Jane Eyre chapter 15

Jane Eyre

Chapter 15

Sophie Dunhill

Brief chapter synopsis

Concluding Paragraph

The chapter begins with Mr Rochester and Jane walking up and down a 'long beech avenue', after they had both met in the grounds of Thornfield, while Adele played with Pilot and her shuttlecock. Mr Rochester keeps his promise of telling Jane about Adele and so provides us with an insight into his past life; the dialogue between Mr Rochester and Jane is of him talking about Adèle’s mother, Cèline Varens, a French singer/dancer, to whom he had an affair with. When Mr Rochester discovered that Celine was engaged in relations with another man, he ended the relationship. Mr Rochester has always denied Celine’s claim that Adèle is his daughter, remarking that the child looks completely unlike him. However, when Celine abandoned Adele in Paris, Mr Rochester brought Adèle to England so that she would be properly cared for.

Later in Thornfield, Jane lies awake in her room and hears a noise which comes from the hallway. After seeing smoke coming from Mr Rochester’s room, she pours water over his bed which ultimately saves his life. Mr Rochester visits the third floor of the house and when he returns, states 'I have found it all out, it is just as I thought' and reveals that it was in fact Grace Poole who set fire to his bed after Jane begins to question his reasoning of the incident. Mr Rochester then cautions Jane to tell no one about the details of the night’s events.

Key Quotations:

Lexis/Semantics

Chapter 15

'The ease of his manner freed me from painful restraint; the friendly frankness, as correct as cordial, with which he treated me, drew me to him'. - goes against the 'norm' of how men behaved in that time period, maybe shows how a new era was beginning to take place where patriarchy and male domination no longer existed. - social

'I feel your benefits no burden, Jane...I knew,' he continued, 'you would do me good in some way, at some time;--I saw it in your eyes when I first beheld you: their expression and smile did not...strike delight to my very inmost heart'. - shows the mutual affection that both Jane and Rochester have for each other, also a possible explanation as to why Jane is treated differently by Rochester compared to servents and others within the same 'social class'. - Marxist

Literary and Linguistic Features

Social, Cultural and Historical Isuues

Social/historical - Patriarchal domination: Jane is not the idealist woman and governess in Thornfield; she often goes against what is expected and shows her spirited and intellectual traits, she is completely unlike other characters such as Grace Poole who are portrayed to be submissive, however this suggests social reform as people were just beginning to treat others equally.

This can also be interpreted as a feminist point of view as Thornfields inhabitants, especially Rochester, empower Jane; in settings such as Gateshead and Lowood this is polar opposite as Jane is often portrayed to be destitute, powerless and opressed.

Pragmatics

Both narrative description and dialogue are used to convey Jane's strong emotions which are often passionate. This interlinks with the reocurring theme of fire and ice, in the first few pages of this chapter fire is used to symbolize this passion showing that the connotations are not always associated with danger, however this quickly changes in the closing pages with the scene of fire breaking out in Rochesters room.

Characterisation

Jane Eyre -

Jane, in this chapter, is presented as a person who brings both honesty and reality to Mr Rochetser's life after the events we are told of in Paris, however, she is also innocent when compared to Mr Rochester in the sense that she has not yet to experience love or any of the emotions to which Mr Rochester has. This is shown through the quotation 'You have both sentiments yet to experience: your soul sleeps; the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it, you think all existence lapses in as quiet a flow as that in which your youth has hitherto slid away.' I also think this quotation, especially the words 'the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it' possibly foreshadows the shock to Jane of loosing Mr Rochester and later finding him again, blind, which is what awakes her soul which also interlinks whith the theme of religion.

Themes

Edward Rochester -

In this chapter, Mr Rochester is presented as much more of a weaker character than Jane, showing that, although he is both Jane's social and economic superior, he lacks control and has little tangible worth in his life, including a wife and a family of his own, as many other men at his age in a Victorian society usually had. I think at first we percieve him to be more interested in the materialistic, luxurious things in life including status and wealth as shown by the quotation 'I installed her in a hotel; gave her a complete establishment of servants, a carriage, cashmeres, diamonds and dentelles' when he talks about his affair with Celine Varens, this suggests that Mr Rochester almost used to be superficial in his manner and outlook on life but Jane brings a sense of reality and honesty. He ultimately regrets his former lustful affair with Celine and he states 'In short, I began the process of ruining myself in the recieved style, like any other spoony'. However, Mr Rochester is unconventional in the sense that he puts aside social class in order to interact with Jane frankly and directly, showing his consideration and appreciation of Jane. Rather than maintaining the proper class boundaries, Rochester makes Jane feel "as if he were my relation rather than my master."

Location/Setting

A Marxist theory could be applied to Rochester in regards to Jane as he begins to treat her as his social equal '

Timeline of Events

Adele Varens -

The first few pages of this chapter are set outside in Thornfield grounds. The setting of Thornfield conveys much more of a positive connotation when compared with settings such as Gateshead and Lowood. This is because at Thornfield Jane is an adult and is therefore not restricted or opressed by the Reeds. This is shown in the quotation through the language of '...' The relationships between Thornfield’s inhabitants as well as its architecture and grounds are all important to Jane’s story.

Towards the end of this chapter the narrative description switches to inside Thornfield, with Jane lying in her bed. The setting here really explores a supernatural and spiritual undertone with language such as 'demoniac', 'unnatural' and 'devil' (lexis field - religious/spiritual) used to portray much more of the sense of supernatural. The concept of a spiritual entity within Thornfield begins to juxtapose the previous positive connotations and suggests that Thornfield could become a place of discovery for Jane.

Adele presents herself to Jane as a very literate and capable young girl, being almost similar to Jane as a child through the way in which she speaks her mind and is very spirited for her age, however Jane often remarks that she is 'average'. However, in relation to Mr Rochester, he does not see her as his own daughter even though he does not truly know whether he is her father after he says to Jane ' Perhaps she may be, though I see no proofs of such grim paternity' and Rochester even goes as far as stating 'Pilot is more like me than she' - this shows that Rochester is unwilling to take any kind of parental responsibility for Adele and in many ways shows the selfish and egotistical side of his personality especially in a social sense. Here, strong language is used such as the words 'grim' to descirbe his idea of paternity showing that although he took care of Adele by bringing her back to England, his idea of parenting is not something that appeals to him. Page 170 - 'It was a pity; if she could but have been proved to resemble him, he would have thought more of her.' The quotation shows that Jane believes that Rochester would take more of an interest in Adeles upringing if there was any chance that hewas her father.

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Religion: Jane strongly objects to Rochester’s lustful immorality in this chapter. Jane is presented as a charcter who is strongly religious from the beginning of the novel, however throughout we see her embark on a journey of discovery in religion and so her innocence and lack of worldly knowledge really shows in chapter 15 from her discovery of Rochester past.

Social Class: Jane remains indisposed and somewhat powerless while at

Thornfield, however her understanding of the double standard (the idea of a 'rule'

that is unfairly applied in different ways to different people - Jane is the double standard in this case as Rochester is able to treat her differently, fairly and

with kindness, compared to other people, such as governesses and servents just

like her in a contextual manner - victorian era) settles when she becomes aware of her feelings for Rochester; she is his intellectual, but not his social or economic, equal. In many ways, Bronte's exploration of the role of a governess represents one of the novel’s most important themes of social class and this in particular may show authorial intrusive narration because we know that Charlotte bronte herself was a governess for a short while.

Gender Relations: Jane struggles continually to achieve equality and to

overcome oppressionin the novel, and in addition to the social class hierarchy,

she must fight against patriarchal domination. In this chapter at Thornfield

however, this is very different because Jane is only surrounded by females and

Mr Rochester, who goes against the norm of treating women with indifference or as an inferior being, this is something that Jane has not had to contened with before.

The Spiritual and the Supernatural: Charlotte Bronte has incorporated themes of

a gothic novel within in Jane Eyre and this is particularly evident in this

chapter with the scene of fire breaking out in Mr Rochesters room and the 'demoniac laughs' heard. The concept of fire and ice is also evident throughout the novel and this interlinks with the scence of of the fire however in this chapter particularly the fire could represent Jane's inner passion for Rochester - This is particularly evident when Jane is describing Rochester and uses words such as ‘fire’, ‘kindling’, ‘burning’, ‘lurid’ and ‘flame’.

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The timeline of events in this chapter of the novel are particularly important, because it begins to explore the spiritual and supernatural aspects of the novel with the scene where Mr Rochesters bed breaks out in fire.

Sophie Dunhill