Finland 2000

School Violence

Courage

This is a plot summary of the novel by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is an orphan who lives with her abusive aunt Sarah Reed and cousins, John, Eliza and Georgina at Gateshead Hall.   Her Aunt decides she is tired of Jane Eyre and sends her away to Lowood School.  Lowood Institution is a boarding school for orphans, and the living conditions there are very harsh.   Mr. Brocklehurst who is a stingy and mean hearted minister runs Lowood.   Jane befriends a fellow student named Helen Burns and also Miss Temple who was a teacher at the school.   Mr. Brocklehurst’s poor provision for the students at Lowood result in a typhus epidemic in which almost half the students die, including Helen Burns, Jane’s friend.  Mr. Brokclehurst is let go and conditions become more acceptable.  Jane then becomes the start student and after six years of hard study she becomes an effective teacher.   After teaching for two years at Lowood Jane is ready for new challenges. Her friend Miss Temple marries and leaves Lowood so Jane too decides it is time to move on.  She places an advertisement for a governess position in the local paper and receives only one reply from Mrs. Fairfax of Thornfield Hall.

Jane accepts the job at Thornfield and finds it is a comfortable three-story country estate and she is warmly welcomed.  Jane comes to find she likes both her pupil, Adele Varens and Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper but she soon becomes restless. Jane then comes across Mr. Rochester quite by accident, he had a riding accident and Jane helped him, not knowing who he was until she saw him again at Thornfield later.  Jane finds out upon her return to Thornfield that the man she helped was Edward Fairfax -Rochester, the owner of Thornfield and her employer.  He was a dark hard moody man and although he was often silent, Jane grows fond of his mysterious passionate nature.  He tells Jane about Adele’s mother a Parisian opera-singer named Celine who was once his mistress. Adele he claimed was not his daughter but that he rescued the girl after her mother abandoned her.

Jane also discovers that Thornfiled has a secret. From time to time she hears strange laughter coming from the third story. Mrs. Fairfax tells Jane it was just a Grace Poole a servant at Thornfield with a drinking problem. Jane still isn’t convinced and one night she woke up smelling smoke and realized it was coming from Rochester’s room.  Jane runs in a failing to wake up dumps cold water on him and his bed. Rochester asks Jane not to say anything about it and blames it on Grace Poole.  Jane however, wonders why he doesn’t press charges against Grace Poole or at least evict her from the house.

After the fire incident Rochester suddenly leaves for a house party at a local estate. During this time Jane miserable while he is gone and realizes that she is in love with Rochester.  Rochester returns after a week with a party of guests including Blanche Ingram a very beautiful accomplished lady whom Jane assumes Rochester is in love with.  Then a friend of Rochester’s Richard Mason joins the party and from him Jane learns that Rochester use to live in Spanish Town Jamaica. The supposedly crazy Grace Poole attacks him one night during his stay at Thornfiled Mason. 

Jane then leaves to tend to her Aunt Sara Reed who is dying in the aftermath of her son John’s excessive debauchery and apparent suicide. Jane tries to reach reconciliation with her aunt but Reed refuses all Jane’s attempts. Before she dies Reed gives Jane a letter from her Uncle John Eyre who had hoped to adopt Jane before he died and make her his heir. It had been sent to Jane three years earlier but Reed had vindictively kept it from Jane.  Sarah Reed dies, alone and unloved by her daughters.

When Jane returns to Thornfield she finds the house guests have left and Rochester tells Jane that he will soon marry Blanche so she and Adele will need to leave Thornfield.  In the midst of Rochester explaining this to Jane, she revels her love for him and they become engaged.   Two nights before her wedding Jane encounters Rochester’s insane wife, who Rochester assures Jane was Grace Poole.  The morning of the wedding as Jane and Rochester stand at the alter taking their vows a strange man suddenly announces that Rochester cannot marry Jane because he is already married to Bertha Antoinette Mason.  Rochester rushes the wedding party back to Thornfield where they find his insane and repulsive wife Bertha locked in a room on the third floor.   Rochester tries to convince Jane to become his mistress and go with him to a villa in France but Jane refuses and runs away in the middle of the night with little money and no extra clothes.  

Jane spends all her money on a coach to Whitcross where she spends two days walking around in the woods looking for work and finally she starts begging for food. On the third night she follows a light that leads her across the moors to Marsh End owned by the River family.  The housekeeper wanted to send her away but St. John Rivers the minister who owns the house offers her shelter.  Soon Jane becomes friends with St. John and his sisters Diana and Mary. St. John then offers Jane a small job as the schoolmistress for the poor girls in his parish at Morton. 

St. John learns that, unknown to Jane she has inherited 20,000 pounds from her uncle John Eyre.  Jane discovers that St. John’s real name is St. John Eyre Rivers so he and his sisters are Jane’s cousin. Jane is thrilled that she has finally found family and insists on splitting the inheritance four ways and then remodels the house for her cousins who no longer have to work as governess. 

St. John is no longer content with his ministry in Morton and decides to go to India as a missionary.  He tries to convince Jane to accompany him as his wife. Jane however realizes that St. John doesn’t really love her but just wants to use her to accomplish his goals, Jane refuses his request but suggests a compromise by agreeing to following to Indian as a comrade but not as a wife. St. John the tries to coerce her into the marriage and he almost succeeds when one night Jane suddenly hears Rochester’s disembodied voice calling to her.

Jane leaves Marsh End to search for her true love, Rochester. Arriving at Millcote she finds that Thornfiled has burned just as she saw in her dreams. From a local innkeeper she learns that Bertha Mason burned the house down one night and that Rochester lost and eye and a hand while trying to sever her and the servants and that Rochester now lives at Ferndean.

Jane goes immediately to Ferndean there she discovers a powerless, unhappy Rochester. Jane carries a try to him and then reveals her identify. The two joyfully reunite and soon marry. Ten years later Jane writes this narrative. Her married life is still blissful; Adele has grown to be a helpful companion for Jane. Diana and Mary Rivers are happily married and St. John still works as a missionary though he is nearing death and Rochester regained partial vision, enough to see their first-born son.

So how does Jane Eyre fit in with courage?  Jane showed the not so adventurous   life of courage.  She showed courage in overcoming her past, her abusive childhood. She showed courage in facing her aunt and hateful cousins once again and show showed courage in forgiving her aunt for her abuse even though her aunt remained unchanged.  Jane showed courage at Lowood by enduring the horrid conditions and in learning to look for the good in it by getting an education as best as she could.   Jane showed courage in leaving her one true love Rochester because he was still married at the time and refused to be his mistress, a decision which caused her great pain.  Jane also showed courage in leaving St.John and refusing a life of convenience over true happiness and love.  Jane showed courage by returning to Rochester and standing up for herself.  Jane is the common every day version of courage. For some of us may never have the opportunity to serve our country in combat therefore, battle field courage is unknown to us.  Jane portrays courage in the every day life.   Just as Shakespeare portrayed courage through Henry, Bronte portrayed courage through Jane. Both versions of courage line up with Aristotle's view of courage being voluntary, being a mindset as well as physical attribute.  However, does Bronte's portrayal of courage through Jane line up with Biblical standards of courage?

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