehow connected while they were separated.
Many characteristics of gothic fiction are shown in the book Jane Eyre such as mystery, madness, death and hereditary diseases, but it could also be seen in other categories, for example, a feminist novel by some. Throughout the book Jane is treated badly, and this could be because she was a woman, or it could be a Bildungsroman book because it is all about Jane and how she grows up into a woman, also it could be seen as a romance novel because of Jane and Rochester’s relationship and how it ended happily with lots of problems in between. The novel seems to be very complex, and this could be the reason it has become so famous and well-known.
