Chapter 11

Jane is greeted by a kind Mrs. Fairfax at the Thornfield mansion on the night of her arrival. The mansion is large and imposing. Mrs. Fairfax leads Jane to a comfortable bedroom. It is then that Jane realizes that Mrs. Fairfax is not the owner of the mansion, but a worker there. Mrs. Fairfax describes the master of Thornfield mansion, Rochester, as a kind and well-travelled man.

Jane meets her student, a zealous French girl, Adele Varens, Rochester’s ward. She is the daughter of a French singer and dancer.

During the tour of the house, Jane is shown the third floor, which is full of old furniture. As she is leaving, she is scared by strange laughter from the third floor. Mrs. Fairfax blames the sounds on Grace Poole, a servant.

Chapter 12

Jane gets into the rhythm of life at Thornfield Hall and begins to enjoy teaching Adele. However, she begins to feel constrained within the mansion and contemplates the ways in which society binds people, especially women, to limited roles. She deems emotional and intellectual stimulation important for all humans and takes strolls on the third floor to let her imagination unfurl. Jane continues to “>hear loud laughter and is perplexed. She is unable to place the straightforward and curt Grace Poole as the source of the boisterous laughter that she hears.

One evening on the way to the post, Jane hears the gallop of a horse and assumes that someone must be arriving at the mansion. Her mind conjures up a scene from Bessie’s tales about a mythical creature that changes shapes and visits places at night. She is relieved to see a rider accompanied by his horse and dog. The horse slips on the ice, and the rider falls to the ground. Jane helps the man up, but is offended by questions about her position at Thornfield. She is informed that the man is Rochester, master of Thornfield, who has returned from his travels.

Chapter 13

Jane meets Adele and Rochester over breakfast the next morning. She finds him commanding and, at times, even rude. They talk about Adele’s progress in studies and Jane’s background. Rochester asks to see Jane’s drawings when he learns of her talent and training. The pictures have a desolate and tender quality and depict a halo behind a woman’s visage; another drawing features a drowning scene in an ocean.

Jane then tells Mrs. Fairfax that she s perplexed by Rochester’s personality. Mrs. Fairfax shares that Rochester’s had a troubled past; he inherited Thornfield mansion from his dead elder brother who had in turn inherited it from their father. Their father had arranged a plan for Rochester to be wealthy, too. However, this plan had backfired and brought bad luck and pain to Rochester. Mrs. Fairfax does not divulge details about this plan.

Chapter 14

One night after dinner, Rochester calls for Adele and Jane. Adele is given a gift from Paris, and she sets off to play with it. A seemingly drunk Rochester has a conversation with a candid Jane. Rochester inquires if Jane finds him handsome, and she denies finding him attractive. She hides the fact that she does find his eyes attractive. Their conversation is on an equal plane, and Jane recognizes that they think similarly.

Rochester talks about the lessons he has learnt from his past in an abstract manner and vows to reform his ways. His vague manner of speaking leads to Jane terminating the conversation. Adele returns in a pink gown and twirls around, and Rochester comments that Adele resembles her French mother, Celine. He promises to explain to Jane the circumstances that led to him adopting Adele.

Chapter 15

One afternoon, Rochester shares his story with Jane. He was in love with a French singer, Celine Varens. However, later he found out that she was in a relationship with another man, and Rochester’s involvement had spelled the end of this relationship. He also ended up injuring her other lover in a physical confrontation. Celine had then confessed that Adele is Rochester’s child, but, given Adele’s looks, Rochester hadn’t believed her. When Celine abandoned Adele, Rochester brought her to Thornfield to ensure a good home for Adele to grow up in. Jane realizes that she really enjoys conversing with him now that he does not act in an arrogant and curt manner.

At night, Jane is disturbed by demonic laughter and sounds of footsteps near her door; later these noises retreat back to the third floor. When Jane goes out to inspect, she finds smoke rising from Rochester’s room and his bed curtains on fire. Jane puts out the fire and saves Rochester’s life.

Rochester rushes to the third floor and asks Jane if she had heard the laughter earlier. She says that she has indeed heard Grace Poole’s laughter. Rochester concedes that Grace Poole is the source of the commotion. He then pleads with Jane to keep the events to herself. He expresses his deep gratitude to Jane and goes to sleep on a sofa in the library. Jane is aware that she is experiencing new emotions and reflects on them without sleeping.

Analysis of Chapter 11 – Chapter 15

Thornfield has all the qualities of a dark and mysterious space. Jane’s perception of the sounds that come from the third floor, the desolate feeling in the air, and the missing master evoke a gothic mansion that harbors many secrets. This feeling gradually intensifies over the course of the novel.

These chapters also focus on Jane’s rich inner life. She uses her free time to contemplate the societal realities and her need for intellectual stimulation. She sees that women have been unjustly limited to specific roles. She is also aware that though she has been lucky to be educated and have a job at her current place of residence, she has a restless soul and thirst for knowledge. Her thoughts about confined women directly correlate to the state of Bertha on the third floor.

Bronte marries realism with elements of gothic writing. This makes the narrative engaging and provides important insights into Jane as a protagonist and her ways of thinking.

Jane’s first encounter with Rochester turns out to be a metaphor for the nature of their relationship: he is on a slippery slope and falls to the ground while Jane helps Rochester up. Later Jane also saves Rochester’s life. Rochester’s secrecy keep him distant from the reader in contrast to Jane’s candidness and honesty. The initial interactions with Rochester show that he is a man of troubled past and used to wielding power. The story about the inheritance being handed down to his elder brother reflects the actual Victorian practice of giving the entire inheritance to the first-born while other siblings had to acquire wealth through association with wealthy spouses or through entrepreneurial skills.

Jane sees that she is similar to Rochester in some ways, and this increases her interest in him. That she is even able to desire Rochester, her employer, subverts the rigid class structure of the times.

The incident of the fire in Rochester’s bedroom heightens the gothic aspect of the novel and also brings Rochester and Jane closer. As Rochester drops his arrogant aristocratic airs, they are able to bond as equals.