Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte, 1847
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Jane Eyre, an orphan, is raised unkindly by her aunt at Gateshead and sent to Lowood, a harsh charity school where she loses her friend Helen Burns. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall and falls in love with her moody employer, Edward Rochester. On their wedding day she learns he already has a wife, who is locked in the attic. Jane flees, nearly starves, and is taken in at Moor House by the clergyman St John Rivers and his sisters. When a mysterious call reaches her, she returns to Thornfield and finds Rochester blind and free.
Where it happens
- Cowan Bridge, Lancashire Site of the Clergy Daughters' School that Bronte used as the model for Lowood.2
- Mirfield (Roe Head) Where Bronte attended school in 1831 and taught from 1835.2
- Brussels Bronte studied and taught at the Heger Pensionnat here from 1842.2
- London Home of Smith, Elder & Co., first publisher of the book.1
Through time
Who is in it, and behind it
Charlotte Bronte author
Born 1816, eldest surviving of the Bronte sisters; she published under the name Currer Bell.2
Jane Eyre character
The orphan narrator, who grows from a mistreated child to an independent woman.1
Edward Rochester character
Master of Thornfield Hall, whose secret marriage nearly ruins Jane's life.1
St John Rivers character
Earnest, cold clergyman and Jane's cousin, who proposes to her.1
Helen Burns character
Jane's friend at Lowood, who bears injustice with patience.1
Mrs Reed character
Jane's aunt, who abuses her at Gateshead Hall.1
Smith, Elder & Co. printer
London firm that published the novel in October 1847.1
What it is about
Independence and equality
Jane insists on being treated as a free human being, whatever her rank or looks.1
Inner life told in first person
The book was among the first to centre on one person's moral and spiritual development.1
Duty against passion
Rochester offers love without honesty and St John offers duty without love; Jane refuses both on those terms.1
Class and the governess
Jane's position as a poor, educated woman shows how fragile and constrained such lives were.1
In its own words
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you—and full as much heart!
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.
I would always rather be happy than dignified
Reader, I married him. A quiet wedding we had: he and I, the parson and clerk, were alone present.
The shape of the book
40 chapters, 185,280 words. Point at a bar.
How it came to be here
Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre as 'Currer Bell' through Smith, Elder & Co. of London on 19 October 1847. It was a success at once. Critics noted its first-person voice, which follows Jane's moral and spiritual growth from the inside. Lowood was drawn from the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, where Bronte's two elder sisters fell ill and died. The book touches class, religion, sexuality and the limits placed on women, and the BBC's Big Read poll of 2003 ranked it tenth among Britain's best-loved books.
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Sources
Text: PG 1260. CC0 (Standard Ebooks).