Chapter XX

Jane hears a blood-curdling wail in the middle of the night and then frantic calls for Rochester’s assistance.  He comes to assure his guests, and Jane retreats back into her room, dresses and waits.  Somehow, she simply knows that she’ll be needed.  Sure enough, Rochester fetches her to a room where Mr. Mason is lying in bed obviously injured, his blood-soaked linens nearby and a bandage covering his arm and shoulder. Rochester’s request is for Jane to remain with the wounded man while he leaves to fetch a surgeon, and when Mr. Mason is finally patched up, he is dispatched ……. no, not killed but sent quickly away in a carriage at the break of dawn.  Rochester asks Jane to walk with him and then asks her obscure yet leading questions with regard to a mistake he may have made, and her judgement on it.  He then teases her about his impending marriage and departs.

The Scream (1910) Edvard Munch source Wikiart

Here begins Rochester’s provoking teasing of Jane about his marriage.  Many dislike his actions, and I can sympathize.  We know that he is falling in love with Jane and has little interest in Blanche Ingram, but Jane is convinced of their impending nuptials.  His needling of her is based on an immature urge to draw out her feelings for him through jealousy and one cannot respect him for it.  However, I see it as one flaw amongst a number of them in Rochester’s character, again making him very human.  One hopes Jane can amend such behaviour, or at least accept him flaws and all, for which one of us is wholly faultless?

Chapter XXI

“Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity had not yet found the key.  I never laughed at presentimetns in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own.  Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant long-absent, wholly estranged relatives asserting, notwithstanding their alienation, the unity of the source to which each traces his origin) whose workings baffle mortal comprehension.  And signs, for aught we know, may be but the sympathies of Nature with man.”

Robert, a servant at Gatehead and Bessie’s husband, arrives to announce the death of the dissipated John Reed and his mother’s subsequent collapse.  Jane is wanted by her, although no one appears to know why.  Jane requests a week’s leave, which Rochester gives most reluctantly.  Upon arriving at Gateshead, Jane meets the two Reed sisters Georgianna and Eliza, along with a flood of memories.  Mrs. Reed, bedridden, appears to regret her treatment of Jane, giving her a long-past letter sent by her uncle, yet Mrs. Reed’s pride refuses to allow her to truly admit the error of her ways, and therefore she is unable to accept the forgiveness which Jane so freely gives her.  Stubborn and implacable in life, so she is as she is overcome by death.

The Linley Sisters (1772) Thomas Gainsborough source Wikiart

The two extremes of the Reed sisters are used to advantage in the story.  The dour, conservative, ultra-religious Eliza contrasted to the flighty, vapid, self-centred Georgianna perhaps is an illustration of how a lack of moral guidance and wanton self-will works on different personalities, rendering an extreme distortion of each, instead of each being tempered by principled and generous behaviour.

Chapter XXII

After a month’s absence, Jane returns to a rather disgruntled Rochester.  He is waiting as she approaches Thornfield and admonishes her for the length of her stay, while also sending out “feelers” as to how much she missed him.  Again, his upcoming marriage is alluded to, but Rochester presents it with a rather vague and enigmatic manner.  In fact, his actions become mystifying as well, as he no longer visits the Ingrams, yet gives Jane even more consideration.

“Never had he called me more frequently to his presence; never been kinder to me when there —- and, alas!  never had I loved him so well.”

Haymaking (1895) Camille Pissarro source Wikiart

I love the complex, yet beautifully balanced relationship between Jane and Rochester.  On one hand, she is in his power:

“…. the knowledge that I was nothing to him: but there was ever in Mr. Rochester … such a wealth of power of communicating happiness, that to taste but of the crumbs he scattered to stray and stranger birds like me was to feast genially ……”

Yet even though those words appear to minimize her sense of self and place her under his spell, she never loses her self-worth, her sense of right, or her grasp on happiness, either inside or outside his influence.  Both speak of her ability to love deeply, yet with a strength of character that is quite astounding.  I just love it!

“Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness.  I am strangely glad to get back to you; and wherever you are is my home —- my only home.”

Chapter XVII

Jane feels Rochester’s absence keenly and disappointment bubbles up at the speculation he could be gone indefinitely.  But she gathers her senses and fights her emotions, bringing them under practical reign, and by the time they receive a letter from Mr. Rochester a fortnight later announcing his intent to return with a large party, she is composed.

As Rochester brings a houseful of guests, the reader is introduced to Blanche Ingram, a confident beauty who is attached to Mr. Rochester, as he appears attached to her.  Her disdain for everything and everyone below her social standing is apparent, and her haughty rancour leaves Jane with a poor impression of her character.  After hearing her imprecations against governesses, Jane attempts to escape to her room. Rochester waylays her, but none of his influence can induce her to return.

The Drawing Room at Townsend House (1885) Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema source Wikiart

In this chapter, Jane acknowledges that she is drawn to Rochester against her very will.

“{His features} were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, — that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his.  I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the gems of love there detected; and now, at first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong!  He made me love him without looking at me ……”

Young Woman at Piano (1878) Julius Leblanc Stewart source Wikiart

Chapter XVIII

Mr. Rochester is the life of the house party —- literally —- and everything becomes alive in his presence.  We witness a game of charades between the guests, which appears to be designed to allow us to further sketch Blanche Ingram’s character.  Jane is unimpressed:

“….. But I was not jealous; or very rarely; —- the nature of the pain I suffered could not be explained by that word.  Miss Ingram was a mark beneath jealousy: she was too inferior to excite the feeling.  Pardon the seeming paradox; I mean what I say.  she was very showy, but she was not genuine; she had a fine person, many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature, nothing bloomed spointaneously on that soil; not unforced natural fruit delighted by its freshness.  She was not good; she was not original …… she never offered, nor had, an opinion of her own.  She advocated a high tone of sentiment; but she did not know the sensations of sympathy and pity, tenderness and truth were not in her.  Too often she betrayed this ……”

Jane is distressed by the fact that Rochester seems to recognize these faults also, but still appears to keep to the matrimonial course with very little sentiment, an indication he is marrying for social reasons but not love.

As Rochester is gone to Millcote on business with a late evening return indicated, at dusk a visitor arrives, a Mr. Mason from Kingstown, Jamaica, to see the master of the house.  As he waits, a footman informs the guests of another visitor, an old gypsy woman who wishes to read their fortunes.  Miss Ingram goes first and later appears sour to what she has heard.  The other guests are amazed at the gypsy woman’s perception with their fortunes.  Then Jane herself is summoned.

Gypsy Woman (1886) Mykola Yaroshenko source Wikiart

All the characterizations of the house guests, their behaviour and motivations are communicated through Jane’s eyes, although she does exhibit acute perception and appears to be a good judge of character.  She does admit that Mr. Rochester’s faults are becoming dimmer to her and blending more into his character as a whole.  I wonder if that is a good thing: does her “blindness” lead her to reject reality, or is it simply an accepting of him as a flawed person?  One wonders ……

Chapter XIX

Jane is suspicious, reluctant to be lead by the old gypsy woman’s suppositions, even though her guesses appear quite accurate. When the gypsy reveals herself, she is Mr. Rochester in disguise.  Jane appears not especially surprised by this new charade, but has to support her master, as he reels in shock when learning of the arrival of Mr. Mason.  She does his bidding, fetching the unexpected visitor, and hears Rochester, in what seems to be good spirits, as she prepares for sleep.

Chopin Performing in the Guest-Hall of Anton Radziville in Berlin in 1829 (1887) Henryk Siemiradzki source Wikiart

Chapter XIV

At first Jane sees little of Rochester, except in passing, but learns not to be offended at his cool acknowledgements, as she is clever enough to realize these funks are independent of her.  One day, he summons her and Adèle, and while the child opens her cadeaux with Mrs. Fairfax, Rochester and Jane begin a deep conversation.  Rochester claims that he was once as good as Jane, but circumstance and fate worked together to corrupt his nature.  Since fate has denied him goodness, he will do what he can to seize any happiness available to him.  Concerned, Jane counsels repentance but her employer is only willing to concede that he might reform.  Surprisingly, he shows tremendous insight  into Jane’s character, and when Jane feels the hour late, Rochester wishes to continue the conversation.  It is an important and illuminating first extended meeting between the two, where they connect on more than just a superficial basis.

The Conversation Piece Henry Tonks source ArtUK

Jane and Rochester’s conversation is absolutely fascinating.  They both speak of entirely unconventional subjects —- in fact, very intimate subjects —- and while both sense the oddity of their conversation, each is comfortable with it.  In fact, Rochester admits that he has given up acting conventional with her.  Jane, for her part, does not let Rochester get away with avoiding facing his demons, and many times challenges him or puts him in his place with a quiet grace that is very effective.

“I don’t think, sir, you have a right to command me merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.”

Chapter XV

One afternoon, Rochester meets Jane and Adèle on the grounds and confides in her his boyish infatuation with a French opera-singer, Celine Varens, Adèle’s mother, when he was a young man.  Finding her with her lover, he turned her out, put a bullet in the arm of her lover, and assumed responsibility for Adèle, when Celine abandoned her.  She had told Rochester that the child was his but he could see no resemblance.  This story of passionate love, jealousy and betrayal should have shocked Jane, but she listens with quiet composure, and afterwards feels an increased affection for her charge. Rochester begins to meet her more cordially and Jane is gratified at his trust in her.  As her knowledge of him broadens, so does her opinion of his character:

“And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes?  No, reader.  Gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best like to see ….. Yet I had not forgotten his faults — indeed, I could not, for he brought them frequently before me ….. But I believe that his moodiness, his harshness, and his former faults of morality (I say former, for now he seemed corrected of them) had their source in some cruel cross of fate. I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged.  I thought there were excellent materials in him; though for the present they hung together somewhat spoiled and tangled ….”

One night, Jane wakes to a familiar demonic laugh and finds Mr. Rochester’s bed in flames.  In desperation, she flings a pitcher and bowl of water over him, and when she relates her story to him, he makes her wait until he returns.  As he shows a deep gratitude for the service she performed for him, Jane is slightly uncomfortable with their closeness.  When she returns to her room, sleep evades her for the rest of the night.

So, here is where I think the sketching of Mr. Rochester’s character becomes important for an understanding of him.  Many readers dislike his dark, fitful and coarse personality, but it’s necessary to understand its source.  In these last two chapters, we are told that Rochester would have been as pure as Jane, if circumstances had not worked against him.  How he chose to meet those circumstances have perhaps moulded a rougher character, but the goodness of his character is merely buried under these traits.  Jane is one person who cares enough to search for the pearls in amongst the swine.

A Walk (1901) Victor Borisov-Musatov source Wikiart

Chapter XVI

Jane discovers that Rochester’s explanation of the fire to the staff is curious: he fell asleep with a lighted candle which caught his curtains on fire.  Jane wonders at his reticence and questions Grace Poole about the laugh, whereupon the servant answers as if she is cautioning her curiosity.  Jane expects to see Rochester that evening, but learns that he is gone and perhaps not soon to return.  He is visiting some ladies on the other side of Millcote, in particular, a Miss Blanche Ingram.  Jane gathers all the lady’s particulars from Mrs. Fairfax and then reproaches herself with a vehemence for dreaming of preference and flattery from her employer, things that can never be.  She is merely “… a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain,” and can have no hope where he is concerned.  She finally forces her feelings to submit to sense, and is calm.

Avenue of Trees in a Small Town (1866) Alfred Sisley source Wikiart

Why, can anyone tell me, did Rochester leave so quickly and then decide to visit a possible female admirer?  Is he, too, disconcerted by the connection that he feels to Jane and wishes to sever it, or at the very least, test it?  Strangely, he doesn’t seem like a man to be so disturbed by his feelings.  Or does he have plans to return with Miss Ingram to test Jane’s feelings for him?  I suppose the latter is more likely.

I thought it unusual for Jane to choose to sketch her own portrait, then that of Blanche Ingram and compare the two to control her feelings of partiality for Mr. Rochester.  She is comparing outward appearance only, whereas Jane is intelligent enough to know that should not be of importance where love and respect are concerned.  As composed as she claims she is at the end of the chapter, she does not appear to be thinking clearly.

We also learn in this chapter that Mr. Rochester is nearing 40 years old.

Chapter XI

Brontë begins this chapter by likening the novel to a play and encourages the reader to not only read the story, but “see” it in their mind’s eye, as if it is being acted out on stage. It is a chilly October day as she waits for someone to meet her, feeling small and forgotten.  But soon a conveyance arrives and she is taken the six miles to Thornfield at a frustratingly slow pace.  Taken inside, she makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Fairfax and clears up her mistaken assumption that her pupil is Mrs. Fairfax’s daughter, instead learning the lady is only a servant, and Miss Adèle Varens is the ward of the owner of Thornfield, Mr. Edward Rochester.  As Jane wakes the following morning with risen spirits, the reader finally gets a description of Thornfield, not overly grand, but picturesque in its location.  Jane meets her student, Adèle, finding her pleasing, yet undisciplined towards work.  As to Thornfield’s owner, Mr. Rochester, she is told that he is frequently absent and is “peculiar”, but is unable to discover his peculiarities.  And near the end of the chapter while she is being given a tour of the house, Jane hears a loud laugh that chills her to the bone.  Mrs. Fairfax claims it is the laugh of a servant, Grace Pool, but those who have read Jane Eyre before know better, don’t we?

A Manor House in Autumn John Atkinson Grimshaw source Wikiart

Brontë emphasizes Jane’s isolation, as she is now like a ship “cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port of which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted.”  

Strangely we get no description of Thornfield upon Jane’s first site of it, only the mention of gates, a house, and the front door opened by a maidservant.

After chill, and cold, and mist and generally a gloomy description of Jane’s setting throughout the book so far, I wonder if the scene of her waking at Thornfield is a sign of improved circumstance:

“…… The chamber looked such a bright little place to me as the sun shone in between the gay blue chintz window curtains, showing papered walls and a carpeted floor, so unlike the bare planks and stained plaster of Lowood that my spirits rose at the view.  Externals have a great effect on the young: I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils.”

Chapter XII

Jane takes quickly to her new situation and while she appears content with her work, it is apparent that she longs for experience outside of her comfortable life:

“Anybody may blame me who likes when I add further that now and then, when I took a walk by myself in the grounds, when I went down to the gates and looked through them along the road, or when, while Adèle played with her nurse, and Mrs. Fairfax made jellies in the storeroom, I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and long dim sky-line —- that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen: that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed, more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach …….. Who blames me?  Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented.  I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes …….  It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.  Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot.  Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efrorts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.  It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”

And thus, remembering the thrill at Grace Pool’s first laugh, she becomes interested in the servant, as her behaviour is something out of the ordinary.

Three months passes and out of a chilly January afternoon walk, Jane encounters the foreboding sight of a dark rider on a tall horse which, after passing her by, slips on the ice on the causeway, causing a fall.  Summoned by the rider’s huge dog, Jane offers her assistance, only to find that her new acquaintance is rough, ill-humoured, cross and demanding.  Jane employs her usual quiet tact, get him seated again and on his way. While the encounter could not be considered pleasant, there was something exciting in the meeting and Jane is reluctant to return to Thornfield and its stagnant predictability. Eventually she enters, only to discover that the man she’d asssisted was in fact Mr. Rochester, her employer.

The First Meeting of Jane Eyre & Mr. Rochester (1914) Thomas Davidson source ArtUK

There is such a resonance of Jane’s searching for a meaning to life outside of social expectations, that is almost a physical desire within her.  One wonders if her attractions to Mr. Rochester will come, not because of his traits, but more because those traits also strain against those standards.   While in many ways, they are very different, Jane’s ready discernment recognizes a kindred spirit.

Chapter XIII

Jane and Adèle are summoned to tea with Mr. Rochester.  Let’s pause a moment and examine his description:

“…… I traced the general points of middle height, and considerable breadth of chest.  He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted just now; he was past youth, but had not reached middle age; perhaps thirty-five (from Chapter XII) ……. I knew my traveller with his broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair.  I recognised his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler, his grim mouth, chin, and jaw — yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake. His shape, now divested of cloak, I perceived harmonised in squareness with his physiognomy: I suppose it was a good figure in the athletic sense of the term — broad chested and thin-flanked, though neither tall nor graceful.”

And so through their tea-time conversation, Rochester learns that Jane is not a creature of convention, her conversation being at once meek yet pointed, quiet, yet stimulating, and her character respectable and admirable.  He inquires as to her history, examines her sketches, of which the reader is given a detailed description and questions her mood at their composition.  Abruptly he ends their tête-a-tête, and Jane finds out through Mrs. Fairfax that Rochester had an older brother now dead, Rowland Rochester, who conspired with their father to make Rochester’s life difficult in that the younger brother was never supported in a living.  It is wondered if this is the reason that Rochester is rarely at Thornfield.

Cloud over the calm sea (1877) Ivan Aivazovsky source Wikiart

I wondered at the extensive description of Jane’s watercolour sketches.  There is always something disquieting in them, such as a shipwreck, a corpse, twilight, dishevelled hair, a cold iceberg, a giant head and black drapery.  And always there is a suggestion of a woman, whether it be a bracelet, a fair arm, a woman’s bust, a bloodless brow, a ring …….  A woman and doom …. hmmm ……..

In the last chapter, while we saw Jane engaging easily with Rochester because of his unconventionality, in this chapter we experience the reverse.  He is becoming fascinated with her because of her sincerity, conviction, insight and her willingness to be herself in spite of conventionality.  The story is becoming even more interesting!

Chapter VIII

As she decends from her punishment, Jane weeps tears of frustration at the persecution she has faced.  Helen attempts to comfort her, but when Jane shows a dramatic coveting of a love of other’s opinions, Helen admonishes her:

“Hush, Jane!  you think too much of the love of human beings, you are too impulsive, too vehement: the sovereign hand that created your frame, and put life into it, has provided you with other resources than your feeble self, or than creatures feeble as you.  Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us, for it is everywhere; and those spirits in pain and shame, if scorn smote us on all sides, and hatred crushed us, angels see our tortures, recognize our innocence …. and God waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward.  Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is so certain an entrance to happiness — to glory?”

They visit Miss Temple’s room, and she promises Jane absolution if she discovers Mr. Brocklehurst’s comments to be unjust, then gives the girls a sumptuous feast of tea, toast and seedcake.  The conversation between Helen and Miss Temple is at once informative, as well as profound.  Although the next morning Helen is made to wear the word “Slattern” around her neck for keeping messy drawers, she accepts the punishment, although Jane is indignant.  Miss Temple indeed absolves Jane of the accusations, and our heroine is beginning to learn that ‘Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.’  The hardships faced at Lowood among people who care about her are like gold, whereas the luxuries of Gateshead are like dross.

School Girl in Black (1908) Helene Schjerfbeck source Wikiart

Chapter IX

As spring arrives, some of the privations of the previous months are lessened and Jane begins to wander further than the walls of Lowood into the natural beauty of the forest-dell.  But the fog that surrounded the area brought typhus with it, and especially because of their lack of nutrition and physical weakness, many of the students succumb to the pestilence.  Jane is left with the other healthy students to ramble around the environs, as the teachers are busy dealing with the sick pupils.  But while Helen is absent, Jane does not realize that her illness is critical until she hears from one of the teachers that Helen’s life will soon be over.  Visiting Helen in her sick-bed, her friend imparts more words of her gentle wisdom before succumbing to the consumption that the reader had seen glimmers of since her first introduction.

“My Maker and yours, who will never destroy what he created.  I rely implicitly on his power, and confide wholly in his goodness.  I count the hours till that eventful one arrives which shall restore me to him, reveal him to me.”

With the Reeds cruelty and no other connections other than Bessie, Jane receives her religious instruction from this angelic girl who seems to have a wisdom from beyond the world.

Plague Hospital (1798-1800) Francisco Goya source Wikiart

Chapter X

The story is put in fast forward.  The disease at the school brings the attention of the public and an examination is held, which finds the conditions deplorable and positive changes are made.  Jane continued 8 years there as a student and two as a teacher, but when Mrs. Temple marries and departs, a wanderlust seizes Jane and she applies for a position of governess at Thornfield Hall.

Bessie arrives to reveal the scandals at Gateshead:  Georgianna’s attempt to run away with a Lord was prevented by her sister, Eliza, and John is living a debauched life of drink and women.  Her uncle, John Eyre, arrived, looking for Jane, but left for parts unknown.  And so Jane leaves for Thornfield Hall.

Young Girl Learning to Write Camille Corot source Wikiart

I don’t have much insight to add to these chapters.  We observe the development of Jane’s character in a positive way, which exemplifies the fluctuations in life and circumstance and enforces that adversity and hardship can be good for building inner strength of character, depending on how we choose to face it.

Yikes, I’ve fallen behind in the pace with my busy non-book schedule, so I need to catch up.  Wish me luck —– I’ll need lots of it!!!