Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Book Group Questions
1. Jane Eyre is subtitled An Autobiography. Although Jane Eyre is a work of fiction, Charlotte
Bronte based several characters and places from her own childhood. In 1824, Charlotte and her
sisters were sent to Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, Yorkshire ran by a Rev. Silas
Wilson. Charlotte Bronte described similar harsh conditions in her fictionalized school Lowood
with hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst as the director. Charlotte Bronte’s elder sisters Maria and
Elizabeth Bronte both died of tuberculosis as result of school conditions. Maria Bronte is
thought to be the real life version of Helen Burns. Charlotte Bronte became a governess in 1839
like Jane Eyre. Bronte received two proposals, one by a minister; she didn’t accept either
because she didn’t love them. Similar to Jane Eyre’s rejection of St. John Rivers’ proposal.
Bronte also uses a personal voice with the reader, “Gentle reader, may you never feel as I then
felt.” Do you like the autobiographical style? Do you think that Jane Eyre should be read from
an author (life of) point of view, or on its own?
2. Sandra M. Gilbert calls Jane Eyre the “Victorian Cinderella.” She also makes comparisons to
other fairytales such as “The Ugly Duckling,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and St. John Rivers to the
wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood.” Jane Eyre describes Rivers with, “What a face he had. . . .
What a great nose! And what a mouth! And what large prominent teeth!” What fairytale do
you think Jane Eyre is most like and why? Are there other fairytales that Jane Eyre could be
compared to?
3. Is Helen Burns only an archetype of the Christian martyr (patience, meek, long suffering,
focused on the next life) or is she well rounded character? Burns is described as Jane Eyre’s first
friend. How does she befriend Jane? What importance does she have in Jane’s life?
4. Compare the male oppressors in Jane’s life: her bullying cousin John Reed and Mr.
Brocklehurst who runs Lowood school. What do they treat her? How is she supposed to treat
them? When or how does she resist them?
5. Arnold A. Markley points out that, “In the nineteenth century women had far less personal
freedom, and there were fewer options available for them to support themselves outside of
choosing to marry and raise children.” What opportunities did Jane or other women of the midnineteenth century have?
6. Why did Charlotte Bronte originally published Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell?
7. Jane Eyre becomes a teacher and then a governess and then a teacher again (Charlotte Bronte
also had the same positions). Jane Austen in Emma compares being a governess to slavery, or
rather “the slavery of human intellect.” A governess was socially beneath her employer’s family,
although she often was equally educated or of equal birth. On the same token a governess was
above the rank of a servant, which was often a lonely alienated position. How does Jane bridge
the social gaps? How is Jane treated by Rochester’s guests? What are Lady Ingram’s opinions
of governesses?
8. Jane paints a picture of herself and one of Blanche Ingram to remind herself that Rochester
would not be interested in her. How would you paint their personalities? Blanche is described
as: tall, handsome, stylish, talent, of good birth and family. Jane describes herself as “poor,
obscure, plain, and little.” Do you think that either picture is accurate?
9. Both men who propose to Jane try to change her in order to make her their spouse. How does
Edward Rochester try to make Jane into an aristocratic, fashionable “doll”? How does St. John
Rivers instruct or try to teach Jane to be a missionary’s wife?
10. Jane declares, “I scorn your idea of love.” How are love, passion, and marriage portrayed?
What are the conflicts between desire and duty?
11. Helen Moglen argues that, “In deciding to leave Rochester, Jane takes the first crucial step
toward independence.” Jane tells Rochester that, “I am a free human being with a independent
will, which I now exert to leave you.” Do you agree with Moglen’s view of Jane’s impendence?
How is Jane imprisoned in the book? What or how does Jane become “an independent woman”
in the end?
12. Jane says, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I
am, the more I will respect myself.” How does Jane respect herself or have individual worth?
Do you think women need to do the same things for individual worth now?
13. Do you think Charlotte Bronte was a feminist? Jane states to Rochester, “I am not talking to
you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my
spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at
God’s feet, equal—as we are!” Rochester in return tells Jane, “My bride is here, . . . because my
equal is here, and my likeness.” In another of Bronte’s novel, Shirley, the female equality is
again discussed,
Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they
need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do;
they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would
suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say they
ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the
piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if
they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.
Do you think that gender typical stereotypes still exist today? Are they similar to Jane Eyre’s
time or have they changed?
14. Sandra Gilbert claims that Bertha is a double of Jane Eyre representing her “dark side” in
psychological terms. “Bertha can be said to represent Jane’s anger and rage at society’s attempts
to control and imprison her in a particular role. Perhaps Bertha’s imprisonment at Thornfield can
be related to the horrible fear of imprisonment that Jane suffered at being shut in the terrifying
red room at the Reeds’ house as a child. Moreover, Bertha appears or is heard laughing at times
that mark developments in the relationship between Jane and Rochester.” Do you agree?
15. Jane has a supernatural experience, “. . . then, not a moon, but a white human form shown in
azure, inclining a glorious brown earthward. It gazed and gazed on me. It spoke, to my spirit:
immeasurably distant was the tone, yet so near, it whispered in my heart—‘My daughter, flee
temptation.’” What are some other supernatural events in the book? Does the supernatural
element add or detract from your reading of the book?
16. Matthew 18: 9 “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better
for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Is it
a coincidence or divine retribution that Rochester only has one eye and one hand after the fire?
17. Why do you think Charlotte Bronte ends the novel with the death of St. John Rivers? Is
Bronte proving that Jane was correct in her belief that if she became a missionary she would die?
Is she praising his missionary zeal “A more resolute, indefatigable pioneer never wrought amidst
rocks and dangers. Firm, faithful, and devote, full or energy and zeal, and truth, . . .”? What is
your overall view of St. Johns Rivers—religious saint or hypocritical religious extremist?
18. Jane declares that, “Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world.” Do you
agree?