Jane Eyre characters

Appears from the start

An orphaned girl of ten living at Gateshead Hall, the home of her aunt by marriage, Mrs Reed, who took her in unwillingly after the death of Jane's uncle. Plain, small, and passionate, Jane is treated as an unwanted dependent, bullied by her cousins and blamed for every quarrel. Intelligent and fiercely truthful, she longs for affection and justice and will not meekly accept cruelty.

Also known as Sarah Reed

Appears from the start

Jane's aunt by marriage and unwilling guardian, a cold, proud widow who despises the orphaned niece left in her care. She indulges her own three children while treating Jane as an inferior, and punishes her harshly, including shutting her alone in the frightening red-room. She resolves to be rid of Jane by sending her away to school.

Appears from the start

Mrs Reed's spoiled, overbearing son, some four years older than Jane, who bullies and strikes her while his mother overlooks his behavior. Greedy and idle, he torments Jane as a matter of course and treats her as beneath the family.

First appears in chapter 4

The stern, hypocritical clergyman who manages Lowood, the charity school for girls to which Jane is sent. He preaches privation and humility to the pupils while his own family lives in comfort. On meeting Jane he brands her a liar on Mrs Reed's word, and later humiliates her before the whole school.

First appears in chapter 5

An older pupil Jane befriends at Lowood, a thoughtful, patient girl who bears the school's harsh punishments without complaint. Devoutly religious, she counsels Jane to endure injustice with forgiveness and to look beyond this life, and she gives Jane the first true friendship she has ever known.

Also known as Maria Temple

First appears in chapter 5

The kind and dignified superintendent of Lowood, respected by pupils and teachers alike. She shows Jane and Helen quiet compassion amid the school's severity, clears Jane of Brocklehurst's charge of lying, and becomes a guiding influence and model for Jane.

First appears in chapter 11

The elderly, motherly housekeeper who welcomes Jane to Thornfield Hall. Kindly and conventional, she runs the household during the frequent absences of its owner and gives Jane her first friendly reception there, though she knows little of the family's secrets.

First appears in chapter 11

The lively little French girl who becomes Jane's pupil at Thornfield, a ward placed in Mr Rochester's care. Fond of pretty clothes and of songs learned in Paris, she is affectionate but frivolous, and her connection to Rochester is not explained to Jane at first.

Also known as Edward Rochester

First appears in chapter 12

The master of Thornfield Hall, a dark, abrupt man of about forty whom Jane first meets when his horse slips on the ice and throws him. Blunt, moody, and given to probing conversation, he is drawn to Jane's candor and composure. He keeps his past and the strange happenings in his house closely guarded.

First appears in chapter 17

A beautiful, accomplished, and haughty young society lady who visits Thornfield among Rochester's guests. Wealthy in appearance and openly seeking a husband, she treats Jane and the household staff with disdain, and Rochester appears to be courting her, to Jane's private distress.

First appears in chapter 26

The violent madwoman kept in secret confinement on the upper floor of Thornfield, revealed on Jane's wedding day to be Mr Rochester's living wife. A Creole woman from the West Indies whom Rochester married years earlier, she has sunk into raving insanity and has been the hidden cause of the fires and attacks within the house.

First appears in chapter 28

The young clergyman who, with his sisters Diana and Mary, takes in the destitute Jane after she collapses at their door on the moors. Handsome, cold, and rigidly self-controlled, he is consumed by an ambition to serve as a missionary and suppresses his own feelings in the name of duty. He helps Jane find work as a village schoolmistress.