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Summary and Analysis of Volume III, Chapters 1-6
Volume III, Chapter 1 Summary: Jane wrestles over whether to leave Thornfield or not. Rochester asks her forgiveness, and Jane privately grants it to him, though not outwardly. Moreover, she does not let him kiss her, as he already has a wife. Rochester apologizes for bringing Jane to Thornfield and for concealing his wife from her. He will send Adèle off to school and have Grace stay at Thornfield to watch over Bertha. Jane refuses to go off with him and cries, saying that though she loves him, she must leave him. Rochester explains the conditions surrounding his marriage to Bertha. His greedy father wanted to leave his entire estate to Rochester's older brother, Rowland. So that Rochester was not completely poor, he arranged for a marriage to the daughter of his old acquaintance, Mr. Mason; Rochester would gain 30,000 pounds from the union. After college, Rochester went to Jamaica to meet the beautiful and desirable Bertha Mason, though he spent little time alone with her. They were quickly married, and soon after he learned that Bertha's mother was in an insane asylum and her younger brother was mad, too; Rochester suspects that her older brother, Mason, will also one day go mad. Over the four years he lived with Bertha in Jamaica, she grew increasingly insane and violent. In the meantime, Rochester's father and brother died, leaving him with their fortune. Feeling hopeless, Rochester took Bertha to Thornfield, where he hired Grace to take care of Bertha in the attic cell. Rochester then sought out another wife in his travels around Europe, though he found no one suitableuntil he met Jane, whom he was attracted to from the start, although he could not tell if she returned the affection. Jane is torn, but she declares she still must leave him. Rochester points out that she has no family who will be offended by her marriage to him, and it occurs to her that no one else in the world cares for herexcept for herself. Rochester, incensed and desperate, cannot convince her to stay with him. She leaves him in the room alone. Jane cannot sleep at night, and instead packs up and furtively leaves Thornfield, resisting the temptation to express her love to Rochester and stay. She gets a ride on a coach to a distant town called Whitcross. AnalysisAlthough Jane's departure from Thornfield is her third major exit from a place after Gateshead and Lowood, it is by far her hardest decision. If she stays, she enjoys the love of a man whom she admits she worships, as well as the luxury that his wealth affords (but this is of secondary concern to Jane). However, if she stays, she feels she will lose self-respect, and more than the love of others, Jane's quest is for self-love and independence. As she puts it to herself, "I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself." Why will marriage destroy Jane's independence? Jane continually uses the excuse of Rochester's marriage to Bertha, but this is most likely not the true reasonafter all, she was at times hesitant about marriage before she learned about Bertha. Rather, we can view Rochester's marriage to Bertha as a symbol for the inequalities of Victorian marriageespecially in the way it imprisons (literally, in Bertha's case) the female. Jane is worried about similar imprisonment, particularly from Rochester's higher social standing and the proprietary feelings he has for her (note his frequent pet names for her). Rochester's marriage to Bertha has other implications. Bertha has been identified as a Creole, meaning she is white but was born in the British-colonized West Indies, or she has some actual black ancestry. If we read Bertha's status as a metaphorically imprisoned "colony" of the British empire, then it is safe to assume that Brontë saw the same issues of colonization in marriage. Volume III, Chapter 2 Summary: The coach drops Jane off at the desolate crossroads of Whitcross; the nearest town is ten miles away. Finding nature her only ally, she heads deep into the heath and seeks protection under a crag. She tries to sleep, but longs for Rochester. After finding evidence of God in the majesty of nature, she sleeps. The next day, she sets out on the road and finds a village. She looks around for work, but there is none available, and she is reduced to begging for food. As night falls, Jane walks toward a lit house in the distance among the marshes. She looks through the windows and sees two young ladies, Diana and Mary, and their elderly servant, Hannah. She listens in on their conversation, and discovers they are awaiting someone named St. John, and that the woman's husbandand the ladies' fatherrecently died. Jane knocks on the door and begs Hannah to let her stay for the night, but Hannah fears Jane will bring others with her. St. John arrives at the same time and rescues her, bringing her into the house. After being revived with bread and milk, she gives her name but can give no further details, and says she puts herself in their hands. The members of the household privately discuss the matter, then put Jane to bed. Analysis: Jane, seeking autonomy throughout the novel, finally receives itand promptly abandons it. Freed from the bonds of marriage at Thornfield, she learns that truly independent living means sleeping outdoors, scavenging for food, and giving up all dignity. She leans more heavily on God in this chapter, and, indeed, it is a religious man, St. John, who proves her salvation. At the chapter's end, Jane relinquishes whatever independence she previously claimed: "'I will trust you. If I were a masterless and stray dog, I know that you would not turn me from your hearth tonight: as it is, I really have no fear. Do with me and for me as you like'" She willfully succumbs to the identity of a stray dog, putting her faith in others rather than in herself. Volume III, Chapter 3 Summary: Jane spends the next three days in bed at the house, attended to by Hannah and occasionally seeing Diana and Mary. On the fourth day, Jane gets out of bed and goes downstairs to the kitchen. She assures Hannah she is not a beggar, and discovers that the house is called Marsh End or Moor House, and that the ladies' brother, the parson St. John Rivers, lives in his parish in nearby Morton. Jane reprimands Hannah for trying to turn her out the other night and for reproaching Jane for her poverty, but she quickly forgives the elderly woman. Hannah fills Jane in on the history of Marsh End, which has been in the Rivers family for generations. Since the children's father has recently died, the ladies are staying at the house for a few weeks. Diana, Mary, and St. John soon return, and the sisters direct her to keep out of the kitchen and sit into the parlor. St. John is there, and Jane examines his classically handsome face. Jane tells them that she has no home or friends, and refuses to reveal her last residence. Instead, she provides a bare-bones history of her life. She admits that the name "Jane Elliott" she gave them is a pseudonym, but will not tell them her real name. She asks to stay with them until she finds work, and they agree to help her. Analysis: Brontë draws an obvious contrast between the altruistic, kindly Rivers childrenDiana, Mary, and St. Johnand the spoiled, cruel Reed childrenEliza, Georgiana, and the far from holy John. That St. John is a parson indicates Jane's view of religion will undergo further revision as she seeks a Christian model applicable to her life. In fact, Jane cites Christianity in her defensive speech to Hannah: "'Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime.'" Once again, Jane is out of sorts financially. Whereas before she was consistently a poor figure in a rich environment (in the Reed house and at Thornfield), she is here identified as a beggar. Although she has indeed been begging, Jane resists this definition, seeking an identity divorced from money. Volume III, Chapter 4 Summary: Jane gets to know and like her hosts and the house more over the next few days; she is especially drawn to Diana's charisma. She does not see much of St. John, and when she does, he is generally reserved and brooding. One day she hears him preach in his church, and his stern Calvinist oration about predestination has a profound, thrilling effect on her, although it leaves her saddened. Despite his eloquence, she feels he has not "found that peace of God which passeth all understanding" anymore than Jane has. After a month, Diana and Mary prepare to return to their positions as governesses elsewhere in England. Jane asks St. John if he knows of any work for her. He informs her that after his sisters leave, he will shut up the house, and that his relative poverty means he can offer her only one job: that of headmistress for a girls' school he is establishing in Morton. Jane gladly accepts, but St. John suspects that Jane will grow bored of the job and soon leave. Before the sisters leave, St. John tells them that their uncle John is dead. They are relieved by this news, and Diana explains that their uncle and father quarreled, and the upshot was that their father lost most of his fortune while their uncle profited greatly. The uncle has left almost all his 20,000 pounds to his one other relation, while giving a pittance to the Rivers children. Over the next few days, all the inhabitants of the house leave. Analysis: Jane finds greater intimacy with the residents at Marsh End, and there is a reason for this not yet revealed in the narrative. The astute reader will notice some connections between the fortune left by the Rivers's uncle and that of Jane's own uncle John. St. John's calculated, somewhat cold Calvinism is not an ideal Christian model for Jane, as she finds in it "a strange bitterness; an absence of consolatory gentleness." While Helen Burns's doctrine of tolerance and forgiveness was too meek for Jane, St. John's is far too intolerant and unforgiving. Volume III, Chapter 5 Summary: Jane is installed in her cottage and has finished the first day of school. Her students are largely uneducated, but many are eager learners. She has sunk into some self-pity over her situation, but resolves to work hard and help the students. She maintains that she is better off being free and in somewhat difficult conditions than staying with Rochester as a beloved slave in luxury. St. John opens up and tells her that a year ago he was unhappy as a priest and was looking for a more exciting lifestyle. But he heard a call from God to be a missionary, and he will soon leave Europe to proselytize in the East. A beautiful, angelic young lady, Rosamond Oliver, interrupts them; her father has told her St. John's new school has opened, and she wants to know how the first day was. Jane realizes that Miss Oliver is the wealthy benefactress of the school. Miss Oliver invites St. John to visit her father, but he stolidly declines. They part ways. Analysis: Jane has come full circle; she was once a neglected, poor orphan at Lowood and is now headmistress of her own school. Following in the mold of the kindly Miss Temple, she resolves to help her students who, while not orphans, are poor and largely uneducated. In fact, Jane nearly turns to snobbishness when describing the students, and must remind herself that "these coarsely clad little peasants are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy." Such a scion comes in the form of the stunning Miss Oliver, the first example in the novel of someone who is rich, beautiful, and good-natured (everyone else has only one or two of the qualities). Volume III, Chapter 6 Summary: Jane adjusts to the rigors of teaching, and over time finds her students able and amiable. She becomes a well-liked fixture in the community. Still, she often dreams at night of being with Rochester. Miss Oliver frequently visits her, and Jane can see the effect she has on St. John, who does his best to conceal his feelingsthough he clearly desires her, he has devoted himself to his religion. Jane visits her and Mr. Oliver one evening at her home, Vale Hall. Jane discovers that Mr. Oliver wants his daughter to marry St. John. One day, while Jane is working on a portrait of Miss Oliver she has been asked to do, St. John visits. He is taken by the portrait, and Jane tells him of Miss Oliver's affection for him. He confesses that he loves her, too, and finds her beautiful, but thinks she is not a good match for him as a missionary, a calling he will not relinquish. St. John then sees something on the edge of the blank paper between the portrait and the cardboard backingJane is not sure what it isand furtively rips it off and leaves. Analysis: St. John is much like Jane; unwilling to give up his independence for love, he would rather seek his own calling in life than be beholden to someone else, even someone he might love passionately. Without much fanfare, Jane is, indeed, finding her calling as she teaches girls who are much like she once was. Without romance on her mind, except for the occasional nightmares about Rochester, she is learning to love and be loved in a stable, affirming community.
ClassicNote on Jane Eyre
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