Jane Eyre is a famous novel by the English author Charlotte Brontë. The novel was published in 1847 under the pen name of Currer Bell.
The partly autobiographical earlier chapters describe the life of a poor but strong-willed orphan. Jane’s aunt places her in the Lowood school, where she spends several unhappy years. The school was inspired by Clergy Daughters’ School, which Charlotte attended. After teaching for a time, Jane becomes the governess (private teacher) of Adèle, a girl at Thornfield Hall, a gloomy and isolated mansion. Adèle is the ward of Edward Rochester—that is, he is her guardian. Rochester is a mysterious and dominating man whose seemingly pained existence fascinates Jane.
Although Jane is not beautiful, she attracts Rochester with her calm intelligence and spirit. The two fall in love and are about to marry when at the ceremony Jane discovers that Rochester is already legally married to a woman his father arranged for him to wed in the West Indies. His wife, Bertha Mason, was unstable in her Jamaican home, and became wildly insane when taken to live at Thornfield Hall. She lives in guarded seclusion on the upper floors of the large home. All of this is too much for Jane, who leaves the household and nearly marries her cousin, the Reverend St. John Rivers.
Sensing a spiritual call from Rochester, Jane returns to Thornfield Hall. There she finds the mansion destroyed by a fire set by Bertha. Rochester is still alive but was severely burned and blinded unsuccessfully trying to save his insane wife. Jane and Rochester ultimately reconcile and marry.
Jane Eyre was enormously successful. However, many readers were shocked by some of the social upheaval and deception in the novel. In Jane, Charlotte Brontë introduced a new type of heroine to English literature, intelligent and self-reliant rather than merely beautiful and charming. Jane made her choices searchingly and feelingly. She wanted to be regarded as a thinking and independent person, rather than a weak or merely accommodating female.
See also Brontë sisters.
