Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë began writing Jane Eyre in Manchester during the summer of 1845, drawing directly from her own childhood trauma and family history. The early sequences where young Jane is sent to Lowood School mirror the real-life Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge near Tunstall, Lancashire. At that school, Charlotte's sisters Elizabeth and Maria died of consumption due to the terrible conditions there. Mr Brocklehurst, the harsh director of Lowood, was based on Rev William Carus Wilson who ran the actual institution. Helen Burns dying in Jane's arms recalls how Maria Brontë passed away at age eleven while Elizabeth followed shortly after. John Reed's descent into alcoholism and eventual ruin reflects the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict before his death. Like Jane, Charlotte herself worked as a governess for several years before achieving literary fame. These biographical details were first revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë published by Elizabeth Gaskell in 1857.
Jane Eyre lives at Gateshead Hall with her aunt Sarah Reed and cousins when she is ten years old. After being locked in the red room following a confrontation with fourteen-year-old cousin John Reed, she faints from panic believing she saw her dead uncle's ghost. An apothecary named Mr Lloyd recommends sending her to Lowood Institution where she meets Helen Burns and Miss Temple. During her six years as a pupil and two years teaching at Lowood, she witnesses typhus killing many students including Helen who dies of consumption in Jane's arms. At nineteen or twenty years old, Jane leaves Thornfield Hall after discovering Rochester's secret marriage to Bertha Mason. She travels across the moors starving until St John Rivers rescues her at Moor House. When she inherits twenty thousand pounds from Uncle John Eyre, she shares it equally with Diana and Mary Rivers. Returning to find Thornfield burned down, she reunites with Rochester who lost his eyesight and one hand saving servants from the fire. They marry and live at Ferndean Manor for ten years before the narrator addresses the reader directly saying Reader I married him.
A strange laugh echoes through Thornfield Hall while Jane carries letters to the post house. A horse slips on ice throwing its rider Edward Rochester who later reveals himself as the master of the house. Grace Poole keeps Bertha Antoinetta Mason locked in the attic paying her high salary to maintain silence. When Grace gets drunk, Bertha escapes causing fires and attacks on guests like Richard Mason. The figure running backwards and forwards in the deep shade snatches and growls like some strange wild animal covered only by clothing and dark grizzled hair. Bertha sets fire to Thornfield Hall jumping from the roof to her death while Rochester loses his sight trying to save others. Critics note that Bertha represents the other side of Jane where Jane is pious and just while Bertha appears savage and animalistic. Some scholars suggest Bertha was of mixed race though her ethnicity remains unconfirmed in the text. Rochester claims his father tricked him into marrying Bertha's family knowing she would develop mental illness. The Gothic double motif creates tension between Jane's controlled spirit and Bertha's unrestrained rage.
Jane responds to Rochester's proposal asking Do you think I am an automaton a machine without feelings. She declares I have as much soul as you and full as much heart standing equal before God despite being poor obscure plain and little. At Lowood Institution children pay fifteen pounds per year yet remain charity children because the amount covers neither board nor teaching costs. Jane earns fifteen pounds annually as a teacher doubling her income when becoming a private governess at Thornfield Hall. Her ambiguous social position makes her aware of class restrictions placed upon women during the Victorian era. After inheriting twenty thousand pounds from Uncle John Eyre, Jane shares it equally with Diana and Mary Rivers gaining financial independence. The novel explores how Jane navigates gender roles refusing to accept marriage proposals based on duty rather than love. St John Rivers wants Jane to marry him and serve as his missionary assistant going to India but she rejects this arrangement. Jane maintains her Christian values while pursuing self-determination through economic autonomy and emotional honesty. Her journey demonstrates female development within restrictive societal frameworks where coverture limits women's rights.
In 1848 Elizabeth Rigby reviewing Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review called it pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition. She declared that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad fostered Chartism and rebellion at home was the same which wrote Jane Eyre. An anonymous review in The Mirror of Literature Amusement and Instruction stated there is not a single natural character throughout the work. Critics claimed religion is stabbed in the dark and all absurdly moral notions done away with. George Henry Lewes said It reads like a page out of one's own life while another critic from Atlas described it as full of youthful vigour and nervous diction. The People's Journal praised its irresistible energy bearing readers onward from first to last. American publication The Nineteenth Century defended against accusations of immorality calling it a work producing decided sensation in England and America. Some reviewers doubted any woman could write such style terse yet eloquent filled with energy bordering sometimes almost on rudeness. These polarized responses marked the novel's initial reception contrasting sharply with its later reputation.
Jean Rhys published Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966 winning the WH Smith Literary Award the following year. Her novel reimagines Bertha Antoinetta Mason as a Creole woman from Dominica who marries Mr Rochester under mistaken assumptions about each other. The book depicts dominance and dependence especially within marriage showing how a privileged English man coerces a powerless Creole woman. Bertha deteriorates in England becoming known as The Madwoman in the Attic while Rhys portrays her from a different perspective than Brontë. Scholars note frequent references to slavery and racialized ideas throughout Jane Eyre where Bertha represents the racialised other. Rochester claims he was forced to take on a mad Creole wife thought to be of mixed race descent. American scholar Susan Meyer argues Brontë responded to nineteenth-century European texts comparing white women with blacks to degrade both groups. The title given by others of being a Creole woman leaves her a stranger neither black nor considered white enough for higher society. Modern debates continue examining race colonialism and power dynamics embedded within the original text.
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Common questions
When did Charlotte Brontë begin writing Jane Eyre?
Charlotte Brontë began writing Jane Eyre in Manchester during the summer of 1845. She drew directly from her own childhood trauma and family history to create the early sequences of the novel.
Where was Lowood School based on in real life?
Lowood School mirrors the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge near Tunstall, Lancashire. The character Mr Brocklehurst was based on Rev William Carus Wilson who ran the actual institution where Charlotte's sisters Elizabeth and Maria died of consumption due to terrible conditions.
How much money does Jane inherit from Uncle John Eyre?
Jane inherits twenty thousand pounds from Uncle John Eyre after St John Rivers rescues her at Moor House. She shares this sum equally with Diana and Mary Rivers to gain financial independence.
Who reviewed Jane Eyre as an anti-Christian composition in 1848?
Elizabeth Rigby reviewed Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review in 1848 and called it pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition. She declared that the tone of mind and thought which wrote Jane Eyre fostered Chartism and rebellion at home.
When did Jean Rhys publish Wide Sargasso Sea?
Jean Rhys published Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966 and won the WH Smith Literary Award the following year. Her novel reimagines Bertha Antoinetta Mason as a Creole woman from Dominica who marries Mr Rochester under mistaken assumptions about each other.