Concetti Chiave
- Jane Eyre is an orphan raised by her unkind aunt and bullied cousins, with her only ally being her deceased uncle.
- She is sent to a harsh orphanage where she faces adversity, including the death of her best friend from tuberculosis.
- Determined to be independent, Jane becomes a teacher and secures a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall.
- Jane falls in love with Mr. Rochester, who proposes to her, but she discovers he is already married to a madwoman hidden in the attic.
- After leaving Thornfield, Jane returns to find it destroyed by fire; she reunites with a now visually impaired Rochester, and they marry.
Jane Eyre: the plot
The novel tells the story of Jane Eyre, an orphan girl raised by her uncles. She is, however, bullied by her cousins and mistreated by her aunt. The only one who loves her is her uncle, who unfortunately dies prematurely. Jane's aunt therefore sends her to a sort of college for orphan little girls.
Jane has to work and make a lot of sacrifices, she has to grow fast, facing each day a difficult environment and especially the death of the best friend, who has been killed by tuberculosis due to the poor hygienic conditions of the college.
Here, however, she continues her studies and decides to become a teacher.As an independent woman, she finds a job at Thornfield Hall as a tutor for the foster child of Mr. Rochester's , Adele.
Jane works very well at Thornfield Hall until Mr. Rochester's arrival, he's an arrogant man but he immediately falls in love with the protagonist. He asks for her hand but there is a hidden secret in Thornfield Hall's attic: the man is already married with Bertha Mason, a woman who has become mad and kept locked in the castle. Jane runs away, deeply disappointed and decides to live with an ecclesiastical and her sisters. He proposes to marry him and go on a mission to India together but Jane refuses the proposal, because she is still in love with Mr. Rochester.
Jane goes back to Thornfiel Hall and finds a devastated setting: the castle was burned down by a fire, after which Bertha had died and Mr. Rochester had lost sight. Jane and Mr. Rochester are at last confined to wedding and the man partially regains sight again.