Jane Eyre

Jane anxiously departs on her journey, filled with fear of the unknown. She takes a coach to an inn near Thornfield, where a carriage-driver sent by Miss Fairfax meets her. At Thornfield, Jane receives a warm welcome from Miss Fairfax, an elderly woman who orders the servants to make Jane hot chocolate while she warms up by the fire.

Miss Fairfax explains that Jane’s pupil, Adèle Varens, is the eight-year-old daughter of Thornfield’s owner, Mr. Rochester. Because Mr. Rochester frequently travels, Miss Fairfax is in charge of his estate. Adèle is the child of a now deceased French singer and dancer Mr. Rochester met and had an affair with during his travels.

Adèle is excited that Jane speaks fluent French, and they bond quickly. Adèle insists on reciting poetry and singing for Jane, and she performs a song from an opera about a woman whose lover has forsaken her, which Jane disapproves of as inappropriate for her age.

The beauty and cleanliness with which Miss Fairfax maintains the house greatly impresses Jane. Miss Fairfax explains that she must always keep things orderly because Mr. Rochester turns up suddenly and unexpectedly. Miss Fairfax’s description of Mr. Rochester’s gives Jane feels a sense of foreboding. He has an unblemished character, but is also strange and comes from a passionate and emotional family. As Miss Fairfax leads her through the house, they pass a dark entrance to the attic, which to Jane resembles “a corridor in some Bluebeard’s castle” (264).

Suddenly, Jane hears a peal of disturbing laughter, which Miss Fairfax blames on a servant named Grace Poole. Miss Fairfax calls for Grace and sternly orders her, “Too much noise […] Remember directions!” (266). Miss Fairfax tells Jane that Grace is a bit strange and quickly shifts the subject of their conversation to Adèle.

Jane adjusts quickly to life at Thornfield. She gets along well with both Miss Fairfax and Adèle, who is bright and exuberant, if a bit willful and spoiled at times. Still, Jane feels restless and finds herself often gazing over the landscape and longing for more.

Jane also wonders about the strange laughter she continues to hear coming from the attic. She often observes Grace Poole emerging from the passageway to retrieve a bottle of porter, implying that perhaps Grace’s laughter is the delirious, lonely sound of an alcoholic.

One evening, Jane is out watching the moon when she sees a strange rider approaching. The atmosphere is so eerie and uncanny, Jane feels as though the rider might be a North-English spirit called Gytrash (from Bessie’s romantic fables). As Jane approaches the rider, he is startled and falls from his horse. Jane studies his features and she describes him as having “a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful” (266). After helping the man to Thornfield, Jane learns that he is in fact Mr. Rochester. 

After he arrives, Mr. Rochester is busy with his tenants. Adèle is distracted from her lessons, eager to see her father and the presents she presumes he has brought her.

Mr. Rochester summons Jane and Adèle to meet him after dinner that evening. He asks Jane about herself. When she tells him she is an orphan who spent eight years at Lowood, he remarks that she appeared to him like a fairy that “bewitched” (286) him and his horse.

Jane attempts to demonstrate her talents to Mr. Rochester, playing the piano and showing him a portfolio of her paintings and drawings. Mr. Rochester is decidedly not impressed with the quality of Jane’s art, but its singular, dark subject matter intrigues him.

Jane asks Miss Fairfax to explain Mr. Rochester’s moodiness. Miss Fairfax replies, “Partly because it is his nature […] partly because he has painful thoughts, no doubt, to harass him, and make his spirits unequal” (299). When Jane asks about these “painful thoughts,” Miss Fairfax is vague and evasive, attributing them to “family troubles” (299).

Over the next few days, Jane continues to see little of Mr. Rochester. One evening after dinner, he summons Jane and Adèle. While Adèle plays with a gift Mr. Rochester brought her, he sits with Jane by the fire. She examines him with curiosity and Mr. Rochester asks her if she finds him handsome. The question catches Jane off-guard, and she abruptly answers, “No, sir” (308). This “round rejoinder, which, if not blunt, is at least brusque” (308), surprises him. When she attempts to apologize, he mocks her, demanding to know which of his features offends her most. Jane is not quite sure how to respond and silently reasons that Mr. Rochester has had too much wine. As she sits in confusion, he offers his own judgment of her appearance: “you are not pretty any more than I am handsome, yet a puzzled air becomes you” (311).

Mr. Rochester demands that the two of them talk as equals, heightening the awkwardness of the moment. Jane wryly remarks that she is his paid employee and therefore does not know how to behave in this situation. The conversation evolves strangely, turning to the ideas of sin and redemption.

As Jane leaves for the night, Mr. Rochester expresses the hope that they will become closer and converse more naturally in the future, as he admires what he has seen of her intellect. He also promises to one day explain his relationship with Adèle’s mother. 

Adèle’s mother, Céline Varens was an opera dancer with whom Mr. Rochester had a brief affair, putting her up in a hotel and showering her with diamonds, cashmeres, and other gifts. Eventually, Mr. Rochester discovered that Céline was also having an affair with another man, and he was consumed with jealousy. Nevertheless, when she ran off with yet another man, who then left her destitute, Mr. Rochester took pity on Céline’s child. Mr. Rochester does not think of Adèle as his because he believes someone else fathered her, but he believes it is important she is raised in a stable environment.

Mr. Rochester asks Jane if she thinks of him differently after hearing this story. Jane is moved by the idea of Adèle as a well-treated orphan, subverting Mr. Rochester’s expectation that she would morally condemn him for his sexual libertinism.

That night, Jane lies awake thinking about Mr. Rochester’s passionate affair. She once again hears the strange laugh accompanied by a hand brushing against the wall. When Jane goes to the hallway to inspect, she sees smoke pouring from Mr. Rochester’s bedroom. She opens his door, sees that his bed is on fire, and douses him with water.

Mr. Rochester responds erratically, accusing Jane of drowning him before swiftly retreating to the attic. He then asks Jane if she saw anyone or heard a strange laugh. Jane tells him that she did not see anyone, but that she has heard the strange laughter before and knows that it comes from Grace Poole. Mr. Rochester replies, “Just so. Grace Poole—you have guessed it” (373). As Jane turns to leave, Mr. Rochester emphatically thanks her for saving his life and begs her not to tell anyone what has happened. 

The next morning, Jane is surprised by the servants’ matter-of-fact response to the fire incident. Grace Poole is sewing new bed curtains with no expression. Jane gazes at Grace in confusion, expecting to see some physical signs “marking the countenance of a woman who had attempted murder” (379).

Jane interrogates Grace about the fire, hoping to elicit some confession of guilt. Grace explains that the servants sleep a long way off from Mr. Rochester’s room, and Miss Fairfax didn’t wake anyone. When Jane mentions she heard strange laughter, Grace dismisses it as a dream. Frustrated, Jane wants to accuse her of attempted murder when the cook interrupts them. The cook invites Grace to dine with the servants, but Grace requests a small meal and a pint of porter on a tray she can carry to the attic.

Jane wonders why Grace has not been dismissed after this incident. Grace is too unappealing for Mr. Rochester to have feelings for, but Jane speculates that maybe in her youth Grace held Mr. Rochester’s affections. In the midst of these reflections, Jane detects stirrings of her own romantic feelings for Mr. Rochester.

Soon after, Jane learns that Mr. Rochester is going away for at least a week to visit the manor of Lord Ingram, who has a beautiful daughter named Blanche. Jane anxiously inquires with the servants about Blanche’s appearance, her accomplishments, and her precise relationship with Mr. Rochester, obviously worried about her romantic competition.

Privately, Jane chastises herself for even briefly entertaining the notion that Mr. Rochester might be romantically interested in her. To punish herself for her vanity, Jane draws a beautiful portrait of Blanche based on the servants’ descriptions and a crude, unflattering portrait of herself. She promises to “take out these two pictures and compare them: say, ‘Mr. Rochester might probably win that noble lady’s love, if he chose to strive for it; is it likely he would waste a serious thought on this indigent and insignificant plebeian?’” (398).