Jane Eyre: Chapters 9-21 – Flashcards

In the spring, life at Lowood briefly seems happier, but the damp forest dell in which the school resides is a breeding-ground for typhus, and in the warm temperatures more than half the girls fall ill with the disease. Jane remains healthy and spends her time playing outdoors with a new friend, Mary Ann Wilson. Helen is sick, but not with typhus—Jane learns the horrific news that her friend is dying of consumption. One evening, Jane sneaks into Miss Temple's room to see Helen one last time. Helen promises Jane that she feels little pain and is happy to be leaving the world's suffering behind. Jane takes Helen into her arms, and the girls fall asleep. During the night, Helen dies. Her grave is originally unmarked, but fifteen years after her death, a gray marble tablet is placed over the spot (presumably by Jane), bearing the single word Resurgam, Latin for "I shall rise again."

After Mr. Brocklehurst's negligent treatment of the girls at Lowood is found to be one of the causes of the typhus epidemic, a new group of overseers is brought in to run the school. Conditions improve dramatically for the young girls, and Jane excels in her studies for the next six years. After spending two more years at Lowood as a teacher, Jane decides she is ready for a change, partly because Miss Temple gets married and leaves the school. She advertises in search of a post as a governess and accepts a position at a manor called Thornfield.

Jane's driver is late picking her up from the station at Millcote. When she finally arrives at Thornfield it is nighttime. Although she cannot distinguish much of the house's facade from among the shadows, she finds the interior "cosy and agreeable." Mrs. Fairfax, a prim, elderly woman, is waiting for Jane. It turns out that Mrs. Fairfax is not, as Jane had assumed from their correspondence, the owner of Thornfield, but rather the housekeeper. Thornfield's owner, Mr. Rochester, travels regularly and leaves much of the manor's management to Mrs. Fairfax. Jane learns that she will be tutoring Adèle, an eight-year-old French girl whose mother was a singer and dancer. Mrs. Fairfax also tells Jane about Rochester, saying that he is an eccentric man whose family has a history of extreme and violent behavior. Suddenly, Jane hears a peal of strange, eerie laughter echoing through the house, and Mrs. Fairfax summons someone named Grace, whom she orders to make less noise and to "remember directions." When Grace leaves, Mrs. Fairfax explains that she is a rather unbalanced and unpredictable seamstress who works in the house.

Jane finds life at Thornfield pleasant and comfortable. Adèle proves to be exuberant and intelligent, though spoiled and at times a bit petulant. Nonetheless, Jane is frequently restless and collects her thoughts while pacing Thornfield's top-story passageway. One evening a few months after her arrival at Thornfield, Jane is alone watching the moon rise when she perceives a horse approaching. It calls to her mind the story Bessie once told her of a spirit called a Gytrash, which disguises itself as a mule, dog, or horse to frighten "belated travellers." Oddly enough, a dog then appears as well. Once she realizes that the horse has a rider, the uncanny moment ceases. Just after the horse passes her, it slips on a patch of ice, and its rider tumbles to the ground. Jane helps the man rise to his feet and introduces herself to him. She observes that he has a dark face, stern features, and a heavy brow. He is not quite middle-aged. Upon reentering Thornfield, Jane goes to Mrs. Fairfax's room and sees the same dog—Pilot—resting on the rug. A servant answers Jane's queries, explaining that the dog belongs to Mr. Rochester, who has just returned home with a sprained ankle, having fallen from his horse.

The day following his arrival, Mr. Rochester invites Jane and Adèle to have tea with him. He is abrupt and rather cold toward both of them, although he seems charmed by Jane's drawings, which he asks to see. When Jane mentions to Mrs. Fairfax that she finds Rochester "changeful and abrupt," Mrs. Fairfax suggests that his mannerisms are the result of a difficult personal history. Rochester was something of a family outcast, and when his father died, his older brother inherited Thornfield. Rochester has been Thornfield's proprietor for nine years, since the death of his brother.

Jane sees little of Rochester during his first days at Thornfield. One night, however, in his "after-dinner mood," Rochester sends for Jane and Adèle. He gives Adèle the present she has been anxiously awaiting, and while Adèle plays, Rochester is uncharacteristically chatty with Jane. When Rochester asks Jane whether she thinks him handsome, she answers "no" without thinking, and from Rochester's voluble reaction Jane concludes that he is slightly drunk. Rochester's command that she converse with him makes Jane feel awkward, especially because he goes on to argue that her relationship to him is not one of servitude. Their conversation turns to the concepts of sin, forgiveness, and redemption. When Adèle mentions her mother, Jane is intrigued, and Rochester promises to explain more about the situation on a future occasion.

A while later, Rochester fulfills his promise to Jane to tell her about his and Adèle's pasts. He had a long affair with Adèle's mother, the French singer and dancer named Celine Varens. When he discovered that Celine was engaged in relations with another man, Rochester ended the relationship. Rochester has always denied Celine's claim that Adèle is his daughter, noting that the child looks utterly unlike him. Even so, when Celine abandoned her daughter, Rochester brought Adèle to England so that she would be properly cared for. Jane lies awake brooding about the strange insights she has gained into her employer's past. She hears what sound like fingers brushing against the walls, and an eerie laugh soon emanates from the hallway. She hears a door opening and hurries out of her room to see smoke coming from Rochester's door. Jane dashes into his room and finds his bed curtains ablaze. She douses the bed with water, saving Rochester's life. Strangely, Rochester's reaction is to visit the third floor of the house. When he returns, he says mysteriously, "I have found it all out, it is just as I thought." He inquires whether Jane has ever heard the eerie laughter before, and she answers that she has heard Grace Poole laugh in the same way. "Just so. Grace Poole—you have guessed it," Rochester confirms. He thanks Jane for saving his life and cautions her to tell no one about the details of the night's events. He sleeps on the library sofa for the remainder of the night.

The next morning, Jane is shocked to learn that the near tragedy of the night before has caused no scandal. The servants believe Rochester to have fallen asleep with a lit candle by his bed, and even Grace Poole shows no sign of guilt or remorse. Jane cannot imagine why an attempted murderer is allowed to continue working at Thornfield. She realizes that she is beginning to have feelings for Rochester and is disappointed that he will be away from Thornfield for several days. He has left to attend a party where he will be in the company of Blanche Ingram, a beautiful lady. Jane scolds herself for being disappointed by the news, and she resolves to restrain her flights of imaginative fancy by comparing her own portrait to one she has drawn of Blanche Ingram, noting how much plainer she is than the beautiful Blanche.

Rochester has been gone for a week, and Jane is dismayed to learn that he may choose to depart for continental Europe without returning to Thornfield—according to Mrs. Fairfax, he could be gone for more than a year. A week later, however, Mrs. Fairfax receives word that Rochester will arrive in three days with a large group of guests. While she waits, Jane continues to be amazed by the apparently normal relations the strange, self-isolated Grace Poole enjoys with the rest of the staff. Jane also overhears a conversation in which a few of the servants discuss Grace's high pay, and Jane is certain that she doesn't know the entire truth about Grace Poole's role at Thornfield. Rochester arrives at last, accompanied by a party of elegant and aristocratic guests. Jane is forced to join the group but spends the evening watching them from a window seat. Blanche Ingram and her mother are among the party's members, and they treat Jane with disdain and cruelty. Jane tries to leave the party, but Rochester stops her. He grudgingly allows her to go when he sees the tears brimming in her eyes. He informs her that she must come into the drawing room every evening during his guests' stay at Thornfield. As they part, Rochester nearly lets slip more than he intends. "Good-night, my—" he says, before biting his lip.

The guests stay at Thornfield for several days. Rochester and Blanche compete as a team at charades. From watching their interaction, Jane believes that they will be married soon though they do not seem to love one another. Blanche would be marrying Rochester for his wealth, and he for her beauty and her social position. One day, a strange man named Mr. Mason arrives at Thornfield. Jane dislikes him at once because of his vacant eyes and his slowness, but she learns from him that Rochester once lived in the West Indies, as he himself has done. One evening, a gypsy woman comes to Thornfield to tell the guests' fortunes. Blanche Ingram goes first, and when she returns from her talk with the gypsy woman she looks keenly disappointed.

Jane goes in to the library to have her fortune read, and after overcoming her skepticism, she finds herself entranced by the old woman's speech. The gypsy woman seems to know a great deal about Jane and tells her that she is very close to happiness. She also says that she told Blanche Ingram that Rochester was not as wealthy as he seemed, thereby accounting for Blanche's sullen mood. As the woman reads Jane's fortune, her voice slowly deepens, and Jane realizes that the gypsy is Rochester in disguise. Jane reproaches Rochester for tricking her and remembers thinking that Grace Poole might have been the gypsy. When Rochester learns that Mr. Mason has arrived, he looks troubled.

The same night, Jane is startled by a sudden cry for help. She hurries into the hallway, where Rochester assures everyone that a servant has merely had a nightmare. After everyone returns to bed, Rochester knocks on Jane's door. He tells her that he can use her help and asks whether she is afraid of blood. He leads her to the third story of the house and shows her Mr. Mason, who has been stabbed in the arm. Rochester asks Jane to stanch the wound and then leaves, ordering Mason and Jane not to speak to one another. In the silence, Jane gazes at the image of the apostles and Christ's crucifixion that is painted on the cabinet across from her. Rochester returns with a surgeon, and as the men tend to Mason's wounds, Rochester sends Jane to find a potion downstairs. He gives some of it to Mason, saying that it will give him heart for an hour. Once Mason is gone, Jane and Rochester stroll in the orchard, and Rochester tells Jane a hypothetical story about a young man who commits a "capital error" in a foreign country and proceeds to lead a life of dissipation in an effort to "obtain relief." The young man then hopes to redeem himself and live morally with a wife, but convention prevents him from doing so. He asks whether the young man would be justified in "overleaping an obstacle of custom." Jane's reply is that such a man should look to God for his redemption, not to another person. Rochester—who obviously has been describing his own situation—asks Jane to reassure him that marrying Blanche would bring him salvation. He then hurries away before she has a chance to answer.

Jane has heard that it is a bad omen to dream of children, and now she has dreams on seven consecutive nights involving babies. She learns that her cousin John Reed has committed suicide, and that her aunt, Mrs. Reed, has suffered a stroke and is nearing death. Jane goes to Gateshead, where she is reunited with Bessie. She also sees her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Eliza is plain and plans to enter a convent, while Georgiana is as beautiful as ever. Ever since Eliza ruined Georgiana's hopes of eloping with a young man, the two sisters have not gotten along. Jane tries to patch things up with Mrs. Reed, but the old woman is still full of hostility toward her late husband's favorite. One day, Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from her father's brother, John Eyre. He declares that he wishes to adopt Jane and bequeath her his fortune. The letter is three years old; out of malice, Mrs. Reed did not forward it to Jane when she received it. In spite of her aunt's behavior, Jane tries once more to smooth relations with the dying woman. But Mrs. Reed refuses, and, at midnight, she dies.

Jane reflects on the beauty of nature from a child's perspective. This is juxtaposed with sickness of Helen because she confined to her bed and cannot experience the beauty of the world. This leads to religious questions of the existence of the afterlife because Jane is concerned about Helen and where she will go when she dies.

She had further developed her interests but lost a childlike passion. She became much more calm under the presence of Miss Temple but lost the motivation to maintain that attitude after Miss Temple left. She is still the same person who understands the justices of Mrs. Reed, but has more controlled way to approach those situations.

She recognizes a restlessness in her nature to experience more of the world than she currently is. She connects this to humanity and women because women feel just as men do, have the same desires, and needs tools to experience the world. Men have the opportunities to do so but women are expected to be content with their surroundings.

She is thinking about Bessie's tales and connects the horse to the spirit "Gytrash". She says that Rochester broke the spell. She describes the dark, brooding nature of Rochester but also comments that the ugliness of Rochester makes him more approachable. It was an incident of no romance, but it still made significant change in her life because her act of kindness was active in contrast to the passiveness that surrounds her.

This conversation is cold and awkward. Jane is not intimidated by him and leaves him speechless. He treats her in a blunt manner. He is unconcerned with being polite as he asks her questions. Jane is honest with the questions. The simplicity of their interactions renders them both perplexed by each other and this ignites future conversations and further connections despite their drastically different backgrounds.

The pictures are water colored and depict nature. They are dreamlike and "elfish" which shows Jane's curiosity about the world but lack of tangible encounters with it. They are interesting to Rochester because they are unique and unlike anything he has ever seen.

Grace is a middle aged servant who is paid a lot and seems to have a lot of power at Thornfield. Jane attributes the laugh on the third floor to Grace and believes Grace has a supernatural aspect to her. He looks to the third story with a sense of destiny which suggests that there are issues relating to that area of the house that he will need to face. It connects with Jane's tendency to make Rochester want to become a better person.

Their conversation differs from the first because it is more banter and less of Rochester interrogating Jane. It is more of a friendly conservation. They talk about their pasts and their good/bad qualities. He says that Jane will learn to be natural with him because as she gets more accosted to her nature, they will have mote fruitful conversations. This does proves to be true.

It is significant because during that time people calculated their actions to result in a personal benefit, but Rochester begins to fall in love with Jane because she has no ulterior motives for saving him. Jane enjoys the attention from Rochester and develops feelings for him. She distinguishes them by suppressing her romantic thoughts due to her financial status. She draws a portrait of a plain governess and of a beautiful lady (Ingram) to remind herself of the impossibility of her feelings

She is in love with him and finds his unconventional looks beautiful in her eyes. She feels that mentally they are alike and share the same tastes and feelings.

Mrs. Fairfax described Blanche Ingram as very beautiful with brilliant accomplishments, but Jane thinks that Blanche Ingram is inferior mentally, has unoriginal thoughts and opinions, and is unable to charm Mr. Rochester. If Miss Ingram had been a kind person capable of intellectual conversation, Jane would have been able to move on and let her love go. However, seeing Miss Ingram fail to charm Rochester only makes Jane fall more in love with Mr. Rochester.

Rochester dresses up as gipsy to find out Jane's true feelings about his marriage with Miss Ingram. He wants to confirm that Miss Ingram is only interested in money. He wants to know Jane's intentions for coming to Thornfield and if she really loves him.

Chapter 20 begins with the moonlight awakening Jane. She observes shadows, antique tapestry, and a cabinet with the heads of the twelve apostles and a crucifix on it. Rochester comments that Jane's innocence allows her to not notice the ugliness of the Gothic features of the house and the dark secrets that lurk in them.

They become more friendly with each other. Their conversations are a lot less rude. Rochester recognizes that Jane holds some importance in his life. Rochester is interested in her family because he wants to know who she is related to, where she is going, and if that will impede in his ability to marry her. They part with Rochester insisting in a more friendly goodbye. The panting of Rochester suggest she cannot get him off her mind.

He committed suicide as a result of being a terrible person toward Jane. Georgiana and Eliza represent the extremes of either being a socialite or a nun. They are hostile and critical of each other because their lifestyles are so different. Jane means that feelings are from the heart and judgments are from the mind and sometimes they work together and other times they contradict each other.

She thinks of Helen Burns, including how she looked when she was dying. It is revealed that Jane has an uncle who three years ago requested that her information be sent to him so he can adopt her. Jane is surprised but forgives Mrs. Reed from withholding the letter. Mrs. Reed justifies what she did and remains hostile toward Jane.

It conforms to domesticity because Georgiana and Eliza represent the gender roles. It also conforms to religion as Helen and Jane were both religious. It rejects social convention with the match between Rochester and Jane. It also focuses on nature and depicts Jane as a romantic character in a Victorian setting.