Jane Eyre

Author: Bront? Xu Ping
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Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Jane Eyre is an orphan born into a poor pastor's family. Her parents die from typhoid fever within a month. The young Jane is raised by her aunt and uncle. After her uncle, Mr. Reed, passes away, Jane spends 10 years enduring discrimination and abuse. Once, when resisting her cousin's beating, Jane is locked in the red room. The physical pain and mental humiliation and fear make her fall seriously ill. Her aunt treats her as a thorn in her eye and keeps her isolated from her own children, leading to more open and resolute opposition from Jane. Later, Jane is sent to Lowood Orphanage. The orphanage has strict rules and a harsh life, with the headmaster being a cold hypocrite. Jane continues to suffer both mentally and physically in the orphanage. Due to poor living conditions, children often die there. After graduating, Jane teaches at the orphanage for two years. During this time, her close friend Helen dies of tuberculosis. Jane grows tired of life in the orphanage and advertises for a position as a governess. The housekeeper at Thornfield Manor hires her. The master of the manor, Rochester, often travels abroad, and the only other resident is a young girl, Adèle Varens, who is under his protection and becomes Jane's student. One evening, Jane goes for a walk and encounters her master, who has just returned from abroad—it is their first meeting. Later, she discovers that her master is a moody and unpredictable man, whose attitude toward her fluctuates between kindness and cruelty. The entire house is gloomy and empty, sometimes filled with a strange, eerie laughter. One night, Jane is woken by this laughter in her dream and finds that Rochester's room is on fire. She wakes him up and helps put out the fire. After returning, Rochester often hosts dinner parties. At one such dinner, he pays great attention to a beautiful young woman named Blanche. Jane is called into the drawing room but is coldly ignored by Blanche and her daughter. She endures the humiliation and leaves the room. By this time, she has fallen in love with Rochester. In truth, Rochester has also fallen in love with Jane, though he merely wants to test her feelings for him. When he proposes to Jane, she accepts him. The night before the wedding, Jane sees a repulsive woman in front of the mirror, wearing her wedding dress in a dream. The next day, during the quiet wedding ceremony at the church, someone suddenly testifies that Rochester has been married for 15 years. His wife is the madwoman locked in the attic. The law prevents their love, plunging them into deep sorrow. On a stormy night, Jane leaves Rochester. In her search for a new life, Jane lives in the open, begging along the way, enduring hardships, until she is taken in by the Rev. St. John at the marsh house and begins teaching at a local small school. Soon after, Jane learns that her uncle has died and left her an inheritance, and she also discovers that St. John is her cousin. She decides to split the inheritance with him. St. John is a fervent religious devotee, planning to go to India as a missionary. He asks Jane to marry him and go with him to India, but she refuses and decides to return to Rochester's side. She returns to Thornfield Manor, only to find it in ruins—the madwoman has set it on fire and died after falling from the roof, and Rochester is injured and disabled. Jane finds him and marries him, achieving the happiness she had always dreamed of.