Jane Eyre. A Synopsis.
A short summary of the original novel by Charlotte Brontë, 1847.
This is a short synopsis of the original novel. It’s not a literary critique or review in any way, it simply summarizes the main story.
Jane Eyre is orphaned as a baby. Taken in by a wealthy uncle who adores her she is despised by his wife who, after the death of her husband, eventually sends Jane off to a draconian English boarding school called Lowood. Jane is thoroughly miserable. She has one friend, who dies.
After eight years at the school, Jane comes of age. Now twenty-one and having worked as a teacher at the school for a short time, Jane advertises for a position as governess in a private house and is offered employment at Thornfield Hall in Yorkshire, teaching the French ward of a certain Mr Edward Fairfax Rochester.
Jane is plain and poor, but possessed of honesty, a keen intellect and a strength of character rarely found in the society ladies of the age. For the first time in her life, at Thornfield Hall, Jane feels among equals, and more than that, she feels valued, respected and strangely at home.
Mr Rochester is a brooding hero. With the hint of a dark past he is pursued by society women whom he finds shallow and insipid and in whom he has no interest. Somewhat inevitably, he and Jane fall in love, although this journey is not without its twists and turns. To be sure of her feelings for him, and to try to force a declaration from her, he tortures Jane emotionally by pretending that he is going to marry the beautiful Blanche Ingram.
Thornfield Hall is not without its mysteries either. Jane hears unexplained laughter from the third floor and the presence of a rather strange servant called Grace Poole unnerves her. One night she finds Mr Rochester asleep in his bed with its curtains aflame. She saves his life. On another occasion, a mysterious visitor, Richard Mason, is attacked, but we don’t know by whom. Jane tends to him but is sworn to secrecy.
After an emotional outburst in the orchard, Jane agrees to marry Mr Rochester. Shortly before the wedding, a grotesque personage enters her bedroom while she is sleeping, tearing her wedding veil in two pieces and trampling it on the floor.
At the church, Mr Rochester is thwarted. At the point when the parson asks if anyone knows of any impediment to the proposed marriage, every bride and groom’s worst nightmare comes true and someone steps forward to identify the existence of Mr Rochester’s first wife. According to Charlotte Brontë, it transpires that Mr Rochester’s first wife is mad and has been locked up by him on the third floor of Thornfield Hall for the past ten years. Jane is shocked and distraught that her dreams for such a complete and happy union should be thus ruined, and she flees the house.
Mr Rochester is devastated. He is mad with grief. He searches throughout England for Jane, but fails to find her.
Jane escapes on foot with what little money she has and takes a stagecoach to she knows not where. When her money runs out, the stagecoach leaves her on the desolate moors where she lays down to die. She is found by the local Minister, St. John Rivers who picks her up in his arms and carries her across the moor to his own home where his two sisters care for her. Once Jane recovers she becomes the local school teacher for a year. St. John asks Jane to marry him and go abroad to be a missionary. She does not love him, nor he her. Not able to forget Mr Rochester, Jane refuses to live without passion and turns St. John down.
Another uncle dies and leaves Jane a wealthy woman. She shares the money equally with St. John and his two sisters, who neatly turn out to be her long-lost cousins. No longer poor, she resolves to return to Thornfield and discover what has happened to Mr Rochester, and to stay with him as his companion, even if he is still technically married.
Upon her arrival at Thornfield Hall, Jane finds it an empty, burned out shell. The first Mrs Rochester had set fire to the place some time before. She died after jumping from the roof. Mr Rochester tried to save her but failed. A beam fell on him. His once ruggedly handsome face now scarred, he is not only blind, but crippled by the remains of a useless hand.
Now that her hero is a free man, Jane offers up one of the most famous lines in English literary history: “Reader, I married him”. Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, finally equals in spirit, passion and almost in wealth, live happily ever after and go on to have at least two children. Jane’s hero regains some sight in one eye and all is as it should be, with love finally triumphant.
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An alternative perspective on the Jane Eyre story called Jane Eyre’s Rival: The Real Mrs Rochester, is available print-on-demand from Amazon.
