- For Jane: Jane and Rochester are clearly well suited but have to be separated in order to experience a time of individual character development before they can enjoy peace together. - Jane needs to become Rochester’s equal in independence and maturity: her physical struggle and emotional torment strengthen her character and turn her from a naïve girl into a woman. - Rochester commits a selfless act and proves that he has seen the error of his former ways in order to become a whole person again. He now needs jane as much as she needs him. - Ironically, he is a better man without his sight and his hand than when he was whole and Jane loves him more when he is vulnerable than when he was fiercely independent. In the Wider Novel - Aunt Reed’s refusal to keep the promise made to her dead husband. - The scornful description of cousin Georgiana’s ‘advantageous match’ (Ch. 22). - The prospect of a union between Rochester and Blanch Ingram, clearly advantageous financially and socially, but not founded on love. - St John Rivers’ love for Rosamund Oliver which is described as possibly a surface attraction: ‘while something in me…is acutely sensible to her charms, something else is as deeply impressed with her defects’ (Ch. 32). - The prospect of a marriage of duty and convenience between Jane and St. John, passionately rejected by Jane: ‘I scorn your idea of love…I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer’ (Ch. 34). Key Quotes
”He is not to them what he is to me,” I thought: “he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is,—I feel akin to him,—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. […] I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think I must love him.” - Seeing Rochester amongst his high-class houseguests, Jane realises that he has more in common with her than he does with them. ”Whenever I marry,” she continued, after a pause which none interrupted, “I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.” - Blanche Ingram’s idea of a good marriage is one in which the partners are distinctly different and one partner is far superior to the other. As a stunning beauty, she doesn’t want a handsome husband, but a hideous one: that way she’ll always get all the attention. - For Jane: Jane and Rochester are clearly well suited but have to be separated in order to experience a time of individual character development before they can enjoy peace together. - Jane needs to become Rochester’s equal in independence and maturity: her physical struggle and emotional torment strengthen her character and turn her from a naïve girl into a woman. - Rochester commits a selfless act and proves that he has seen the error of his former ways in order to become a whole person again. He now needs jane as much as she needs him. - Ironically, he is a better man without his sight and his hand than when he was whole and Jane loves him more when he is vulnerable than when he was fiercely independent. In the Wider Novel
- Aunt Reed’s refusal to keep the promise made to her dead husband. - The scornful description of cousin Georgiana’s ‘advantageous match’ (Ch. 22). - The prospect of a union between Rochester and Blanch Ingram, clearly advantageous financially and socially, but not founded on love. - St John Rivers’ love for Rosamund Oliver which is described as possibly a surface attraction: ‘while something in me…is acutely sensible to her charms, something else is as deeply impressed with her defects’ (Ch. 32). - The prospect of a marriage of duty and convenience between Jane and St. John, passionately rejected by Jane: ‘I scorn your idea of love…I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer’ (Ch. 34). Key Quotes
”He is not to them what he is to me,” I thought: “he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is,—I feel akin to him,—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. […] I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think I must love him.” - Seeing Rochester amongst his high-class houseguests, Jane realises that he has more in common with her than he does with them. ”Whenever I marry,” she continued, after a pause which none interrupted, “I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.” - Blanche Ingram’s idea of a good marriage is one in which the partners are distinctly different and one partner is far superior to the other. As a stunning beauty, she doesn’t want a handsome husband, but a hideous one: that way she’ll always get all the attention. - For Jane: Jane and Rochester are clearly well suited but have to be separated in order to experience a time of individual character development before they can enjoy peace together. - Jane needs to become Rochester’s equal in independence and maturity: her physical struggle and emotional torment strengthen her character and turn her from a naïve girl into a woman. - Rochester commits a selfless act and proves that he has seen the error of his former ways in order to become a whole person again. He now needs jane as much as she needs him. - Ironically, he is a better man without his sight and his hand than when he was whole and Jane loves him more when he is vulnerable than when he was fiercely independent. In the Wider Novel
- Aunt Reed’s refusal to keep the promise made to her dead husband. - The scornful description of cousin Georgiana’s ‘advantageous match’ (Ch. 22). - The prospect of a union between Rochester and Blanch Ingram, clearly advantageous financially and socially, but not founded on love. - St John Rivers’ love for Rosamund Oliver which is described as possibly a surface attraction: ‘while something in me…is acutely sensible to her charms, something else is as deeply impressed with her defects’ (Ch. 32). - The prospect of a marriage of duty and convenience between Jane and St. John, passionately rejected by Jane: ‘I scorn your idea of love…I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer’ (Ch. 34). Key Quotes
”He is not to them what he is to me,” I thought: “he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is,—I feel akin to him,—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. […] I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think I must love him.” - Seeing Rochester amongst his high-class houseguests, Jane realises that he has more in common with her than he does with them. ”Whenever I marry,” she continued, after a pause which none interrupted, “I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. I will suffer no competitor near the throne; I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.” - Blanche Ingram’s idea of a good marriage is one in which the partners are distinctly different and one partner is far superior to the other. As a stunning beauty, she doesn’t want a handsome husband, but a hideous one: that way she’ll always get all the attention.
Teaching myself... 