Jane Eyre [RNIB Edition] recap

Orphaned Jane Eyre survives an abusive childhood at Gateshead and harsh schooling at Lowood before becoming governess at Thornfield Hall. She falls in love with its guarded owner, Edward Rochester, despite his apparent courtship of Blanche Ingram and strange violence hidden within the house. Rochester proposes, but their wedding is stopped by the discovery that his wife, Bertha Mason, is alive and confined at Thornfield. Refusing to become Rochester's mistress, Jane flees and is sheltered by the Rivers siblings. She discovers they are her cousins and shares an unexpected inheritance with them. St John Rivers asks her to marry him and join his missionary work, but she refuses a loveless marriage. Jane returns to find Thornfield burned, Bertha dead, and Rochester injured and blind. Now financially independent, Jane freely marries him; they have a son, and he later regains partial sight.

Ten-year-old Jane Eyre lives at Gateshead with her widowed aunt, Mrs Reed, and the Reed children, who regard the orphan as an inferior dependent. After John Reed attacks her, Jane fights back and is locked in the red-room where her uncle died. Terror and distress make her collapse, but neither Mrs Reed nor the household apothecary can persuade the family to treat her as one of their own. When Jane learns that she may be sent to school, she welcomes escape. Mr Brocklehurst of Lowood Institution interviews her and accepts Mrs Reed's claim that Jane is dishonest. Before leaving, Jane finally tells her aunt that the family's cruelty has made her hate Gateshead, gaining a first sense of moral independence even though she remains powerless.

At Lowood, Jane endures cold, hunger, rigid discipline, and Mr Brocklehurst's public accusation that she is a liar. She befriends Helen Burns, whose patient religious outlook challenges Jane's anger, and receives fair treatment from the superintendent, Miss Temple. Miss Temple investigates Jane's history and clears her name. A typhus epidemic exposes the school's neglect; many pupils die, and reforms later improve conditions. Helen, already ill with tuberculosis, dies with Jane beside her. Jane remains at Lowood for eight years, first as a pupil and then as a teacher. When Miss Temple leaves, Jane realizes she wants a wider life. She advertises for a governess position and is hired to teach a young girl at Thornfield Hall.

Jane arrives at Thornfield and is welcomed by the housekeeper, Mrs Fairfax. Her pupil Adèle Varens is the French ward of the absent owner, Mr Rochester. Jane hears an eerie laugh from an upper floor, which Mrs Fairfax attributes to the servant Grace Poole. During a winter walk Jane helps a stranger whose horse has slipped; she later discovers he is Rochester. He questions her bluntly about her life, education, and drawings, and their unconventional conversations interest them both. Rochester explains that Adèle may be the daughter of a former French mistress and that he took responsibility for her after the woman abandoned her. One night Jane wakes to the strange laugh and finds Rochester's bed curtains burning. She puts out the fire and saves him. Rochester blames Grace Poole but asks Jane to keep the incident private, deepening the mystery and their attachment.

Rochester leaves Thornfield and returns with an aristocratic house party headed by the beautiful Blanche Ingram. Jane believes Rochester intends to marry Blanche and painfully measures the difference in their wealth and status. Rochester disguises himself as a fortune-teller to question the guests and Jane. The visit is disrupted by the arrival of Richard Mason from the West Indies. That night a cry comes from the locked upper floor. Rochester secretly asks Jane to tend Mason, who has been attacked, while refusing to explain who injured him. Mason is removed before the other guests rise. Rochester then asks Jane to imagine whether a person burdened by an old wrong may seek happiness through a new course, but he still withholds the facts of his past.

Jane returns briefly to Gateshead, where the dying Mrs Reed admits that she concealed a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, John Eyre, who had wanted to adopt her. Back at Thornfield, Rochester abandons the appearance of courting Blanche and asks Jane to marry him. She accepts, but ominous events accompany the engagement, including the destruction of the chestnut tree beneath which he proposed and the tearing of Jane's wedding veil by a woman in her room. At the church, Richard Mason and a solicitor stop the ceremony by proving Rochester is already married. Rochester takes the party to the upper floor and reveals his wife, Bertha Mason, living under Grace Poole's supervision. He explains the disastrous marriage and asks Jane to live with him abroad. Though she still loves him, Jane refuses a relationship that would violate her conscience. With little money and no destination, she secretly leaves Thornfield.

After exhausting her money and nearly dying on the moors, Jane is admitted to Moor House by Diana and Mary Rivers and their clergyman brother, St John. Concealing her surname, she accepts St John's offer to teach at a small village school and creates a modest independent life. St John suppresses his love for the wealthy Rosamond Oliver because he believes she is unsuited to missionary hardship. From a stray detail, he identifies Jane and brings news that her uncle John Eyre has died, leaving her a large fortune. He also reveals that his mother was John Eyre's sister, making the Rivers siblings Jane's cousins. Delighted to have a family, Jane divides the inheritance equally among all four of them. She is now financially secure and closely connected to Diana and Mary, while St John prepares for missionary service in India.

St John pressures Jane to marry him and accompany him to India, valuing her endurance and usefulness rather than loving her. Jane is willing to help as his cousin but recognizes that a loveless marriage to him would destroy her. As she nearly yields to his religious authority, she seems to hear Rochester calling her name and decides to learn what happened to him. She returns to find Thornfield burned and abandoned. Bertha set the fire and died after jumping from the roof; Rochester rescued the servants but was blinded and lost a hand. Jane goes to his secluded home at Ferndean, assures him that she has returned freely, and marries him from a position of emotional and financial equality. Their marriage is happy, they have a son, and Rochester later regains partial sight. Diana and Mary also marry. St John remains in India, wholly committed to his mission as his health fails.

After hearing what seems to be Rochester calling her from a great distance, Jane leaves St John and returns to Thornfield. She finds the house ruined by a fire set by Bertha Mason, who died after jumping from the roof. Rochester saved the servants but lost a hand and his sight while trying to rescue Bertha. Jane finds him living in seclusion at Ferndean and chooses to marry him now that the relationship can be lawful and independent: she has her own fortune, while he must accept her help. They build a happy life together, and Rochester eventually recovers enough sight in one eye to see their first child. Diana and Mary Rivers also marry, while St John continues his demanding missionary work in India and appears to be approaching death with the same absolute religious conviction that has governed his life.