Title: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Brontë
Date of First Publication: 1847
Place of Publication: Smith, Elder, and Co.
Type: Novel
Characters: No Character
Themes: BYRONIC HERO; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: The novel starts out with an orphaned Jane Eyre who living with her aunt, Mrs. Reed. Mrs. Reed, who is cruel to Jane, agreed with her apothecary to send Jane away to school. While there, Jane faces the hardships that the school offered, as the girls there were poorly taken care of due to the actions of the headmaster Mr. Brocklehurst. Upon finding out the conditions the girls had to live in, Brocklehurst’s position was taken away from him and the school was put under new, improved management. Years later in the novel, Jane decides to take a position as a governess at the Thornfield manor and teaches a girl by the name of Adele. Although all seems well in the manor, strange happenings occur such as a fire that started within the manor. Having been told by Edward Rochester, the manor’s owner and Jane’s employer, that the fire was started by Grace Poole, a woman working within the manor, Jane becomes suspicious of the story due to the fact that no one questioned or confronted the supposed arsonist. Rochester intrigues, then enchants Jane. She falls in love with him and much to her dismay, he brings home a woman by the name of Blanche Ingram. Even though Blanche only seemed to be after Rochester’s money, Jane believed that Rochester would ask her to marry him. Much to her surprise, though, Jane was the one that Rochester proposed to. During the wedding ceremony, a man by the name of Mason declares that Rochester is already married to a woman by the name of Bertha. Rochester does not deny these claims and tells Jane of his wife Bertha that he had married and who had gone insane. She is kept on the third floor of the manor and is the main cause for the fire that had started inside the manor. Jane, unable to be with Rochester, flees from the manor. Jane is eventually taken in by some newfound relatives that reside within the Moor House. When her uncle dies, she inherits a large sum of money which she split between her and her relatives. Later in the novel, she finds that the Thornfield manor had been burned down, and that Rochester had lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane is mysteriously called to Rochester and is asked to be married to him. She agrees. The novel ends with Jane marrying Rochester. Some years later, he regains the sight in one eye in time to see his first son.
The novel is connected to Frankenstein due to the Byronic figure that Edward Rochester is molded after. Rochester had a troubled past. Left without an estate or inheritance, he married Bertha in the hopes of gaining a fortune, yet instead, saw that he married a person that was inclined to madness. Rochester is someone of high intellect who deceived about what caused the fire in the manor, and that he was married—and yet he still asked her to marry him. He had little care for the way society viewed him. The relationship of women to the monstrous nature of men is present.
Administrative Notes: Victoria Garibay, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)