jane eyre

[eleanor2]

jane eyre was written by charlotte bronte.she was the most admired of the Bronte sisters.her books are seen as part auto biographical......i think the brontes existance on earth was quite hard and sad.yet even so they had a better life than many of the poor around them.the brontes life seems in contrast to jane austin.this i think is reflected in their story telling.as i read this book i am going to picture it as coming from real life events and situations in their life.reading between the lines to understand their hardships and loneliness.

[buecherwurm]

Just found out today, that I never owned a Jane Eyre. It belonged to my daughter and she took it with her when she moved, of course. But not to worry. I ordered my very own copy tonight. So it will propably arrive on Wednesday. Can't wait. Has anybody started reading, yet?

[Treehugger]

Sorry buecher, I haven't started yet. Getting my copy tomorrow. I promise.

[eleanor2]

i finished my barbera erskine book tonight.speed reading so i can start jane eyre tomorrow.i am looking forward to it.

[Sarahc]

Been on holiday, meant to post a message before I went but had a bit of a deadline nightmare. Anyway, am halfway through lollipop shoes (sequel to chocolat, which i am liking very much, very different to jane austen). If i can i will dig out my copy of Jane Erye to join in later, if I can catch up! I originally read it after reading Jasper Ffordes Eyre Affair which is a kind of fiction on a fiction and very surreal but fantastic fun, would highly recommend, may even be a good choice as next book? Will keep checking in to see how things are going.

[eleanor2]

hi sarah hope you can join us.we take ages to read the book so theres plenty of time.

[eleanor2]

i have just read the first few chapters.i am already captivated.charlotte is a wonderful storyteller.i am already there in the story.feeling so sorry for a very unloved uncared for child.mercilessly bullied by her older cousin. a poor unwanted relative living amongst a rich conceited family.full of there own importance.john the 14 year old boy of the family is as spoilt as a child can get.poor jane as bessie the maid comments.if only she were pretty she would be more likable,but she is a real toad.that nearly bought tears to my eyes to think it was in charlottes head all the loneliness and emotional suffering of a parentless child.the reasons a child thinks people dont like her.her desperation for just a kind word or smile.ppor jane has just a greed with the doctor that she would like to leave gates head and go to school.she nor the doctor could know that her rich aunt would send her to squalid paupers school.

[eleanor2]

i have shed a few tears i can tell you.jane gets sent to this awful school.i love how charlotte describes the personalities of people.she makes it clear that janes hardships have made her stronger but she stil has a sensitive side.jane gets upset for the way helen burns is completely picked on by a teacher.it hurts janes pride to see her a fellow student treated so.yet helen bless her is an inspiration.she is humble and intelligent.quite wise in the ways to survive mentally the abuse.mr brocklehurst is portrayed as a pious hypocrite.preaching christianity andabstension from lifes riches whilst him and his family live in splendour.now helen burns in her quiet loving humble way lives christianity and speaks with such a faith.you can see charlotte putting forth the different people she has come across in life.when poor helen is in bed dying and jane sneaks in and climbs in bed with her .helen asks her to stay the night cuddled up making her feel more comfortable.helen dies in janes arms.here i sat sobbing.beuch ,sarah and treehugger have you got the book yet

[buecherwurm]

Hi eleanor, was very busy but will start reading tomorrow or maybe on Thursday. I remember when I read it the last time I always thought, "How can people (Christians) be so cruel.

[eleanor2]

i think we have to remember there is a difference between a religious person and a christian.helen burns is such an inspiration of what a true christian should be like.how charlotte has portrayed her she has actually inspired me.

[eleanor2]

i am galloping on with the book.thoroughly enjoying it.jane leaves lowood school with her sharp edges knocked off but still got spirit and pride bless her.off she goes to thornfield hall as a governess.you can imagine she has never had attention off a male species.i think from the word go when she helped mr rochester on his horse ,her heart started tingling.it hasn't taken her long to fall in love with him.what i like about this story is it is clearly defined that love is not about wealth and power.true love can only come from the heart.when a whole party of mr rochesters friends come to stay at the hall.we see snobbery at its finest.we also see love at its deepest.jane sees clearly that miss ingram beautiful and rich is as false as can be.if mr rochester married her it would be for false reasons on both parts.mr rochesters past as already left him in a mess.his first love was lust wich gave him a mad wife locked up in the attics.his second love was a money grabber and left him with an unwanted child.....will he have the sense to break his habit of mistakes.see real love when it faces him.......why does jane fall in love with mr rochester...........

[buecherwurm]

Had just written something about Jane Eyre. Somehow couldn't post it. Happened on another thread as well. Have to do my Italian homework now for tomorrow. So might try again later...........

[eleanor2]

o.k beuch waiting for your imput beuch and sarah c and treehugger.guess what book i found in the charity shop the bronte story.i cant wait to read that.will be later on tho.cus sepulchre is waiting for on my hols.then wilbur smiths quest.i tell you i have gone reading mad since i came on this forum.doing book reviews makes you look deeper into the stories.

[buecherwurm]

2nd try: The first part of the book is rather depressing. I can really understand Jane's feelings towards her so-called benefactress and her family. But I think no child that age could word it just as Jane did in her last conversation with Mrs. Reed. The other awful character is Mr. Brocklehurst. He is so mean and cruel. He shows his character (isn't he a "man of the church"?) when he hides away when the school is hit by the thypus epidemic. On the other hand it was the best thing because it meant no more snooping around by Mr. Brocklehurst and his family. After that life was quite acceptable at the school but still very confining and therefore Jane decides to find a different and better paid post somewhere else. Thus she comes to Thornfield.
I don't really like that the book is written in the first person form. The conversations between Jane and Helen are very nice and interesting but not really how children at that age (10 and 13/14)would speak. The same happens now with Adèle. Even if she was very wise for her age (8)she wouldn't talk like that. Well at least today's children wouldn't.
But reading about Mrs Reed locking Jane into that dark room brought back some memories. A long time ago we had visitors, a mother and her 4 year old son. He was a bit fussy and she scolded him the whole time. Finally she told him if he wouldn't be quiet he would be locked up in a dark room in a cellar. I was really shocked and quickly told everyone that in our house nobody would be locked up anywhere and besides there were windows in all the rooms in our basement. She was quite annoyed with me as I was undermining her authority.............

[buecherwurm]

Read something brilliant yesterday. On page 111 of my Penguin Classics Jane Eyre she talks about feeling restless and she says:
"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 just as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more priviliged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."
Isn't this absolutely brilliant? All right by today's thinking but this was written long before Emily Pankhurst ever founded her Women's Franchise League (1889)

[eleanor2]

very well picked out beuch charlotte certainly portrays jane as a non conformed nature.how she goes wandering the moors and rochester asks her if she is not firghtened out there alone.no she loves it.even tho it is dusk.the difference in jane austins novels.if one of the ladies is out in the rain they end up nearly dying of fever.i was wondering if this is was charlotte is showing in how jane speaks to mrs reed before she leaves.maybe a child of 10 would not have dared to say such things.but i bet some children of 10 have thought them.

[Sarahc]

I'm afraid I'm just not catching up here, we are trying to pack up the house and I'm finding very little time to read. Is nice to read your comments as its bringing back the whole story quite vividly. Love the extract Beucherwurm, its so true. i think it could apply to lots of people today, not just women but anyone who gets stuck in a rut including male workaholics who forget whether they are working to live or living to work which my Oh needs suble reminding on occassionally!

[eleanor2]

sarah you def have your hands full dont worry.maybe join us next time. i have been thinking.if we didn't know the storyline.what would we be thinking was going on on the third floor.who would we be thinking grace poole was.why was mr rochester so lenient on her for causing all the supposed distress.i think i would think she was his sister from out of wed lock.his fathers dying wish that he looked after her cus she had had a hard time in life.

[buecherwurm]

I can't really say what I thought when I read about Grace Poole for the first time. I have a BBC video and there Grace Poole is quite an ugly and weird looking person. She looks a bit crazy.
I found another titbit. In her second conversation with Mr Rochester Jane says:
"I don't think, sir, you have the right to command me, merly because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience."
Even nowadays people think just because they are older, better educated and, I might add, richer, than others they are entitled to push others around. I think I'll learn Jane's answer by heart and throw in people's face should they try to push me around for those reasons.

[eleanor2]

love it beuch. well jane has gone back to show care for mrs reed on her death bed.this shows it all.janes out burst before she left as a child was not vehemnece or bad behaviour.it was rebellion at unfairness and rejection.all that she wanted was for her only family to show her some affection. i ask would i have gone bck to show care for some-one who treated me so badly.as for mr rochester.he has tried janes affections.he wanted to make her jealous of blanche to draw her to show her love and affection for him. the fact that he has fallen in love with her .is all credit to her .her learning and wit.her humblenss yet confidence.her honour and need to do what is right.he admires all these traits.there love has grown from respect and the interest they have shown to each other. each one having a special interaction with the other that is out of the bounds of there interaction with others.it is like they have made a little nook in there lives only for each other.mr rochester could have chose to do what was socially right and end up in a loveless marraige.or he could be completely non conformist and marry a governess who would love and respect him and be a challenge to him as he would always be a challenge to her.

[buecherwurm]

Well, eleanor have you finished Jane Eyre, yet? I, unfortunately, still have more than 200 pages to read. But was too busy lately. Tomorrow I go on holiday for 2 weeks. Will take the book along and hope to find some free time.

[eleanor2]

buech i didnt take jane eyre on hols.tool kate moss new book sepulchre as it is based in france.even managed to buy some old postcards of paris.one of them the famous stairs upto the opera house.which is described in the book.so now i am home it will be jane eyre again.hope you enjoy your hols.look forward to your write up when you get back.

[eleanor2]

well i am amazed in chapter 24 charlote portrays jane as a woman playing games with her man.instead of being a loving and swooning woman at his love accepting his gifts and favours.jane plays hard to get.she keeps a challenging front up.she loves him more than life but has worked out he needs to be kept challenged and wanting if she is to keep him in tow.she writes the system thus entered on i pursued and with sucess.he was kept cross and crusty,but i could see see he was excellantly entertained.that a lamb like submission and turtle dove sensibility whilst fostering his despotism more(must look in dictionary)would have pleased his judgement,satisfied his comman sense and suited his taste less.being as charlotte was never married.i think she was a great people watcher...

[eleanor2]

wow this book is a real love story.i am finding some of the chapters extremely romantic with real deep madly in love sentiments.i dont know if i am allowed to say this.but how jane is describing her ordeal of coping with finding out mr rochester is married.she shares so deeply the mans and womens heartbreak and torment of being in love with a married person who you honour will not allow you to carry on with.touching stuff.i am wondering if she had an experience of being in love with a married man.

[Cheryl]

ladies...what is the next choice after Jane Eyre???

c.

[sandybay]

That's a good idea Cheryl, a book club.

Reading these cooments about Jane Eyre has mad me want to go back and re-read it.

[eleanor2]

i tell you since we have been doing these book reviews i have been reading deeper into the stories.the brontes were such deep thinkers and writers.i feel jane eyre says a lot about charlotte.i mean something like being madly in love with a married man.its one of those things i would imagine you have to go through yourself to understand.the mans point of view too.mr rochester marries his first wife for all the wrong reasons.he is young and fickle.he never loved her.so her developing insanity revolted him.but listen to what he says about jane........
"every atom of your flesh is dear to me as my own.in pain and sickness it would still be dear.your mind is my treasure and if it were broken it would still be my treasure.if it raved my arms would confine you not a straight jacket.i could watch over you with untiring tenderness.though you gave no smile in return,i would never weary of gazing into your eyes.tho they no longer had a ray of recognition for me.... it brings tears to your eyes

[eleanor2]

dont know what the next book will be.i have picked the last few so will happily let beuch or one of you pick.

[eleanor2]

jane in desperation and to resist temptation.gets up very early the day after the should have been wedding.she know she absolutley loves and idolises mr rochester but he has a wife.all her upbringing and conscience tells her she could not live with mr rochester has his mistress.she would love to be with him but knows she couldnt cope with the guilt and dishonour of living with a married man.she runs away with barley any money or belongings.she ends up stranded in the middle of no-where and pennyless.cold and hunger turn her into a beggar. even tho she is begging for food and shelter she still exhumes a sense of dignity and honour.here the story takes a complete turn as she is taken in by a family who take pity on her.

[sandybay]

Will it be another classic book or a modern literary novel ?

[eleanor2]

dont know sandy.beuch will be back off hols soon.i am reading three books at the moment.one classic.one brand new out by kate moss and one about the moslem faith.what a mix that is eh.i am realising tho how much deeper jane eyre is than i thought.i read it years a go but am getting much more out of it this time round.these classics hold more than we think.i love them cus you ar'nt just reading a story but sharing lifes of years gone by with some-one who was actually there.

[Cheryl]

my vote is for something classic...I know that sometimes I need a push to read or re-read them...Dickens, Austen, Hardy, Eliot, Christie...the possiblites are endless...

c.

[eleanor2]

i must admit i love reviewing the classics.they are so deep and in an age gone by.

[eleanor2]

you can tell charlotte bronte was religious.she brings religious characters in her story continually.showing many sides to them.jane is destitute and taken in by a clergyman and his sisters.this clergyman even tho serious and lacking in soft emotions.is a very good man.his sisters are the loving family jane had always wished she had.it is not long before janes caring, honourable but confident personality shines.she is taken into home and heart by this family.eventually the clergyman who she calls st john a philanthropist sets up a school for the poor and jane runs it.she is so clever and so ardent at whatever task she takes up.st john starts to see that she is a strong corageous woman who would make a good missionary wife.st john is in love with a wealthy hieress who is in love with him.but he has a very deep calling to be a missionary in india.he knows wealthy rosamund would be a beautiful wife.but his life would be one of ease and comfort and his spiritual calling would be shelved.he turns from rosamunds advances and sets his face to train jane to become a missionary wife.although jane loves and respects st john as a brother she knows there is no love between them.once you have tasted love like she had for mr rochester no partnert is better than the wrong one.jane becomes an hieress herself.her long lost uncle doesnt just leave her a fortune but points the way to jane st john and his sisters are all cousins.she shares her inheritance with them.her greatest desire has come true she now has a loving family to share her life with.but is this loving family enough to live with unremitting love.

[eleanor2]

it comes to a climax here at the end of chapter35.jane is almost convinced to accept st johns persistant appeals to be his wife and go to india with him as a missionary.jane cries out to God to help her to know the right thing.all of a sudden everything around her is suspended in unreality.she hears a heart felt cry on the wind.......jane jane jane.she didnt know where it came from.it was the voice of a human being a known,loved, well rememberedvoice. that of edward fairfax rochester;and it spoke in pain and woe,wildly,eerily, urgently. i am coming i cried wait for me.oh i will come... the next few chapters are heart rending.a greater rendition of love i have not read.except of course the love of JESUS.

[buecherwurm]

I finished Jane Eyre during my holidays. Will write about it at the weekend. Have to re-read some passages I found very interesting.
I think it would be nice to read another classic like Cheryl suggested. I like modern books as well but I can read them in a day or two. Bought "This Year it will be different" by Maeve Binchy at the airport on Wednesday and finished it today. So no real challenge.

[eleanor2]

same here beuch i like modern books very much.but the classics really challenge.

[Cheryl]

I LOVE modern fiction....but I also have a tendency to read so much, and then scream to no one in particular...."OH PULEEZE..." and then toss the book into a corner...

Does everything seem so predicatable in modern lit or is it just me????

[eleanor2]

i mainly reAD HISTORICAL MODERN FICTION.SO I GET A BUZZ FROM SHARING WITH IDEAS FROM THE PAST.I LOVE HISTORY.I LOVE STORIES SET IN YEARS GONE BY.

[eleanor2]

well we are coming to the end of the story.what love.jane hears about a gorrific fire at thornfield hall.mr rochester is severely burnt whilst trying to save his lunatic wife.who set the house on fire then climbed onto the roof.mr rochester gets severely burnt.he loses the use of one arm and his blinded in both eyes.you can feel the power of janes love as she hurries off to find mr rochester at a rundown house in the desolate countryside.he is a lonely depressed broken shell of a man.when he hears janes voice he thinks he is deluded and falling deeper into madness.it takes her ages to pursuade him that she is real and here to stay.they slowly unravel their stories to each other.life became one long embrace from then onwards.they have a simple marraige.hardly ever leaving each others side from that day on.the story ends up full of love and happiness.mr rochester slowly regains a little use in his eyes.they are continual in love and companionship.to put the icing on the cake they also have a beautiful child of there own.they al life happily ever after.

[sandybay]

What great precis you give Eleanor, they really capture the flow and action of the story.

I sometimes find the lack of capitals, commas and apostrophes in the posts makes me want to skip reading them. Hope you don't mind me saying that.
I know sometimes online typing quickly means errors. My posts are littered with them.

It's not a snobbish thing as I make a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes myself.
Have you read 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves' by Lynne Truss ?

[sandybay]

Sorry Eleanor, my previous post looks a bit curt. It wasn't intended to be.

I also apologise if there is any physical reason for the 'free flow' style you use. Maybe your capital lock doesn't work properly. Sometimes keyboards play up.

It's just that for me, as a reader, the use of language and the way it appears on the page is part of the joy of reading.

[eleanor2]

no a good point sandy.i am just lazy on the key board.should really be better with punctuation.my mum was so strict about it to.as for caps well its just a pain.i think thats why i never got my English o'level.I just never took it serious even tho i loved the subject.

[sandybay]

We're all different aren't we ?
I always have to ask my husband about grammar as my brain was well elsewhere as a child !

[sandybay]

Have you ever read the poems of ee cummings Eleanor ?

He wrote some very interesting poems in the 1920's without punctuation or capitals.
Even now his name is written in the lower case.
James Joyce also used that form in some of his 'stream of conciousness'.

[eleanor2]

no i never read either.You are bringing it to my attention.So you never know ,i might improve when on the keyboard.when i write with pen and paper i actually use pretty good grammer.It really is keyboard laziness.

[sandybay]

The new laptop I've got makes capitals a lot easier. The caps lock button lights up so you can see it. At last something that is actually useful instead of all the flash tech things.

How about Wuthering Heights for the next one, or has that been done ?

[eleanor2]

we did that on country living last year sandy......it was absolutely brilliant, but still very fresh in my mind. Would rather another but i will go with the consencus.beuch hasnt come back to us yet with her final write up.hope she is o.k.

[sandybay]

Glad you enjoyed Wuthering, it's a great book. None of the film or tv adaptations have, to my mind, captured the atmosphere.

Anything will be fine for me.

[Rosa]

I remember seeing one TV adaptation of Wuthering Heights (the late 70s or early 80s, my memory fails me), in which Heathcliff was an uncouth brute! Much closer to the persona as described in the book. I have to say that Kate Bush captured the spirit of the story with her rendition of Wuthering Heights. I've heard that she suffered some sort of breakdown some years ago and began to imagine she was Cathy. She even started to sign documents in the name of Catherine Earnshaw.

This is digressing from Jane Eyre! I haven't read the book since my schooldays, but I remember remnants of the heavy hearted opening lines: "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." and "...cold winter wind, clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating..." Oooh Gothic!

[eleanor2]

I have been contrasting jane eyre with wuthering heights.there was so much sadness and disaster in both.jane ends up with love in this life . kathy and heathcliffe only have a sorrowful wandering the earth love in the after life.kathey and heathcliff who sould have married and didnt because of kathys selfish desires. Jane thinks only of others and eventually ends up with her true love.even tho it means sacrificing because she will have to look after mr rochester for the rest of her life. I am sure others can think of parralels.(sandy i am trying to improve my punctuation)

[buecherwurm]

Sorryyyy!
Was too busy to post and when I was visiting RM there was so much to read........
Well, I think Jane realized pretty early that she liked Mr. Rochester a lot. At the beginning it might just have been gratitude because thanks to him she had a nice life now. At one point she says:"gratitude and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I liked best to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire".
A little later she gets the impression that Mr Rochester likes her as well and starts dreaming. After learning that Mr. Rochester has left to be with Miss Ingram and her friends, Jane examines her feelings and chances and concludes: "That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies and swallowed poison as if it were nectar". Since she thinks herself ugly she decides to draw a portrait of herself in crayons and another one of an imaginary beautiful face (ivory miniature!) so that in future whenever she'd fancy Mr Rochester liking her she could take them out and compare the images. Thinking of course that a gentleman would always prefer the beautiful noble born lady. Even though she tells herself "that he is not of her order and that she should keep to her own cast" she can't help but miss him and "feel a strange chill and failing of the heart".
Mr. Rochester returns and with him arrive several guests including Miss Ingram.........
to be continued....

[eleanor2]

glad you back beuch.good point is a man always naturally looking for a good looking woman or a good woman.

[buecherwurm]

Well, here it goes: Jane is certain that Mr Rochester will probably marry Miss Ingram "for family, perhaps political reasons; because her rank and connexions suited him". Since this was the thing to do at that time it didn't seem strange to her but she also decides to leave Thornfield should this event take place (she gives a very good description of Miss Ingam's character at one point; not very favourable, I might add).
I skip over the incident with the gipsy and Mr Mason.
At this time Jane is confronted by her past. She gets the news that her mean and selfish cousin John has died and that her aunt Mrs Reed wishes to see her. Being a kind person Jane thinks it her duty to fulfill that wish. Of course she is not greeted with open arms by her cousins Eliza and Georgina when she arrives at Gatehead. Jane is ready to forgive her aunt all injuries but is told at their first meeting why this woman hated Jane Eyre so much....
Jane has to wait ten days before she can see her aunt again (her being too ill). In the meantime she is kind of confidante to Eliza and Georgina who dislike each other tremendously (both are very selfish creatures).
At their last meeting Mrs Reed hands a letter to Jane which had been written 3 years previously by Jane's uncle (brother of her father) who had come into money and wished to adopt Jane. Out of hate for Jane the uncle was told that Jane had died of typhus fever at Lowood. The aunt finally dies (nobody was really sorry) and Jane helps her cousins to settle in their new lives. After a month she finally is able to quit Gateshead to return to Thornfield.
to be continued...........

[sandybay]

Would it be very lazy to let you both read the next book and just read your posts.
You do a great job !

Eleanor please don't feel pressured. I've looked back at some of my posts and they don't even make sense. Have never discovered where a spell checker is other than with Word. Also their grammar etc. seems American.

The Daily Telegraph yesterday had examples of kids English tests and I though 'Oh yes, Miss Clever here will find this no problem'
Collapse of stout party. Had to pick out the pronouns, adjectives etc.
Spelling was not as easy as I thought.
Certainly did not score 100%. Feel a bit more humble Eleanor.

[buecherwurm]

Hi sandybay,
Thanks for the compliment. Will write the last installment tomorrow and then we can start with a new book. Maybe you too?

[eleanor2]

yes it is good to get other peoples mind set on a book.i bet we all get something different from it.

[buecherwurm]

On her return to Thornfield Jane kind of makes a declaration of love to Mr Rochester:"......I am strangely glad to get back again to you; and wherever you are is my home - my only home". Since she still believes that he is going to marry Miss Ingram she sometimes feels quite down and says:"......if I lacked spirits and sank into inevitable dejection, he became even gay. Never had he called me more frequently to his presence; never been kinder to me when there - and, alas! never had I loved him so well".
Mr Rochester starts teasing her about his upcoming marriage and she tells him that she will have to leave him in that event saying:"Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automan? - a machine without feelings?.......Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless?...........just as if both had passed through the grave, abnd we stood at God's feet equal - as we are!" (brilliant!)
After this speech Mr Rochester tells her that she is the only one he intends to marry which she doubts at first but in the end she agrees to marry him! When she tells him that she thinks he will stop loving her after about 6 months as she has read in a book he says:"......I shall like you again, and yet again: and I will make you confess I do not only like, but love you - with truth, fervour, constancy........I never met your likeness Jane, you plese me, you master me......" (lovely speech, maybe you should read it yourselves; in my book on page 259)
Marriage preparations are started and finally the day of the wedding arrives. When the priest says:"........if either of you know any impediment why ye may not lawfully be joined together....." a voice is heard:"The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of and impediment."
To make a long story short: Mr Mason declares that Mr Rochester is already married to his (Mr Mason's) sister. She is insane and lives on the 3rd floor at Thornfield Hall! Everybody is now taken to the attic to have a look at the "vicious animal" as a proof that Mr Rochester (as he claims) cannot be called married to something like that. But, a law is a law!
It appears that Mr Mason and Jane's uncle (whom she had written to tell him about her impending marriage) were aquainted and thus everything came to light. Jane, of course, is devastated as is Mr Rochester, who finally tells Jane his complete life story and begs her imploringly to go away with him and live with him as his wife in the south of France or such place where nobody knows them. Jane is torn between her love for him and religious and conventional reasons "I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: I must renounce love and idol. One drear word comprised my intolerable duty -Depart-!"
She refuses to be with him. A vital point being that she is afraid of loosing his respect after a while should she agree to live as his mistress, something that had happened to his other mistresses before; and this is something she could not bear. (And here Charlotte Bronte's own experiences could have come into the story. According to Wikipedia when in Brussels (1842-1844) she fell in love with Constantin Heger, a married man!)
At on stage Jane is tempted to comply to Mr Rochester's wishes and she fears that sooner or later he would be able to persuade her. So she runs away from Thornfield with very little money and only a small bundle of her belongings.
to be continued................
Sorry, for being so longwinded; don't know how to shorten it

[eleanor2]

you know i thought charlotte was writing from experience.i also think maybe the married man loved her.she is just so descriptive and passionate from both points of view.

[buecherwurm]

When Jane leaves Thornfield she is in a state of confusion and therefore forgets the bundle with her belongings on the coach which she was able to use for the first stage of her flight at a cost of 20 shillings, her last money. From now on she has to continue on foot and has to sleep on the heath. She asks for work; any work (which she doesn't get) and begs for some bread. She is near death as she comes to a lonely house on the moor where she watches 2 young women through a window (for me interesting to read, that they are studying German). Well, she collapses at their doorstep and is found by Mr St John, brother of the 2. She is taken into the house where she is fed. She calls herself Jane Elliot now. She is allowed to remain in the house and sleeps for 3 nights and days being cared for by Mary and Diana Rivers and their servant Hannah. Mary and Diana are described as being very beautiful. Mr St John, a parson, she describes as being young, tall, slender with a Greek like face. Soon Jane is integrated in the household but she never discloses where she came from, why she left there and what her real name is. She reads a lot, studies German with Diana, teaches them to draw etc. Mr St John isn't home very often because he has his pastoral duties. So it is a while before Jane gets to know him a bit better. "....there was another barrier to friendship with him: he seemed of a reserved, an abstracted, and even of a brooding nature. Zealous in his ministerial labours, blameless in his life and habits, he yet did not appear to enjoy that mental serenity, that inward content which should be the reward of every sincere Christian....."
After about a month Diana and Mary had to return to their posts as governesses (they were at home because their father had recently died). Hannah would go with St John to his parsonage and Moor House would be shut up. In the meantime St John had found a post for Jane. She is to run a village school for girls. Her salaray will be 30 pounds per year and there is a small furnished house for her to live in.
Before everybody departs, the Rivers family receives the news that their uncle had died; an uncle who had quarrelled with their father long ago and never reconciled. This uncle left a fortune of 20thousand pounds; but only very little would go to the Rivers. The bulk would go to his niece, his only other living relative.
Jane settles in her job, enjoys it , and is very good at it. She is frequently visited by St John whom she regards as a brother. On one of these visits she finds out that he is in love with the lovely Miss Oliver and she in love with him. One night Jane gets him to admit this love. But since his life's dream is to be a missionary in India he says after being lost in contemplation for a long time:" It is strange that while I love Rosamond Oliver so wildly....... she would not make me a good wife; that she is not a partner suited to me..... and that to 12 months rapture would succeed a liftime of regret." Since he is not willing to give up his plan to be a missionary he decides not to give in to his love to Miss Oliver (his sister Diana once said about her brother "he is as inexorable as death"). During that same visit he sees something of interest on a piece of paper.........
One evening in winter St John appears to tell Jane, that her uncle and the rich uncle of the Rivers family who had recently died, are one and the same. St John had found out Jane's real name from some scribbles on a piece of paper. So now Jane is a rich heiress. But she decides to split the money in 4 parts so each cousin gets the same amount. Diana and Mary quit their posts and live from now on with Jane at Moor House.

[buecherwurm]

One day St John asks Jane to give up learning German and start learning Hindustani instead. An "as St John was not a man to be lightly refused" she consents. He of course knows that none of his sisters would have agreed to do something like this. Jane says at one point: "As for me, I daily wished more to please him, but to do so, I felt daily more and more that I must disown half my nature, stifle half my faculties....."
I think it is necessary to say at this point that she still only regards him as her "brother". She still loves Mr Rochester. She wrote 2 letters to Mrs Fairfax to get some news about Mr Rochester but up to now there is no answer. So, when St John starts ruling her life her spirits are very low.
Finally the date for St John's departure for India is fixed. He asks Jane to accompany him - "to join in the same enterprise". She of course refuses because "she doesn't have his powers or strength". But he "continues in a deep, relentless voice..." to persuade her until she cries:"....have you no mercy..?" But he: "God and nature intended you for a missionary's wife.....you are not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign's service".
Well, what a horrible thing to say, don't you think so?
She of course still refuses to marry him (she would go with him as a feellow-missionary, though) "....But as his wife.....always restrained, and always checked - forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly.....this would be unendurable". (page 403)
Now, I think, St John proves to be a bad looser, and he is quite mean to Jane. She calls his behaviour "despotic" at one point.
After evening prayer which I think was chosen especially to wear her resistance down, she says that she could see herself marrying him if that is God's will. Luckily she now hears a voice (St John and Jane are in the garden) calling her: "Jane, Jane, where are you?" It is the voice of Edward Fairfax Rochester!! She decides to go to Thornfield to see or hear news of Mr Rochester. But, as we all know, Thornfield isn't there anymore. It was burnt down by his crazy wife who during the fire jumped to her death. Mr Rochester had tried to safe her and was badly injured. One hand was smashed, one eye was knocked out and the other eye inflamed; he lost the sight in that also. She finally finds him at the manor-house of Ferndean! They realize that they still love each other and they get married to live happily ever after.
It says on the back of the book: Jane Eyre is a love story with a happy ending, rare in it's time for it's sympathetic portrayal of the love of a married man for another woman.

By the way: Charlotte Bronte was married; she married Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854 after he had ben courting her for more than 2 years. Their marriage was supposedly very happy but tragically very short. She died a year later from an illness associatwed with pregnancy.

[eleanor2]

very good beuch.it was a lovely ending wasnt it.i have bought a book called the bronte story by margeret lane.should be some good reading.

[buecherwurm]

It is really a good book. So very well written (but I still don't like the I form very much). It is amazing how modern some of Charlotte Bronte's ideas are. My book is full of little pieces of paper. Whenever I found something interesting, worth going back to, I put a strip of paper in