Jane Eyre pg 454-556

Jane Eyre pg 454-556

Anqelique, Mike, and Lauren

John Eyre & Jane Gains a Family

-St. John puts the pieces together of Jane’s relations to John Eyre and the Rivers as Jane is the lost heiress that John writes about who will inherit his fortune.

-Jane divides up her inheritance with her new found cousins, allowing for the sisters to leave their governess jobs.

• “I feel I can easily and naturally make room in my heart for you as my third and youngest sister” ~St. John (485).

-How does Jane change with the new status of having relations and money?

Fire and Ice

-Brontë uses the imagery of fire and ice to describe the personalities of the characters, their actions, and even the setting.

-St. John is compared to Apollo the Greek god of music, light, and truth, while Rochester compares himself to Vulcan the blacksmith of the gods. “tall, fair, blue-eyed, and with a Grecian profile. Your eyes dwell on a Vulcan- a real blacksmith, brown, broad-shouldered; and blind and lame into the bargain,”~ Rochester (544). Fire is seen as Rochester jokes about his own injuries and lack of looks compared to the St. John whose Greek counterpart has temples and statues made of marble and stone made representing the ice.  

-Thornfield is burned down due to a fire being set and it is suspected that Betha is the one who started it.  How does the fire at Thornfield relate to lunacy of Bertha?

-What is the importance of this imagery to the personalities of the characters?

St. John and Religion

-Notice how St. John is named after one of the Gospel writers in Christianity. Is there any relation to his name and his namesake?

-St. John does not see Rosamund as a missionary wife “Rosamund a sufferer, a laborer, a female apostle? Rosamund a missionary's wife? No! (470).”

Why does St. John not see Rosamund as a missionary’s wife and not the match for him but sees Jane as such?

-On page 518, we get the proposal scene between St. John and Jane. “If I listened to human pride, I should say no more to you of marriage with me; but I listen to my duty, and keep steadily in view my first aim- to do all things in the glory of God (518).”

-Jane sees St. John differently “his look was not, indeed, that of a lover beholding his mistress; but it was that of a pastor recalling his wandering sheep- or better, of a guardian angel watching the soul for which he is responsible.”

-Why does Jane ultimately reject St. John? Also compare and contrast her relationship to St. John and Mr. Rochester.

Jane & Rochester

-Jane heard a voice calling her back Rochester. Why do you think she listened to it?

-What makes Jane and Rochester a good match even after he gives her the opportunity to leave?

-What is the importance of Rochester gaining some of his sight back when he and Jane have their first child?

-In the end Jane and Rochester have a small, quiet wedding.  She feels like she still has her freedom, she has found love, and a place to belong. “I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth,” (554).