JANE EYRE

JANE EYRE

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

IRENE RAMÓN ARELLANO 2ºBACHILLERATO

INDEX

1. Characters 2. What is the story about? 3. Where the story takes place? 4. About the author 5. Personal opinion

CHARACTERS

JANE EYRE

The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Jane is an intelligent, honest, plain young girl, who has to contend with cruelty, hatred, inequality, and hardship during all her life in a man’s world. She is raised by her aunt, who hates her. As the novel progresses, she grows in strength. Jane Eyre slowly develops from an unhappy young girl learning the difficulties of life, into a powerful, independent woman living with the man she loves.

EDWARD ROCHESTER

He is Jane’s master at Thornfield. He has an stern appearance and not a particularly handsome appearance. Despite their difference in backgrounds and social status, Jane and Rochester fall in love with each other.

MRS. REED

She is Jane's aunt. She is cruel with her ,although she promised Mr Reed that she would treat her as if she was her daughter. At the end of the novel it is revealed that the reason why she hated her is because Mr. Reed loved Jane more than any of his biological children.

JOHN, GEORGIANA AND ELIZA REED

They are Jane’s cousins, who bullied her during her childhood. They are described as mean, selfish and wicked.

GEORGIANA REED

JOHN REED

ELIZA REED

MR. BROCKLEHURST

He is the headmaster of Lowood, who uses the school’s funds to provide a wealthy lifestyle for his family, while school’s students have to life in poor conditions. There is a big number of deaths of pupils, due to the bad living conditions. Owing to this fact, a new school was built and Mr. Brocklehusrt lost his position as manager.

HELEN BURNS

MISS TEMPLE

BESSIE LEE

She is the superintendent of Lowood. She is a beautiful and kind women, who always treat the pupils with as much compassion as possible.

She is a servant at Gateshead. She is the only one who treats Jane with kindness and love.

Jane's friend at Lowood School. Though she dies early, she had a big impact on Jane

BERTHA MASON

MRS. FAIRFAX

ADÈLE VARENS

The kindly housekeeper at Thornfield. She is an old lady, who from the beginning has always been welcoming and friendly to Jane.

She is the French-apeaking pupil of Jane at Thornfield, although she lacks discipline and intellect, she improves greatly under Jane's tutelage. Adèle is the illegitimate child of the dancer Céline Varens and an unkhown gentleman.

Rochester's insane wife and Richard Mason's sister. She suffers from hereditary insanity, for this reason she is locked in the attic at Thornfield.

MR. BRIGGS

RICHARD MASON

GRACE POOLE

He is the lawyer of uncle Reed. He is the one who reveals Rochester's marriage, and after uncle Reed’s death, he has to look for Jane in order to give her the inheritance.

He is Bertha’s brother. In the novel it is said that in the future he will get mad as his sister.

She works at Thornfield as the keeper of Bertha Mason. She sometimes gets drunk and leaves Bertha scapes from her prison.

ST. JOHN RIVERS

MARY AND DIANA RIVERS

JOHN EYRE

Jane's uncle (as well as the uncle of the Rivers siblings). In spite of the fact that he died before he meets Jane, he leaves her all his fortune after his death.

They are John’s sisters, and also Jane’s cousins.

The one who saved Jane. He is the brother of Diana and Mary, and it turns out, cousin to Jane. He is strictly devoted to Christianity

WHAT IS THE STORY ABOUT?

She is saved by St. John Rivers and his sisters when she is near to die. They become friends, although she doesn’t tell them the truth about her identity. One day she finds out that she has inheritated a fortune from her uncle, John Eyre, and that Sr. John Rivers and his sisters are actually her cousins, for this reason she shares her inheritance with them.St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he asks Jane to accompany him as his wife. However, she refuses as she heard Rochester’s voice, She comes back to Thornfield, that has been burned by Bertha, who lost her life in the fire, while Rochester lost his eyesight and one hand. Jane goes to Rochester's new residence and they rebuild their relation and get married.

Jane Eyre is a orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel aunt, whose children bullied her during all her childhood. At the age of ten, she is sent to Lowood School, where she spends eight years, six as a student and two as a teacher.After teaching for two years, Jane becomes a governess of a girl named Adèle at a manor called Thornfield. Jane and Edward Rochester, Thornfield’s owner, fall in love with each other. Nevertheless, in the wedding day, it is discovered that Rochester is married to a women named Bertha Mason, who is still alive and is locked in a room in Thornfield because she is mad. After all this, Jane decides to escape and start a new life.

WHERE THE STORY TAKES PLACE?

THORNFIELD

FERNDEAN HOUSE

where she is Adéle’s governess, and meet his love interest, Edward Rochester

GATESHEAD

where Jane and Edward meet again

during her childhood

LOWOOD SCHOOL

MORTON

where she is educated, and becomes a teacher

where she meet the Rivers family

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

After returning to Haworth in 1844, she and her sisters started to write poetry and decided to publish some poems. When the poetry volume received little public notice, the sisters decided to work on separate novels. However, Charlotte's novel ("The Professor") was the only one to be rejected and was published after her death. But her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. It became the most successful book of the year and it was translated into a lot of languages. The book, a critique of Victorian assumptions about gender and social class, became one of the most successful novels of its era, both critically and commercially.Despite her success as a writer, she continued to live a quiet life in Yorkshire. In 1854 she get married and died after a year of marriage on March 31, 1855.

Charlotte Brontë was born in 1816 in Thornton in Yorkshire, England. In 1824 Charlotte and three of her sisters were sent to study at the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge. The conditions at the school were poor and they were treated with inhuman severity. The Lowood School in Jane Eyre was based on this school. A fever broke out at the school and the girl returned home, but two of the sisters died of tuberculosis. The experience of Cowan Bridge and the loss of her sisters had an huge effect on Charlotte. When Charlotte was nineteen years old, she became a teacher, and later worked as a governess. Then, she decided to attend a language school in Brussels with her sisters and fell in love with a married professor at the school, but she never fully admitted the fact to herself.

A Quick Guide To The Bronte Sisters

PERSONAL OPINION

I reckon that Jane Eyre is an incredible novel, for its great theme, its plots and its ending. The story hooks you from the beggining, due to this reason I highly recommend this novel to other people.

THE END!

IRENE RAMÓN ARELLANO 2ºBACHILLERATO