Chapters 11-26: Jane's time as governess at Thornfield Hall

Eight years later, Jane has become a teacher at Lowood, at a salary of 15 pounds per year. After her confidante and friend Miss Temple marries, Jane finds herself longing for liberty, or change or stimulus, or at least for a new servitude. She advertises her services as a governess, and receives only one reply. The reply is from Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall. Jane takes the position of governess for Adèle Varens, a young French girl. Out walking one winter's day, Jane encounters a horseman riding up the road. As his horse comes upon Jane, it slips on the icy road and the rider is thrown. When he rises from the ground he realizes that he has sprained his ankle, at which point in time he calls Jane a witch and accuses her of bewitching his horse.[1] Upon her return to Thornfield Hall, she discovers that the horseman is Edward Rochester, Master of Thornfield Hall. Rochester is a moody, self-willed man nearly twenty years older than Jane, and has travelled the world. Adèle is his ward, the daughter of a French "opera dancer," his former mistress, who raised Adèle to be as vain as herself, caring only to sing and dance and have pretty dresses and toys. Adèle is not his daughter, but after her mother abandons her, he brings her to England to raise her there, hoping that more healthy and wholesome circumstances, and a good English education, will rid her of these faults.

Mr. Rochester seems quite taken with Jane, and she enjoys his company, spending many evening hours talking with him and learning about the things he has seen in his travels. However, odd things begin to happen: a strange laugh is heard in the halls, a near-fatal fire mysteriously breaks out, and a guest named Mason is attacked.

Jane receives word that Mrs. Reed has suffered a stroke and is asking for her. Returning to Gateshead, she remains for over a month while her aunt lies dying. Mrs. Reed rejects Jane's efforts at reconciliation, but does give her a letter previously withheld out of spite. The letter is from John Eyre, Jane's uncle, notifying her that he wanted her to live with him in Madeira. Mrs. Reed tells Jane that she had told her uncle that she had died of the fever at Lowood. Very soon after, she dies. Jane stays a short while longer, helping her cousin Eliza with funeral arrangements and settling the household business, before Eliza leaves to become a nun.

After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Rochester's apparently impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants.

During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer burst in and declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr. Mason's sister. Mr. Rochester bitterly admits the truth, explaining that his wife is a violent madwoman. He was tricked by Mr. Mason and his father into marrying her after knowing her only a short while, never having seen her alone or had much conversation with her. Her madness soon becomes apparent, however, and he decides to bring her home with him to England to confine her safely, with an attendant-nurse, Grace Poole, to look after her needs. When Grace occasionally drinks too much, it gives his wife a chance to escape, and she is the true cause of Thornfield's strange events.

Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29