Discussion Questions

1. What are the instances of connection between Jane and Rochester that finally lead to their marriage and companionship toward the end of the novel?

The first instance of their meeting sets up a counter-hierarchical relationship where Jane, a governess, witnesses her employer and master slide off the horse and fall to the ground. This becomes a metaphor for an educated, individualistic, but smitten, Jane to connect with Rochester, a seemingly arrogant philanderer. However, when Rochester finds Jane weeping in the hall and almost calls her “his love” and when he disguises himself as a gypsy woman to endear himself to her, Rochester and Jane engage in sweet romantic games. Jane also emphasizes that she is not only struck but Rochester’s good looks but mainly values the similarity in their thinking.

The final instance that connects them is their surrender to God, which is also a spiritual connection between the two. A repenting Rochester calls out for Jane helplessly and she is able to hear it and comes to his aid.

2. How is the relationship between Jane and Mrs. Reed portrayed, especially at the latter’s deathbed?

Mrs. Reed, a distant relative and caregiver of the orphan Jane, is a bitter and cruel adult. She causes deep scars in Jane with her cruel words and severe punishments. She detests Jane and considers her a burden. It is only when Jane sets off to school that she gains distance from Mrs. Reed’s attempts to harm her. Meanwhile, a jealous Mrs. Reed hides correspondence from Jane’s uncle fearing that it would result in a better future for Jane.

It is on her deathbed that Mrs. Reed finally decides to rectify one such act of jealous cruelty by handing over a letter she’d concealed from Jane’s uncle. Even in this instance, Mrs. Reed asserts that she was right and has done nothing regrettable to Jane in the past. Jane’s, however, forgives her aunt graciously.

3. What role do Jane’s dreams play in the narrative?

Jane’s dreams serve various purposes at different points in the narrative. During her initial time at Thornfield, her dark and indecipherable dreams, combined with the mystery of the third floor, serve to intensify the gothic elements of the novel. After her wedding is stalled the first time due to Rochester’s secret being revealed, it is her mother in her dreams who acts as a guide and provides Jane the strength to flee Thornfield and avoid the temptation of being with a married man. This dream is therefore also responsible for her success as a school teacher and her independent life before she returns to Rochester. Lastly, her dream about a child and a long, empty corridor is replete with imagery pertaining to companionship and danger; this serves as a premonition to the huge surprise that is in store for Jane on her wedding day.

4. How is Bertha portrayed in the novel, and how have the books inspired by her character, such as Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, reimagined her?

Bertha is portrayed as a “primitive being” in Jane Eyre. Rochester frames her as a beautiful woman with a history of mental illness in her family, which in turn allegedly results in her deteriorating state of mind. The noises and instances of arson, including the final one during which she kills herself by jumping off Thornfield, characterize Bertha as a woman of base tendencies and capable of immense danger. She is also described as “animalistic” and wild to the degree that Jane uses “it” to describe Bertha. In the larger narrative structure, too, she is the dehumanized Creole woman who is a hindrance to the union of Jane and Rochester.

Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea reimagines Bertha by giving her a proper name— Antoinette—and a background story. Charlotte Bronte wrote the novel during the peak of British imperialism, and Jane Eyre reflects the colonial belief and thought systems about foreigners. This can even be seen in her descriptions of Celine and Adele, who are originally French, as “untamed” and “improper.”

Jean Rhys takes the figure of the voiceless mad woman in the attic and gives her a novel in the first person where she speaks of feeling rootless in the Caribbean Islands. She feels neither at home as a white person as she is born in the islands nor a part of the larger native community. The book looks at what her dilemmas and anxieties could have been and how they might have led her to be the woman who is portrayed in Jane Eyre.

5. In what sense is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre a Victorian novel?

Bronte’s Jane Eyre attempts to realistically portray elements of Victorian England. The novel reflects the reality of the education and social class system prevalent during this time. With increased opportunity for education, coupled with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, women were able to find employment more readily, which enabled them to take on unprecedented roles. Jane becoming a governess on account of her education is an apt example in this context. Mr. Brocklehurst and the authoritarian ways of Lowood School should be seen as a representation of the problems with public and charity-based education, where schools were not always prioritizing the education or health of their students.

Jane’s idea of being treated as an equal to Rochester rather than as “a bird ensnared in a cage” also reflects the demands of women who wanted to break free of societal prescriptions of gender roles. Additionally, both St. John’s missionary ambitions and the description of Bertha as a wild foreigner point to the prevalence of the colonial mindset. Overall, Jane Eyre documents the times in which it was written and therefore becomes a pivotal Victorian novel.