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Charlotte Brontë · 1847
Jane Eyre
The story of Charlotte Brontë’s novel in a few minutes: what happens, who is who, what it means, and its most famous lines.
- Author
- Charlotte Brontë
- Published
- 1847
- Setting
- Northern England
- Genre
- Gothic romance, coming of age
Summary
Jane Eyre is an orphan, raised unkindly by her aunt Mrs Reed and sent to Lowood, a harsh charity school, where her friend Helen Burns dies. Jane grows into a principled young woman, becomes a teacher there, and then takes a post as governess at Thornfield Hall, teaching the ward of its master, the moody Mr Rochester.
Jane and Rochester fall in love, but on their wedding day it is revealed that he is already married: his wife Bertha, who is mad, is kept locked in the attic. Jane refuses to become his mistress and flees. Penniless, she is taken in by St John Rivers and his sisters, who turn out to be her cousins, and she inherits a fortune. St John asks her to marry him and go to India as a missionary’s wife, without love. Hearing Rochester’s voice call to her, she returns to find Thornfield burned, Bertha dead and Rochester blinded. Now free and equal, they marry.
Main characters
| Jane Eyre | the plain, proud, honest heroine who tells the story |
| Edward Rochester | master of Thornfield, with a secret |
| Bertha Mason | Rochester’s wife, hidden in the attic |
| St John Rivers | a cold, devoted clergyman, Jane’s cousin |
| Helen Burns | Jane’s patient friend at Lowood |
Themes
- Independence and self-respect
- Love and moral duty
- Social class and the position of women
- Religion, true and false
Read it free
Jane Eyre is out of copyright. The whole novel can be read or downloaded free from Project Gutenberg.
Quotes
Famous quotes from Jane Eyre
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
Reader, I married him.
Questions
About the novel
What is Jane Eyre about?
An orphan governess who falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester, and keeps her self-respect through every trial.
Who is the woman in the attic?
Bertha Mason, Rochester’s first wife.
How does Jane Eyre end?
Jane returns to the blinded Rochester and marries him: “Reader, I married him.”