Jane+Eyre+TO

= = =Jane Eyre =

​ by Charlotte Bronte

 Index: 1. Author Biography 2. Summary of Jane Eyre 3. Literary Information 4. Literary Analysis 5. Criticism 6. Giving Credit 7. Future Reads



Charlotte Bronte was born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire. She had five siblings, surprisingly two of them also became writers. Their names were Anne and Emily, and they both have highly acclaimed novels, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. At age five, Charlotte's mother died and her aunt, Elizabeth, came to take care of the six children. She sent the oldest four girls to boarding school, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily, where Maria and Elizabeth became ill and were sent home to d​ie. After that Charlotte and Emily were schooled at home with the youngest two children, Branwell and Anne. At this time the children made up a fantasy world called Glass Town. The four kids wrote books about this town which were microscopically printed. In 1831 Charlotte was sent to Miss Wooler's boarding school for young ladies at Roe Head for a year. She later returned in 1835 to teach there. Charlotte quit the boarding school in 1838 and was a governess for 4 years. After that she went with Emily to study languages in Brussels, Belgium at a place called Pensionnat Heger. After returning to Hayworth in 1844, the three Bronte sisters published //Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.// Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell were the three sisters publishing names. Charlotte's first book, //The Professor//, was rejected many times and did not end up getting published until 1857. Luckily for Charlotte, Jane Eyre was an immediate success and was published in 1847 under the name Currer Bell. In 1848 both Branwell and Emily died of tuberculosis and Anne died the following year also of tuberculosis. After this tragedy Charlotte lived with her father in Haworth Parsonage and published //Shirley// in 1949 and //Villette// in 1853. Charlotte didn't get married until 1954 when she married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate. Charlotte Bronte died on March 31, 1855. It is important to know that Jane Eyre was loosely based on the life of Charlotte Bronte. There are many similarities, for example the boarding school Jane went to with her sisters is the root of Lowood, the boarding school Jane is sent to in Jane Eyre. Like Charlotte, Jane also becomes a mistress and governess preceding her schooling at Lowood. To learn more about Charlotte Bronte please click here.
 * Author Biography:**

 Jane is introduced as a young girl in Jane Eyre. She is living with her aunt and three cousins at Gateshead because she was orphaned as a baby. At Gateshead she is treated worse than the help, she is beaten by her cousin John Reed and ignored by Eliza and Georgiana, John's sisters. But the worse person is her aunt, Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed hates Jane and keeps her locked away in the drawing room. One day Jane is locked in the Red Room where she spends the night in terror, believing that the ghost of her uncle is there, but Mrs. Reed refuses to let Jane out, thinking that she is trying to trick her. Soon after, Jane gets sent to a boarding school called Lowood, where she is underfed and overworked. She makes a friend named Helen only to have her die of an illness going around Lowood. After this epidemic the conditions of the school are much improved and Jane spends 8 years there. After finishing her scholarly years at Lowood, Jane becomes a teacher and teaches there for a while until her much liked colleague marries. Jane proceeds to put an ad in the news to get a job as a private governess. She is called to Thornfield by Mrs. Fairfax where she teaches a young French girl named Adele. Jane soon finds that Thornfield is not Mrs. Fairfax's, but there is a master named Mr. Rochester who comes and goes quite frequently. Jane was in the fields one day returning from the post office when a man falls off his horse not too far away. She helps him back up and he goes on his way. The next day, she finds that this man was Mr. Rochester and he was her master. In the following months he often called Jane and Adele to visit him and he questioned Jane on her history and talents. Jane becomes quite fond of Rochester and even thinks she may love him, but things are not all good at Thornfield. One terrifying night Jane wakes up and hears a disterbing laugh, she goes into the hall and sees that Mr. Rochester's bedroom is on fire. Jane succeeds in throwing water on the fire and extinguishing it. Mr. Rochester is saved and it is determined that someone set his room on fire purposefully. Jane observes that Mr. Rochester knows who it is but he dosen't clearly say. Jane feels hopeless on a day when Mr. Rochester brings home a handful of new friends, one of which is named Miss Ingram. After many a fortnight, it is clear that Mr. Rochester and Miss Ingram are to be married. This fact crushed Jane and she is quite miserable. Mr. Rochester promises to send Adele to school and find Jane a new job before marrying Miss Ingram, but this does not console Jane. On a dark evening, Mr. Rochester and Jane are talking outside and he is telling her of a place where she could work. She accepts, but then he proposes to her. Jane is mystified. Mr. Rochester says that Miss Ingram was not in love with him, so they would not be getting married. He tells Jane he is in love with her and she accepts his proposal. In proceeding weeks Jane and Mr. Rochester are happy and they are to be married at the end of four weeks. Mr. Rochester wants to drown Jane with riches, but she is very modest and won't accept most of his presents. At the end of the four weeks all is set for the wedding and everything is prepared. Jane and Mr. Rochester proceed to the chapel, but during the ceremony there is a problem. This problem sends Jane's life spinning and sends her on a different path than expected. If this sounds like an interesting story to you, I would suggest you buy it from the link on the picture or rent it from your local library.
 * Summary:**

 Jane Eyre is told from first person point of view. The main character, Jane, tells the story based on her life. One can tell that the story is from first person point of view because the narrator uses "I" and "Me" to describe characters and actions in the story. I found that Jane was a reliable narrator. She always knew what was happening because it was told by future Jane and she never lied or misled us, as she was only telling us her thoughts and actions as well as the actions of others. ​ There are three main genres of Jane Eyre. They are Coming-of-Age, gothic, and romance. Jane Eyre is a coming-of-age novel because Jane develops morals and ethics on the road from being the small girl in the beginning to the middle-aged woman at the end. It is a gothic novel because the story uses horror and supernatural ideas occasionally; an example in the text is followed. "'This, sir, was purple: the lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed: the black eyebrows widely raised over the bloodshot eyes. Shall I tell you of what it reminded me?'...'Of the foul German spectre - the vampire.'" (pg. 327) The last genre of Jane Eyre is romance. The steamy love between Jane and Mr. Rochester obviously represents the romance in the novel. "'Come to me - come to me entirely now,' said he; and added, in his deepest tone, speaking in my ear as his cheek was laid on mine, 'Make my happiness - I will make yours.'"
 * Literary Information:**

 ​ The style that Charlotte Bronte uses to write Jane Eyre is extremely formal, although it may have been slightly closer to normal when she wrote it in the 1840s. An example of Bronte's formal tone is at the beginning of Chapter 32. "I continued the labours of the village-school as actively and faithfully as I could. It was truly hard work at first. Some time elapsed before, with all my efforts, I could comprehend my scholars and their nature. Wholly untaught, with faculties quite torpid, they seemed to me hopelessly dull; and, at first sight, all dull alike: but I soon found I was mistaken." (pg. 422) The use of the words comprehend, elapsed and wholly adds to the formal diction in this quote. These are words not usually used in everyday life which shows that they are a formal diction. The syntax in this sentence also represents the formal style of Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte uses a periodic sentence, "Some time elapsed before, with all my efforts, I could comprehend my scholars and their nature." This is a higher level structure and is a sign of high levels of reading. The syntax and diction of Jane Eyre shows that it has a formal diction. I found the tone to be contemplative. I chose contemplative as the tone because the whole book is Jane telling us of her life story. Jane Eyre was called An Autobiography when it was first published, and so I thought that "reflection on an issue" would be a good description of the way Jane speaks of her past. The formal story- telling style of Jane Eyre fully adds to the tone, and in twined with the style is the diction and syntax.
 * Literary Analysis:**

**Criticism:** The only criticism I have for Jane Eyre is that it was a little bit coincidental. The fact that Jane stays at the Rivers' house after they help her get better and they just happen to turn out to be her cousins just seems too set up for my taste. I understand that Jane Eyre is a fictional story, but this seems extremely unrealistic to me. One of my favorite things that Charlotte Bronte did in her writing was put characters reactions into dialogue of other characters. For example, in chapter 33 St John is telling Jane about a missing girl named Jane Eyre. He says " Charity carried the friendless thing to the house of its rich, maternal relations; it was reared by an aunt-in-law, called (I come to names now) Mrs Reed of Gateshead. You start - did you hear a noise? I daresay it is only a rat scrambling along the rafters of the adjoining schoolroom..." (pg. 438) In St John's dialogue all he had to say was "You start." Bronte did not need to write in "Jane was surprised because St John knew about her past." all she had to do was have St John say "You start." This is the first time I have observed this in writing before, but hopefully I will continue to see this wonderful writing in future works.

I would like to thank all of the websites and books that I got my information from by listing them on my site. My most used source by far was the book Jane Eyre. I read the third edition, edited with an Introduction and Notes by Stevie Davies.
 * Giving Credit: **

I frequently visited SparkNotes when making this webpage to ensure I had correct information.

**Future Reads:** If you read Jane Eyre and liked it you may be interested in reading the following books:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Click Here to read more about this book

 Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte Click Here to read more about this book

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Click Here to read more about this book

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