Jane Eyre V

Jane misses Rochester but she has now got a modest fortune and a home. However St John keeps trying to persuade her to marry him, and go to India as a missionary's wife. He does not love her, he is in love with a young woman who is well born but not suitable for the missions and he is so high minded that he gives up all hope of his love to take up a missionary post. Jane refuses. She wont marry a man she does not love. She wonders if she could go as his companion and sister, rather than his wife, but that does not seem possible. Then she hears Rochester's voice calling to her. She believes that he is trying to contact her. She decides to go back to Thornfield and talk to him. When she gets there, she finds that the house has been burned down and Rochester was burned and seriously injured in the fire. He had retired his housekeeper and sent Adele away to school, and then his wife burned the house. He tried to rescue her and was injured and blinded. Jane finds that Rochester is living in a smaller house he owns, and that he's a recluse. She goes to see him and tells him that she has come back. They talk and he's intrigued to find that she has now inherited a fortune and is a woman of substance while he has lost his house and is a semi invalid. He is at first reluctant to marry her when he is helpless but they agree to get married. Jane suggests that Adele be transferred to a less strict school. Rochester's mistress had abandoned the child as a baby,and he took care of her but he never believed she was his own daughter. The couple get married and settle in the smaller house, and Rochester's eyes improve so that he can see a bit. He and Jane have a son, and are a happy couple.

Jane Eyre IV

Jane has very little money but she takes her things and rides the stage coach as far as she can, but then has her belongings stolen. In desperation she sleeps on the moor. She is taken in by a family who live near where she collapsed... and they are kind to her. The family are not very rich but they are gentlefolk and they are willing to look after her. There are 2 sisters, Mary and Diana Rivers and their brother St John, who is a clergyman who wants to become a missionary. He is a rather cold serious man, who is not friendly or warm hearted. His sisters grow fond of Jane and she likes them. St John finds her a job at the village school which means she has a home and a small income. After a little while, Jane tells the Riverses her real name, and they discover that they are cousins. Her uncle Mr Eyre is also their uncle. Then Mr Eyre dies and leaves Jane his fortune, which leaves her quite well off. She feels concerned that her cousins didn't inherit anything from the uncle and she divides up her bequest among the family.

Jane Eyre III

Jane's cousin, Mrs Reed is very ill and asks her to visit and Jane does so. Mrs Reed is dying and tells her that she did her a wrong. Some years ago, Jane's uncle Mr Eyre wrote to her to ask her to come and live with him, and Mrs Reed, hating Jane, wrote back to him to tell him that Jane had died at school. Jane forgives her cousin and when she dies she attends the funeral. Rochester then tells Jane that he was just joking about marrying Blanche, and that he has no intention of doing so. He asks her to marry him. She agrees and they make plans for a very quiet wedding. Mrs Fairfax seems uneasy about the marriage. Jane writes to her long lost uncle to tell him she's being married. A short time before the wedding, someone breaks into her bedroom and tears her veil in half. She is unnerved, but Rochester tells her it is one of the servants, Grace Poole, who drinks. On the day of the wedding, the couple are in the church when someone stands up to say that there is an impediment to the marriage. It is Mr Mason, the man who was attacked at Thornfield... It turns out that he was visiting Thornfield as his sister is married to Rochester and she is confined to the attic of the house because she has become mad. When he went to see her, she had one of her maniacal fits and attacked him violently. Rochester tells Jane that he is married to Bertha Mason, during a trip to the West Indies, and then found that she was immoral and becoming insane. He had to keep her confined and she was looked after by Grace Poole, but Grace sometimes gets drunk and Bertha can escape to cause chaos in the house. Mr Mason is a friend of Jane's uncle Eyre and he learned from Eyre that Jane was marrying Rochester. He hurried to stop the wedding. Rochester tries to persuade Jane to go abroad with him where she can live as his wife, though they cannot marry. She refuses, as she is a strict Christian. She decides she must leave immediately to avoid temptation.

Jane Eyre II

Jane finds the house party stressful, and its not a good part of the book. Charlotte knew little of high society and her upper class characters are pretty exaggerated and badly drawn. They are all snobbish and rude and they make a fuss of Adele but make it clear that they dont like governesses and rate them as no higher than servants. Rochester pays a lot of attention to a young lady, Blanche Ingram, and seems to indicate that he is thinking of marrying her. However he talks to Jane in a friendly way at times and she begins to fall in love with him. She finds Blanche very haughty and unlikable. There are other things going on in the house which unnerve her. She hears strange noises at night, and another night, Rochester calls her, very late, to help him with a man who has been apparently injured by some kind of attack. Jane asks no questions but looks after the man till a doctor can be called. Rochester is pleased with her. The man leaves Thornfield and no more is heard of him. Rochester goes on hinting that he's going to marry Blanche and Jane gets angry. She tells him that if he marries Blanche she will leave and seek another post.

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is Charlotte's most famous novel, which was a runaway success for her. It is the story of an orphaned child, who has been looked after by a relative, Mrs Reed. Jane does not like Mrs Reed who is not kind to her and her cousins, John, Eliza and Georgiana, are even more unpleasant. John bullies her and is rough with her, but Jane fights back. She is not a meek or gentle child. Mrs Reed decides to send her away to school, and she is sent to a school called Lowood. It is a harsh place. She makes friends with a quiet shy saintly child, Helen Burns. Illness runs through the school because the girls are so badly fed and treated, and Helen dies. Jane continues to stand up for herself and things do improve. A nicer teacher becomes headmistress and Jane stays there for several year, rising to becoming a teacher herself. When she is 18 or so, she decides to leave and seek a post as governess. She gets a job at a Yorkshire house, called Thornfield, and her charge is a small French child called Adele. The housekeeper Mrs Fairfax is kindly, though strict, and Jane finds Adele silly and vain (she attributes this to her being half French) but not a difficult pupil. She does not meet her employer at first, as he travels a lot. Then one day she is out walking and meets a rather ugly man who has had a fall from his horse. She helps him and he is gruff but not ungrateful. She finds that he is her employer, Mr Rochester. He has come back to his estate and tells Mrs Fairfax that he will be holding a house party there soon. The housekeeper finds the place lonely, so she is not displeased. Jane is intrigued by the man, who seems rude and rough in his manner but he asks her to bring Adele in to meet his guests.

Tenant of Wildfell Hall Part III

Gilbert is unhappy and worried that there is gossip about Helen... but then she gets news that her husband is very ill. In spite of her anger towards him, she feels it is her duty to go and see him. He has been drinking very heavily and his health is almost destroyed. He was injured in a fall from a horse, and now, he is dying of gangrene. He is frightened of death but Helen wants him to repent. She tries to be kind to him, but he is very ill and afraid. He dies, and she inherits Grassdale Manor on behalf of her son. The estate is in poor shape because Arthur was extravagant and a bad landlord, but Helen's uncle dies soon afterwards and leaves her a fortune. Gilbert visits, and hears that there is a wedding in the local church. He is upset that Helen is now pretty well off and he is only a gentleman farmer. He goes to the church, expecting to find Helen is getting married, but finds instead that her brother is marrying Esther Hargreave, the sister of Millicent who has been a long term friend of Helens. He speaks to Helen and finds that she still loves him, and they plan to marry. Some of Huntingdon's friends reform, shocked by his horrible death. Millicent's husband gives up drinking and Lord Lowborough gets a divorce from his wife and she is left badly off. He gives up drinking and opium and reforms, and he marries a plain middle aged woman who makes him happy. Helen and Gilbert are also a happy couple and young Arthur grows up under their care.

Tenant of Wildfell Hall Part II

Gilbert reads the diaries, and finds that Helen was married to Arthur Huntingdon, a handsome young man who owns Grassdale Manor. She was young and romantic and in love.. and they were happy at first. But she began to find him selfish and controlling. He was jealous of their son when he was born and Helen grew to dislike his friends, who were nearly all heavy drinkers and gamblers and she found Arthur's drinking very hard to take. She at first thought she could reform him but things got worse. She realised that Arthur was having an affair with his friend's wife Lady Lowborough, and was upset. Another of his friends tried to seduce her but she snubbed him. She grew increasingly unhappy as Arthur began to teach little Arthur to drink and swear and she found that he was having an affair with a young woman who had been engaged as the child's governess. Helen decides to leave him, which she knows will be difficult and scandalous but she is determined. She has a brother whom she did not live with as a child but who is willing to help her, and he is Frederick Laurence, so that's why he visits her occasionally. Lawrence offers her a home at Wildfell Hall, though the house is neglected and she has only one regular servant, her maid Rachel. Gilbert realises why Helen is so cool with him. She has been hurt, and she is not a free woman so she cannot receive his courtship. He tries to persuade her that she owes nothing to her husband.