Jane Eyre
XX-XXVII: Jane between Love/Madness and
Law/Principles
Outline
• Review: Chap XI-IXX
• Overview: Chap XXI-XXVII
• Female Subjects in the novel
• Jane’s Choices: multiple narrative positions
• Her Paintings
• Her Dreams
• Rochester’s narrative of love
• Her Rationalization
Review: Chap XI-IXX –
The Quest vs. The Realistic and the Gothic
Rochester: commanding,
sympathetic
andRole
deceitful
Jane’s
as
(Gypsy woman)?
a governess
vs. Her desire
The Polite Society,
for
intellectual
women
in dichotomy
equals
The Gothic Elements; the
laughter
Jane’s Role as a Governess vs.
Her Desire
“The Aliens”: “Grace
Poole” and Mr. Mason
Chap XX-XXVII
Chap XX
A savage and sharp sound
Mason found injured
Rochester: no conversation between Mason and Jane,
Jane: with Q’s (185) but obedient (187)
Clues to the past: Mason’s emotional outburst (189)
Jane as a pet lamb
Rochester’s first confession
Chap XXI
Jane’s dream of a child (193)  Aunt’s dying
Jane and Rochester’s bargain over her pay
•Meeting Aunt pp. 202;
•209-211
•Georgiana vs. Eliza
Chap XX-XXVII
Chap XXII
Jane back “home”
Rochester’s proposal
Jane’s self-assertion 222-23
Chap XXIV All changed; Jane’s resistance to being dressed as a
beauty or called an angel. Jane’s view of love (from
love to like)
Mrs. Fairfax’s caution
Adele’s questions about R’s taking Jane as a fairy to the
moon
Jane’s bargain
Chap XXV Jane’s dreams and meeting the madwoman
Chap XXVI Wedding & Revelation
Chap XXVII Jane’s Decision in facing the truth of Rochester’s
marriage
Chap XXIII
Two Filmic Episodes
• 7 (1-3)
• 8 (2-3)
Discussion Questions
• Group 2 Mrs. Fairfax vs. Bertha group 7 Eliza vs.
Geogiana– Types of Female characters the novel
present (Possible subject positions for Jane)
• Group 3 part 1, group 8 part 2-- Relations between
Jane and Rochester
• group 4 -- Through the two main episodes here
(Mrs. Reeds’ death and the wedding), how does
Jane express and develop her sense of identity?
• group 5- What do you think about Rochester as a
lover? And his solution to his attempt at
polygamy?
• Groups 6 & 1 -- What would you have done were
you Jane?
Female Subjects in the novel
Mother Figures
Bessie
Ms. Temple
Disciplinary Figures
Mrs. Reed
Ms. Scatcherd
Mrs. Fairfax
Submissive, Self-Denying
Helen Burns
Eliza
Vain and Superficial
Mr. Brocklehurst’ Wife
Georgiana
Bertha
Eliza vs. Georgina (XXI)
p. 200 the two compared;
Jane beyond feeling mortified.
Eliza
• 206 – no companion
• No conversation
• Accusation of
Georgiana 207
Georgina
• 205 –on herself, her
loves and woes
Jane’s views of the two (208)
Mrs. Fairfax vs. Bertha
Mrs. Fairfax
• XXIII: the “widow”
seeing Rochester kiss
Jane;
• XXIV: “Equality of
position and fortune is
often advisable”
-- “twenty years of
difference in your
ages”; “pet of his”
“governess” (232-
Bertha
• a ‘low, slow ha, ha’
after Jane’s reverie
on being
discontented.
• Mirror image
• The scene // red
room scene
Jane’s Development (1)
Outgrowing Her Hatred
• Meeting Aunt (XXI)
• pp. 202;
• 209-211
Jane’s Self-Expression via
Paintings –or Self-Denial?
three instances of painting
• XIII (110-111): 3 paintings (of clouds, peak of a
hill and of a polar winter sky) Rochester’s
exploration of the recesses of her mind 
“artist’s dreamland”
• XVI (141-): Jane vs. Ingram-- a conscious
effort to fix the subject in a position of
rationality and clarity
• Jane’s spontaneous portrait of
Rochester—artist’s self-expression or self-
Jane’s Development (2)
Jane as a Server  Independence
• Chap XX:
• “I’d give my life to serve you”
• “I like to serve you, sir, and to obey you in all
that is right.‘
• Chap XXII –R needs Jane’s confirmation (A loving
eye is all the charm needed)
• Chap XXIII
• “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a
free human being with an independent will;
which I now exert to leave you.” (223)
Jane’s “Independence” from Rochester’s
Narrative of Love
Rochester
•XXIV (227-28) delicate and aerial”
Jane
•“Puny and insignificant…You are dreaming, sir—or you are
sneering…”
•“I’m not an angel…I will be myself” (XXIV 228)
•hates being dressed like a doll 236; writes to John Eyre
•Jane: poverty = degradation (III 20);being given too much jewelry =
degradation (XXIV 236)
•For wages (30 pounds a year)
•show him divers rugged points…”my whole world”; “my hope of
heaven” 241
• Rochester -- like a stray lamb 245 looking for her
shepherd
Rochester as a Romantic Hero
or Villain
• Omen--a bolt of lightning splits the chestnut tree
of the proposal scene (XXV 243)
• Domineering: XX – forbids the two to talk
• Self-Centeredness; coldness to Mason
• Deceitfulness: his proposal
• Clues to the past:
• Error, not a crime 191  Jane refuses to offer
comfort in reformation (XX 192)
• proposal –”God pardon me…”(XXIII: 224)
Jane’s Dreams and Bertha
(XXV-XXVI)
• her dream 247—the charge of a little
child;
• another dream 248-49
• Facing the mad woman 249-50
• XXVI– Jane’s future destroyed
• XXVII -- Rochester’s account 269
Rochester’s Solution &
Confession
• Separating Bertha from her: “You shall go
to a place I have in the south of France: a
white-washed villa on the shores of the
Mediterranean.”
• Reasoning through confession
• Emotional appeal
Jane’s Self-Respect and
Principles
• (XXVII 279)
• 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the
more friendless, the more unsustained I
am, the more I will respect myself.
• I will keep the law given by God;
sanctioned by man.
Next Week
• Is Jane successful in her quest?
• Roles:
• Jane –--3
• Rochester – 5
• Bertha --4
• St. John Rivers -- 8
• Mrs. Fairfax -- 6
• Georgiana --7
• Helen Burns --1
• You --2