Plot Of The Novel Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte The Third Edition

Plot of the Novel: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte the Third Edition

Introduction

The plot of a novel can be defined as the series of events that simultaneously take place from the beginning of the novel to the end. The events are unfolded in a way that the reader is suspended to the very end since he or she cannot tell what will happen next. These events that unfold are either caused by the characters in the novel or these characters must respond to the events. The events fall in different categories such as emotional, mental, violent upheavals, or a mixture of them. The plot of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is designed in a very imaginative manner. This makes the reader to have the desire to read more because one cannot predict what will happen next after reading the unfolding of events in one chapter.

The Plot

Jane, Aunt Reed, and the Head Teacher

Jane Eyre is the protagonist in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This is a wonderful novel that is full of romance, pain, and deceit. The protagonist is an orphan who is being brought up by her aunt- aunt Reed. The aunt together with her children is very abusive and their treatment to Jane is unbecoming. The novel doesn’t tell us the exact cause of Jane parents’ but we are told that they died in some kind of accident. Jane used to live with the family of her uncle who was married to Aunt Reed before the death of the uncle. The experiences of Jane in her aunt’s home drastically changed when the uncle died although the aunt had promised her

Plot of the Novel: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte the Third Edition

husband that she will give the best care to Jane. When the uncle died, mistreatments started on Jane and the aunt started locking Jane in the room that her husband had died (Charlotte, 21). According to the aunt, Jane was a liar and when Aunt Reed takes her to school when she was ten years old, she tells the head teacher- Mr. Brocklehurst- that the girl was a liar (Charlotte, 31). This made Jane’s life in the school very hard especially when the head teacher told the students and the teachers in the school that they shouldn’t believe anything that Jane Eyre told them because she is a liar. The head teacher also said that Jane as a teacher could not give adequate information to the girls in the school. Jane spent eight years in the Lowood School where for six years she was a student and a teacher for the remaining two years.

Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester, and Bertha

When Jane left the school, Mr. Rochester told her of an opportunity that existed in Thornfield Hall where a governess was being required. Jane decides to take the job of a governess and here in Thornfield Hall, she meets Mr. Rochester who she learns that he is the master of the Thornfield Hall. Jane moves with Mr. Rochester into his house so that she could assist in teaching Mr. Rochester’s daughter. As time went by, Jane developed some love for Mr. Rochester and they eventually fall in love. With time, Jane came to learn that Mr. Rochester had another girlfriend and in fact these two individuals were to be married to each other (Charlotte, 264). Jane finds herself in a state where she doesn’t want to let herself be used by Mr. Rochester in the name of love. Contrary, the feelings that she has for Mr. Rochester are still strong deep within her and as much as her mind tries to deny it, the heart still has some love for Mr. Rochester. Jane later learns that this lady by the name Blanche was just a project by Mr. Rochester to check if the love that Jane had for him was real. Later, Mr. Rochester and Jane come to an agreement that they will marry each other and they proposed a date for the wedding. Unfortunately, on this very day that was supposed to be a happy day a man appeared and was for the idea that Jane could not be married to Mr. Rochester since Mr. Rochester was already married to another lady by the name Bertha Mason.

This incident made Jane to know so much about Mr. Rochester and her life took a different turn. As Jane later came to learn, Bertha was an insane lady but had used her wealth and beauty to win Mr. Rochester’s love and they ended up in marriage. On the side of Mr. Rochester, she

Plot of the Novel: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte the Third Edition

never knew about bertha’s insanity until they got married. When Mr. Rochester came to learn about Bertha’s insanity, he decides to keep her locked in a room in the Thornfield Hall. Jane later came to learn here that it is this insane lady who had put the bedroom on fire when she was living in Mr. Rochester’s house. Jane refuses to get married to Mr. Rochester and runs away from his house. Jane finds herself with a pastor Rivers’ houses where the pastor looked for a house for Jane and later helped her secure a job so as to help her earn a living. Later, the clergyman proposed to Jane that they get married but Jane refused to accept the proposal arguing that the man never loved him (Charlotte, 473). As the novel later comes to reveal, Jane’s heart could still remember Mr. Rochester and one time, Jane decided to try and find out how Mr. Rochester was fairing. She sent about three letters that were never replied and she decided to go there and find the reason. Here, she discovered that the house got burnt into ashes by Bertha and Bertha also died in the incident. The husband, Mr. Rochester lost his eyesight and also one of his hands in a bid to try and save her wife from the ranging fire.

Conclusion

The writer of the book Jane Eyre makes the events unfold in a way that the reader cannot help but keep on reading to know the next happening. The life of Jane since she was an orphan in Aunt Reed’s house, then on Lowood, and then in Thornfield come in a series that the book appears to be a reality and they keep the reader in a suspended state. The discoveries that Jane made in these different places especially in Thornfield keeps the reader wanting to know what will happen to Jane at the end of the novel.

References

Charlotte, B. (1999). Jane Eyre. New York: Carleton Publishers, 01-476.