Jane Eyre
Final Assignments
Name: ____________________
Date/Pd.: _________________
Friday 5/29 – Due at the beginning of class on Monday, 6/1.
Answer the following four questions referencing the Comments on Jane Eyre. These questions
and the comments being referenced are found in the back of your text, pages 543 – 547.
1. William Makepeace Thackery, knowing nothing about the author of Jane Eyre,
immediately wrote to a friend, “It is a woman’s writing, but whose?” What do you think
tipped him off? Is there anything about Jane Eyre that strikes you as especially
characteristic of “women’s writing”?
2. Thackeray also said that he was “exceedingly moved and pleased” by Jane Eyre.
Evidently, even if the novel is by a woman, it is not only for women. What in the novel
could be described as appealing to our humanity rather than our gender?
3. Jane Eyre has been read as a proto-feminist protest against the conditions of women in
Charlotte Bronte’s time and place. Is that reading justified by the actual text? If so, does
the protest still resonate in this time and place?
 Note: Proto-feminist: Preceding but anticipating or laying the
groundwork for feminism
4. There have been critics who said that most Victorian novels are built on either the
Marriage Plot or on the Inheritance Plot. At the end of Jane Eyre the heroine is an heiress
and, as she write, “Reader, I married him.” But Bronte has decided to blind and maim
Rochester, and to burn down the house that is the visible sign of his prestige and power.
Do you think Bronte cut Rochester down to size for Jane’s sake – to make the happy
ending happier still?
Monday 6/1 – Chapters 22-27 – Due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, 6/2
The following are five major themes that we discussed at the beginning of this novel: (1)
Suffering through social class prejudice, (2) Exhibiting loyalty to those we love, (3) Longing for
family, (4) Gender issues, and (5) Surviving a difficult childhood. Trace three of these themes
throughout each of the assigned six chapters. It is probably easiest to do this in the form of a list
– but your set up is up to you. Be sure to use specific examples from each chapter, and explain
how your chosen examples illustrate your chosen themes.
Jane Eyre
Final Assignments
Name: ____________________
Date/Pd.: _________________
Tuesday 6/2 (Chapters 28-33) – Due at the beginning of class on Wednesday 6/3
The following are five major themes that we discussed at the beginning of this novel: (1)
Suffering through social class prejudice, (2) Exhibiting loyalty to those we love, (3) Longing for
family, (4) Gender issues, and (5) Surviving a difficult childhood. Trace three of these themes
throughout each of the assigned six chapters. It is probably easiest to do this in the form of a list
– but your set up is up to you. Be sure to use specific examples from each chapter, and explain
how your chosen examples illustrate your chosen themes.
Wednesday 6/3 (Chapters 34-38) - Due at the end of class on Wednesday 6/3
The following are five major themes that we discussed at the beginning of this novel: (1)
Suffering through social class prejudice, (2) Exhibiting loyalty to those we love, (3) Longing for
family, (4) Gender issues, and (5) Surviving a difficult childhood. Trace three of these themes
throughout each of the assigned five chapters. It is probably easiest to do this in the form of a list
– but your set up is up to you. Be sure to use specific examples from each chapter, and explain
how your chosen examples illustrate your chosen themes.