Jane Eyre di Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre di Charlotte Bronte

The story: Summary

OPENING SITUATION:

The story begins with the narration of the protagonist's childhood. In fact, Jane first appears as an orphaned child, lodged at Gateshead Hall with an aunt who resented her and shamelessly favoured her own child. After a quarrel with her cousin John, she was punished and sent away to a charity school, the Lowood Institute, run by Mr.Brocklehurst. There life wasn't easy and through the harsh regime Jane learned survival and eventually succeeded in becoming a teacher herself.

Many years went by and when Jane became 18 she wanted to go away from that place, so she advertised for a post as governess and got the reply from Mrs.Fairfax, housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. There she was appointed to care for Adele, the ward of Mr.Rochester, the owner of the house. She met him only after many days, as she helped a man fallen from his horse, that later she discovered him to be her master.

MAIN EVENTS:

After that episode, they met many times, had interesting conversation and in spite of his sarcastic and authoritarian manners, Jane began to like him very much. Life went on quietly, but one night she heard a strange noise and laughter, and found out that Mr.Rochester's bed was on fire. She took him out of his bedroom and he expressed his gratitude to her in an emotional way, so Jane found herself in love with her master, who wanted to keep secret that event. 

Two weeks later Mr.Rochester decided to have a house party and invited a lot of guests. One of them was Miss Blanche Ingram, a beautiful woman who tried to secure and marry him, giving great pain to Jane. One day a stranger arrived: his name was Mr.Mason and came from Jamaica. He said that he was a friend of Mr.Rochester, but when they met he seemed to be very upset by his arrival. Suddenly during the night, her master asked her to help him and went to the third floor, where there was Mr.Mason badly wounded and bleeding. She thought that that was the work of Grace Poole, a servant who had a strange attitude, and Mr.Rochester let her believe that.

In the morning Jane was visited by a servant from her aunt who wanted to see her on dying bed. Jane got permission to leave for a few days from her master, but he didn't want to tell her nothing more about the episode of the previous night. At Gateshead Hall her aunt gave her a letter written by her uncle John Eyre, in which he wanted to adopt Jane and make her his only heir. After some days the woman died and Jane returned to Thornfield Hall.

When she arrived, the guests were already gone. Mr.Rochester proposed marriage, but she discovered at the altar that he already had a wife, Bertha, sister of Mr.Mason. She behaved like a wild beast, because she was lunatic and therefore she was kept in the attic at Thornfield. Jane refused to become Rochester's mistress, and fled from him.

Destitute, she is taken in by the Rivers family, composed by the reverend St.John Rivers and his two sisters, Mary and Diana. At Morton Jane became a village teacher and, coincidentally, they turned out to be her cousins and she revealed that she was heiress to sufficient funds to give her financial security for life. But one day St.John Rivers, who was ning to go to India as a missionary, asked her to marry him and follow him in his calling. Jane was on the point of acceptance, when she heard a supernatural cry from Mr.Rochester.

FINAL SITUATION:

The story ends when she returned to Thornfield to find that the house was been burned down by Bertha, who fell from the roof and died instantly. Mr.Rochester himself was been maimed and blinded in an unsuccessful attempt to save his wife. Jane found him in an old manor and after some days they got married.