Jane Eyre
XI-XIX: Jane as a Governess in Thornfield -- –
Service vs. Pursuit of Freedom and Love
First encounter:
19973-3 (0:27 -)
19982006 23:58
2011 – 31:25
Outline
• Review: Chap I-X—Jane between rebellion
& submissiveness
• Jane as a governess
• Her desire
• Attraction between Jane and Rochester
• The Polite Society & Their Games
• The Gothic Elements
• “The Aliens”: “Grace Poole” and Mr.
Mason
Review: Chaps I-IV
Chap I
Chap II
Jane alone vs. The Reed family
-- Reading and looking out of the window
-- rebellion “in frantic sort”
Red room and her sense of injustice;
Reduced to fear
Chap III Mr. Lloyd’s visit, gives Jane a choice between
poverty or school
-- Book: Gulliver’s Travels, Bessie’s song: sad
Chap IV The visit of Mr. Brocklehurst
--Book: Psalms are not interesting 28
--Mrs. Reed: Jane a liar 28
Jane’s 1st victory: speaking up against Mrs. Reed
-- her remorse
Review: Chaps V-X
Chap Departure (Jane clung to Bessie)
Lowood—poor food, sharing the same mug for drinking water.
V
Chap
VI
Chap
VII
Chap
VIII
Chap
IX
Chap
X
Helen Burns
– reading and explanation of the school and teachers
– Burns punished
Helen Burns’ punishment (beaten with twigs, “slattern”) continues;
discussion with Jane (endure it; denies her own merit; “Love your
enemy”)
The visit of Mr. Brocklehurst
Jane picked up as a liar
Helen: conscience more important than the world
Turning point 64 -65 – Jane inspired by Helen and Ms. Temple
Helen punished again 64
Spring comes.
Death of Helen Burns 71
Lowood reformed; Ms. Temple married. Jane stays in Lowood for 8
years and then seeks a teaching position elsewhere.
“I desire liberty…” (74)
Bessie’s visit before she leaves for Thornfield. (re. Mr. Eyre & the Reeds)
Chaps XI-XV
Chap -- Jane goes to Millcot and then Thornfield
XI
-- Meets Mrs. Fairfax, thinking that she’s the mistress of the house
-- Meets Adele, starts her teaching job
-- hears the laugh (93)
Chap -- feels restless
-- meets Rochester (98)
XII
Chap -- meets Rochester at home, his rudeness; talks about her past & shows
her pictures (110)
XIII
-- R’s family history (112)
Chap -- Rochester haughty and cold at first
-- starts to talk one day, asks her to speak (115XIV
-- Jane expresses her independent thinking, though young and
inexperienced; Rochester, paving hell, while Jane believes in selfimprovement (121)
-- Rochester’s understanding of Jane 122
Chap -- story of Celine, Jane treated as a confidante
-- Jane’s response to Adele (128), Jane’s role as a listener (129)
XV
-- saves Rochester from the fire; hears the laugh
Chaps XVI-XIX
Chap -- Fears Rochester and wishes to see him.
-- encounters with Grace Poole
XVI
Chap
XVII
Chap
XVIII
Chap
XIX
-- Rochester gone for a while to the Leas
-- Ms. Ingram described (139)
-- Jane’s interior monologue – self-discipline (140-)
-- preparation for the guests
-- The guests arrived (Ms. Ingram 145)
-- meeting the guests at the drawing room (149-), guests commenting on
Adele (152) and governess (155)
-- Jane’s observation (153-) -- Jane in tears
-- the guests playing charade
-- Jane: Ms. Ingram a mark beneath jealousy (163); view of her master
(165)
-- the gypsy
-- the arrival of Mr. Mason
-- Jane meeting the gypsy (R’s knowledge of Jane)
-- “Mason—the West Indies!”
Text Reading & Discussion
Govern
ess
Games
& Fine
Arts
The
Polite
Society
Jane &
Rochest
er
Jane’s
Desire
Discussion Questions
1. Leader
2. Summarizer
& Vocabulary
4. Figurative/
Good Language
5. Connector
8. Travel Tracer
9. Investigator
1. (G3 G4 )Governess: How is Jane positioned
as a governess in Thornfield? Is she treated
like a servant?
2. (G1, G7) Jane and Rochester: How is
Rochester related to Jane? How does she
change her views of Rochester?
3. (G10, G2 ) Desire: What does Jane desire?
What are the function of the laughers she
hears? Jane’s paintings (XXIII pp. 110; XVI
141)
4. (G6 G5 )The Polite Society: How does Jane
see the aristocratic friends Rochester brings
home?
5. (G8, G9 )What are the functions of the
charade and the gypsy woman (XVIII 3.
161Commentator
XIX) on the one hand, and on the other?
6. Recorder
7. Illustrator/ Performer
Jane as Governess in in
Thornfield
0. Jane, taught to play the piano, to
draw and read; but she is not
beautiful (80)
1. Inexperienced—
• Expected to be received coldly
• thought Mrs. Fairfax to be the
owner
2. Hierarchy: closer to housekeeper
(84)
3. Knowledgeable (French)
4. Books in the library (90) –limited
to light readings
The guests’ views
of governesses –
(XVII: 115-16)
“half of them
detestable and the
rest ridiculous, and
all incubi”
Jane’s Desire
• The laugh (XI 93, 94,
XII 96; XV 130)
• “aspirations and regrets” about her appearance
(XI : 86)
• Curious: “s Mr. Rochester an exacting, fastidious
sort of man?” (91)
•  Mrs. Fairfax’s view of Rochester (XI: 92)
• Restlessness vs. tranquility (95-)
• See Rochester as her intellectual equal  fire
(XV)  wish to see him and fear it (XVI) selfrestraint  stronger desire and pain in front of
the guest
Mr. Rochester
• XIII (109): giving orders -- Go into the library—I
mean, if you please. (Excuse my tone of command;
I am used to say "Do this," and it is done…)
• (111): between orders and curiosity: I had scarce
tied the strings of the portfolio, when, …he said
abruptly,”—it is nine o'clock: what are you about,
Miss Eyre, to let Adèle sit up so long? Take her to
bed.”
• (112)-- Rochester’s family history explained
Mr. Rochester and JaneIntellectual Equals’ Sympathy to Love
• XIV: Exchanges of Their Equally Intelligent Minds,
Sympathy Aroused–
• Jane’s independent thinking:
• “do you think me handsome?” (115) -- No;
Rochester’s appearance denied,
• Rochester’s authority defined (117-18) and
• R’s degenerate past discussed (119-21); impossible to
be conventional with Jane
• XV: Celine Varens // Bertha (the laugh)  the fire
drawing them closer. (calling her “witch, sorceress 131)
• XVI: Jane both fears and desires meeting him; draws
pictures of herself and Ingram to understand her own
position. Jane feels for R when observing him with the
guests
Mr. Rochester and Jane- Growing Sympathy to
XVII – governess discussed
Love
Jane
• XVII – her attention on
him (153); “…but he
never turned his eyes”
(155)
• XVIII – cannot unlove
him (163)
• Jane reflects a while
whether she forgives R;
serves him by offering
him her shoulders 179
Rochester
• XV: (122) impossible to
be conventional with you.
• End of XVII: “…you are:
so much depressed that a
few more words would
bring tears to your eyes—
Good-night, my --'.”
• XVIII-XIX – the gypsy
woman’s fortune-telling
173 – cold, sick, silly;
contradictions on her
face
Jane’s Psychological Struggles
and Understanding of Rochester
• 1) XV: No longer ugly: “No, reader:
gratitude, and many associations, all
pleasurable and genial, made his face the
object I best liked to see; his presence in a
room was more cheering than the brightest
fire. “ (129) Still aware of his mean attitude
to others.
• 1) XVI: I knew the pleasure of vexing and
soothing him by turns. (138)
• 2) XVI: self-restraint: (140-42; XVII- 153) two
portraits;
Jane’s Psychological Struggles and
Understanding of Rochester (2)
• XVIII (163)
• the future bridegroom, Mr. Rochester
himself, exercised over his intended a
ceaseless surveillance; and it was from this
sagacity—this guardedness of his—this
perfect, clear consciousness of his fair one’s
defects— this obvious absence of passion in
his sentiments towards her, that my evertorturing pain arose.
Rochester vs. Jane
• Still domineering?
• Jane, refuses to be dominated,
sympathetic with him and serving him
• Jane: self-expression through paintings
(110) and the two portraits. --- more to
come…
The Polite Society and Beyond
• XVII: 145 Rich, well--adorned
• Rochester in the center, dull
without him.
• Lady Ingram: pompous, dogmatic
• Marriage (for money and class)
with Ingram: good French, showy,
shallow, her mind was poor,
(XVIII: 163)
Jane’s feelings: from pain [not
jealousy?], despair, to becoming
lenient to her master (163-65)
Adele’s mother
(XI): opera dancer
-- teach her to dance
and sing,
-- surrounded by a
lot of gentlemen
and ladies
-- a song about a
forsaken lady
Social Games: Revealing its
hypocrisy & Orientalism
• Charade: Wedding &
• An Oriental couple:
• He –an Eastern emir, an agent or a victim
of the bowstring.
• She—an Israelitish princess
• Gypsy fortune-telling: telling the truth
under disguise
The Gothic Elements
• The house – more like a church (“chill and
vaultlike” 85)
• (XI: 92) The third floor – a shrine of
memory; like a Bluebeard’s castle (93)
The Odd: Grace Poole & Mr.
Mason
• Grace Poole
• always alone (except for one hour)
• a mystery in Thornfield (145)
• Mason
• “too relaxed”
• …eyes revealing “a tame, vacant life” (167)
• From West Indies (168)
• A big blow to Rochester
Turning Points & Major Motifs
• The laugh – breaking social bounds
• meeting Rochester outside Thornfield
• the fire
• Disguise – a way to violate social norms?
• A. Charade: a. bride and groom, b.
Rebekah and Isaac, c. Bridewell (which is
actually a prison)
• B. the gypsy woman
• “Reader, I could not unlove him.” –direct
address to Victorian readers
References
• http://mrsrochester.hubpages.com/hub/tr
anslation-of-french-in-jane-eyre