Jane Eyre Reading Notes

Chapter 1 [pp. 6-11]

• At Gateshead Hall Mrs. Reed refuses to regard Jane as one of the children. Jane is 10.
• wild rain. (p. 7)
• Jane feels a connection to the harsh & frozen landscapes described in her book.
• John Reed, 14 years old, bullies Jane, & she "feared him, and every morsel of flesh on [her] bones shrank when he came near." (p. 9)
• Jane breaks & calls John "wicked and cruel." He tells his mother & Jane is locked in the "red-room." (p. 10)

Chapter 2 [pp. 11-17]

• Jane resists being taken to the red-room. Fighting back is "a new thing" for her. The first paragraph gives an interesting self-analysis.
• Bessie is the nursemaid; she is sympathetic; Miss Abbot is Bessie's maid; she is not sympathetic.
• The red-room is where Mr. Reed died 9 years previously. (Mr. Reed was Jane's mother's brother.)
• Descriptions of the Reed children — Eliza, Georgiane, and John.
• Jane freaks herself out, thinking Mr. Reed's ghost might come to comfort her. Mrs. Reed thinks she is faking her hysteria & makes her stay in the room another hour. Jane passes out.

Chapter 3 [pp. 17-25]

• She awakens in her own bed. Bessie & Mr. Lloyd, the apothecary, are tending to her. Mr. Lloyd treats her wtih more kindness & tenderness than she has ever experienced.
• Depression & apathy.
• Mr. Lloyd recommends Jane be sent to school.

Chapter 4 [pp. 26-40]

• The other children are ordered by Mrs. Reed to stay away from Jane. John still taunts her, but when Jane punches him in the nose Mrs. Reed is unsympathetic to him because she had told him to not go near her.
• Jane loses it & yells that the other children "are not fit to associate with me." (p. 27)
• Mrs. Reed grabs Jane & throws her on her bed. Jane shakes Mrs. Reed up by asking what Mr. Reed would say about how the family treats her.
• Holiday parties, from which Jane is excluded.
• Mr. Brocklehurst (primary trustee at Lowood Institution) comes to Gateshead to meet the "bad" little girl. Mrs. Reed tells him that Jane is a liar. (p. 33) The accusation "cut [Jane] to the heart" because she saw how Mrs. Reed was "obliterating hope" from Jane's future. (p. 33) After Mr. Brocklehrst leaves, Jane tells Mrs. Reed she hates her, etc., and Jane's "soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, [she] ever felt." (p. 36)
• "I was left there alone —winner of the field. it was the hardest battle I had fought, and the first victory I had gained." (p. 37) But after a while, she realizes the "madness of [her] conduct."

Chapter 5 [pp. 40-52]

• Jane is "severed from Bessie and Gateshead . . . [and] whirled away to unknown and . . . remote and mysterious regions." (p.41)
• Arrives at Lowood and meets Miss Miller, (p. 43) under-teacher.
• Burnt porridge. Miss Temple—superintendent of Lowood—orders bread & cheese for lunch to make up for the inedible breakfast.
• Jane meets Helen Burns.
• Helen is punished—must stand on a chair in the middle of the room. Jane marvels at her lack of mortification.

Chapter 6 [pp. 52-59]

• Weather has turned—water in wash basins is frozen.
• Jane observes Helen Burns being unjustly badgered by Miss Scatcherd.
• Contrasts the "gleeful tumult" of the free hour with "the disconsolate moan of the wind outside." (p. 54) Interesting paragraph about the weather's relationship to Jane's emotions follows.
• Jane talks with Helen. Jane says she would rebel against Miss Scatcherd's unfair & harsh treatment. Helen replies, "the Bible bids us return good for evil." (p. 55) Helen: "It is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear." (p. 56) Jane hears this "with wonder," but she suspects Helen might be right & she wrong. Jane and Helen talk of vengeance (Jane) & turning the other cheek (Helen).

Chapter 7 [pp. 59-68]

• Cold & hunger at Lowood. The older girls bully food from the younger.
• Brocklehurst visits Lowood; he is a jerk and a hypocrite.
• Jane is made to stand on the stool for being a liar.

Chapter 8 [pp. 70-75]

• Miss Temple writes to Mr. Lloyd (the apothecary from Gateshead) to confirm that Jane is not a liar, and told the truth about having a fit in the red-room. Miss Temple announces to the school that Jane is not a liar, & Jane is happy.

Chapter 9 [pp. 76-83]

• Spring comes—& typhus.
• Helen Burns has consumption, dies with great faith in God.

Chapter 10 [pp. 84-94] (natural break)

• 8 years later—after Lowood's conditions are made public—Brocklehurst demoted—life is much improved.
• Jane was a student for 6 years & a teacher for 2.
• When Miss Temple marries and moves away, Jane is at loose ends, restless. Jane advertises for a position & receives an response from Mrs. Fairfax.
• Bessie (from Gateshead) comes to see her off & informs her that nearly 7 years ago her uncle Eyre (her father's brother, in the wine trade at Madeira) had come looking for Jane.

Chapter 11 [pp. 94-109] (natural break)

• Jane arrives at Thornfield & meets Mrs. Fairfax. Jane feels a new sense of hope with her new surroundings. (100)
• First mention of Jane being plain. There is a whole paragraph of reflection on her appearance. (p.100)
• Jane learns that Mrs. Fairfax is the housekeeper—first mention of Rochester. (p. 101)
• Jane meets Adèle.
• Detailed description of Thornfield.
• While Mrs. Fairfax is showing Jane the attic, Jane hears a laugh from a separate part of the floor. Mrs. Fairfax says it's probably Grace Poole. (p. 109)

Chapter 12 [pp. 110-120]

• Jane settles in, but she is still restless, yearns to see more of the world. "It is in vain to say human being ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action, and they will make it if they cannot find it." (p. 111)
• Feminism: "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privleged fellow-creatures to say they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing the piano or embroidering bags. it is thoughless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex." (111-2)
• Jane tries to engage Grace Poole in conversation, but with no luck.
• Jane likes the people at Thornfield, but she is bored.
• Intrusive narrator: "In these days I was young, and all sorts of fancies bright and dark tenanted my mind." (p. 114)
• Jane is walking to Hay (a town) to post a letter, is passed on the path by Rochester on horseback, accompanied by his dog. Horse slips on ice & goes down.
• Jane sees that Rochester is not a handsome man & is, therefore, not shy about speaking with him.
• He questions her about her residence w/o letting her know who he is.
• She helps him remount his horse & continues on to Hay.
• She loiters outside Thornfield—reluctant to go back inside, where only "stagnation" awaits her.
• Jane learns that Rochester has arrived.

Chapter 13 [pp. 120-130]

• With Rochester comes new life to Thornfield—company & business matters keep the place jumping. Jane likes it better this way. (p. 120)
• Jane is comfortable with Rochester's rudeness: "A reception of finished politeness would probably have confused me: I could not have returned or repaid it by answering grace or elegance on my part; but harsh caprice laid me under no obligation." (p. 122)
• Banter with Rochester. (p. 124)
• Jane's peculiar/dark paintings. (p.127-8)
• Mrs. Fairfax tells Jane of Rochester's troubles with his late elder brother & father. (p. 129-130)

Chapter 14 [pp. 130-142]

• Discussion between Jane & Rochester on Rochester's appearance. Rochester: "Do you think me handsome?" (p. 133) Many references to the shape of his head —phrenology. (p. 134)
• Rochester claims he was "a feeling fellow enough" when he was younger, but "fortune has knocked [him] about since." (p. 134)
• Jane and Rochester banter.
• Rochester says he "was thrust on to a wrong tack at the age of one and twenty, and have never recovered the right course sine; but [he] might have been very different; [he] might have been as good as [Jane]—wise—almost as stainless." (p. 137)
• Rochester: "When fate wronged me, I had not the wisdom to reamin cool: I turned desperate; then I degenerated . . . . Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre: remorse is the poison of life." (p. 138) —Relate to Jane's response to learning Rochester is married. Jane establishes her moral base.

Chapter 15 [pp.143-155]

• Rochester tells Jane of his affair with Cèline Varens. (p. 143-8)
• Rochester's hatred for Thornfield is shown but not explained. (p. 145)
• Rochester finds it strange that he would confide the story of Cèline Varens to Jane but concludes: "While I cannot blight you, you may refresh me." (p. 146)
• Adele is not Rochester's, but he took her in to remove her from "the slime and mud of Paris." (p. 147)
• Rochester starts being more consistently pleasant to Jane. (p. 148)
• Jane hears a "demoniac laugh" that seems at the "very keyhole of [her] chamber" (p. 150). Frightened, she is going to rouse Mrs. Fairfax, but she finds the hallway filled with smoke. (p. 151)
• Rochester's bed is on fire. Jane saves him. He implies it was Grace Poole & swears Jane to secrecy.
• Rochester hints at deep feeling for Jane. (p. 154)

Chapter 16 [pp. 155-164]

• Jane has mixed feelings about seeing Rochester the next day.
• Jane sees Grace Poole sewing while Leah scrubs the windows in Rochester's room. Jane is stunned that Grace could act so innocent (p. 156)—"brazen coolness." (p. 157)
• Jane fears that Grace will now come after her.
• Jane wonders what power Grace has over Rochester that he allows her to remain at Thornfield. (p. 158)
• Jane becomes distracted by her desire to see Rochester again— both to get some answers (even though her questions might anger him; she "knew the pleasure of vexing him and soothing him by turns") & because her feelings are growing. (p. 160)
• Jane learns that Rochester has gone to meet with a "set of fashionable people" to surround himself with "elegance and gaity." (p. 160)
• First mention of Blanche. (p. 161)
• Jane berates herself & concludes "that a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed." (p. 162)
• She vows to draw herself: "Portrait of a governess, disconnected, poor and plain" and Blanche Ingram as Mrs. Fairfax has described her—gloriously beautiful—to remind herself that she has been a fool.

Chapter 17 [pp. 164-184]

• Mrs. Fairfax suggests that Rochester may be gone for some time— maybe even a year. (p. 164)
• Jane tries to convince herself she's fine—but she's thinking of finding a different employment.
• Rochester is coming home with a large party. (p.165-6)
• Jane learns, by eavesdropping on Leah & another servant, that Grace Poole earns a great deal of money & there is a secret. (p. 167)
• Rochester insists Jane accompany Adele to meet the party after dinner. (p. 171)
• Blanche Ingram. (p.175)
• Weird paragraphs with 1/2 of present tense. (p. 176) (p. 178-9)
• Jane loves Rochester. (p. 177)
• Blanche's opinion of governesses—"they are a nuisance," and she tells of terrorizing her governesses as a child.(p. 180)
• Blanche makes a speech about how men should not be beautiful. (p. 182)
• Rochester & Blanche flirt. (p. 182)
• Rochester sings.
• Afterward, Jane sneaks out, but Rochester stops her in the hall. He notices that she is "depressed," so he exccuses her for the evening, but insists she appear in the drawing room each evening while the company is there. (p. 184)
• Rochester says, "Good night, my ___________," but stops himself.

Chapter 18 [pp. 184-198]

• Charades. Jane declines to play. Overhears Blanche say Jane "looks too stupid to play." (p. 185)
• Jane is jealous of Blanche, but she knows Rochester will marry Blance "for interest and connection." (p. 190)
• Rochester has gone for the day. A man comes & decides to wait for Rochester. Jane finds him handsome enough, but she is repelled by him because he seems to lack thought and depth. (p. 193)
• Contrasts the man with Rochester: "a sleek gander & a fierce falcon: . . . a meek sheep and the rough-coated keen-eyed dog, its guardian." (p. 193)
• The man is Mr. Mason from the West Indies. (p. 194)
• "Mother Bunches" arrives & insists on telling fortunes. (p. 194-5)
• Blanche apparently does not like whatever Mother B says to her & she sulks. (p. 196-7)
• The other young women (who see M.B. as a trio) are amazed at how much gypsy knows about them. (p. 197)
• M.B. calls for Jane. (p. 198)

Chapter 19 [198-]

• (p. 204) foreshadowing in the extreme. Jane recognizes Rochester (p. 205). Rochester is upset to hear Mason is there (p. 206) but feels better when he learns that Mason has told no one—asks Jane if she would turn her back on him if others did. (p.207)

Chapter 20 [198-]

• The house is awakened by screams & the sounds of a struggle from the third floor. (p.208-9)
• Jane is to stay with Mason while Rochester goes for the doctor. Jane is not to speak to Mason, & Rochester threatens Mason's life if he speaks to Jane. (p. 212)