Scenes/Issues from Chapters 20-26 of Jane Eyre that you might want to discuss:
- Discuss the conversation between Jane and Rochester after the scene in which Mr. Mason is injured that begins with “Well then, Jane, call to aid your fancy” (p. 206 in the Dover edition). How does Mr. Rochester discuss his situation? Do you see echoes of the Byronic hero in here? How does Jane respond?
- Discuss Jane’s return visit to Gateshead Hall and why this scene is significant to the story (you might pay particular attention to what Jane says about “feeling” and “judgment” at the bottom of p. 222 (4-5 pages before the end of Ch. 21).
- Talk about the proposal in the garden scene–end of Ch. 23. What do you find interesting about this scene? How does Mr. Rochester treat Jane afterward and how does Jane react?
- Talk about the secret that Jane discovers after the interrupted wedding service. What do you think of the figure of Bertha Mason in the novel? What does she represent? How do you feel about Mr. Rochester after this revelation?
The garden scene where Mr. Rochester proposes confuses me. He first talks to her about how he’s going to be marrying another woman (Miss Ingram) and then it turns to him proposing marriage to Jane. I personally think she can do way better than him but she does have strong feelings for him that she can not deny. I do not understand why she can accept his marriage proposal if he was just ready to marry someone else? Does she really want to be with someone who was almost engaged to another woman moments before? If I were her I would not believe he was being serious at first either because it just does not seem feasible for him to be a good husband if he was almost married to someone else. Personally I would not want someone elses seconds or to even be seen as the “other woman” almost. She is the governess, and he is her boss, that just is slightly inappropriate to me.
The introduction to Betha terrified me. A madwoman imprisoned in the attic of Thornfield. Mr Rochester insists that their marriage was a mistake and that he was justified in deciding to marry a second time, without being widowed. I think he is so vile for this. Mad or not, how do you go on about your life knowing someone is literally rotting upstairs? When Bertha broke into her room to rip her veil, she wanted to ward her off. Maybe this was a warning for her to stay away from the real monster, Mr. Rochester. It was mentioned that mental illness runs through her family, so she was bound to spiral, right? I think that her being trapped like an animal was no justified case. This also speaks to how Mr. Rochester is racist. You can’t just dispose of a person like they are nothing. I also wanted to speak on Jane’s reactions to her. If not a ghost, she looked like a savage vampire. Jane made comments about her dark features in a problematic way, being frightened. In addition to being terrified of the room break-in and face biting scenes, this whole plotline with Bertha made me very disappointed and sad.
I think to return of Jane to Gateshead was my favorite part of the 20-26 chapter readings. For me, chapter 21 relates back to one of the firsts chapters but completely flips it. Once again you see Jane being in a completely different world than the Reeds. At the beginning of the novel, Jane is less than, a bother, below a servant, and a complete outcast from the family. But now that years have past Jane is doing better than all of them in multiple ways. She is educated, refined, and more level-headed. To me the most admirable characteristic Jane has gained is understanding. Jane does not return weak nor broken, she has to capacity to want to reconcile with Mrs. Reed. she is able to identify that Mrs. Reed’s anger comes out of jealousy, and not because she lacks anything. Even though her Aunt is not able to “forgive” Jane even in death, Jane is able to present her talents to her cousin and start to break the ice. There is healing in this for Jane that is well deserved. Some of my favorite songs are ones in which at the end it gives a new perspective. This chapter reminded me of one of my favorite songs, “Enough for you” by Olivia Rodrigo. In this song, Olivia signs on about how she would change herself for others so she could be enough. But at the very end of the song, Olivia says “But don’t tell me you’re sorry, boy Feel sorry for yourself ‘Cause someday I’ll be everything to somebody else.” and “..nothing’s enough for you.”. This song fits in painfully well with this chapter because just like the song the novel starts out with Jane “not being enough” but in reality, there was nothing she could have done to please the Reeds. With this clarity, Jane will finally be able to move on with herself. I hope in later chapters we see her character develop more now that she can start on a clean slate
The proposal between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester within Bronte’s novel was interesting to me. The scene leading up to it was so emotionally charged, and fiery with passion and wild feelings, and once the proposal was made, those feelings started to fizzle out almost, just a little bit. And afterwards, it almost feels like a bit of a tug and pull on Jane’s part – An overly affectionate Rochester, with all of his grandeur and ‘constricting’ plans and wants for Jane and their marriage seems to pull her away from him. Still, I think there is a sort of passion there, but now that it is running free I think Jane is realizing that these grand feelings have sort of led her to another ‘imprisonment.’ Jane is unwilling to change her nature for him, nor is she willing to shift her ideals, or wants in life for Rochester, and I think this may clash with whatever Rochester’s plans are and may be. I’m curious to see what happens next, and how Jane confronts Rochester after learning that his wife is still alive and imprisoned in Thornfield Hall.
Jane’s visit to Gateshead Hall is significant to the story because we see how much she’s grown as a person since. Obviously she’s grown up since being there but the fact that she doesn’t really care about her cousin’s empty judgements of her and the way she doesn’t have hard feelings left about the abuse from Mrs. Reed from her childhood shows how distant she is from the situation. I thought it really showed of her character how willing she was to forgive Mrs. Reed.
I also thought chapter 23 was one of the most interesting chapters of the book. I found the proposal scene to be really beautiful and sad simultaneously. I got a sad vibe from it because of the conversation leading up to the proposal because both Jane and Mr. Rochester are really upset about not having each other in their lives, yet the only reasons they wouldn’t have each other in their lives seem to be self-made. Like Blanche is really the main big reason they can’t be together and Mr. Rochester could have made the choice so much earlier to eliminate that issue. Once Mr. Rochester actually proposed it was really sweet though, I just find it unfortunate that he used a full engagement as an attempt to make Jane jealous; that’s just a red flag to me, like there was all that emotional turmoil Jane went through over Mr. Rochester’s engagement to another woman just for it to have been a non-issue from the start. Also he claims that Blanche wouldn’t be upset about it and the only thing she would be upset about is appearances and such but he doesn’t know that for sure.
To be honest the fact that Mr. Rochester has been married this whole time doesn’t surprise me. I never trusted that man; really I don’t trust ANY of the men in these gothic novels because all they do is lie. The figure of Bertha Mason is really interesting to me. They describe her as insane and animal-like. I wonder if she’s supposed to be a depiction of Jane’s worst emotions. To me I think the whole proposal from Mr. Rochester was a too-good-to-be-true scenario and if that were me I would be in disbelief of a good ending coming from that.
My feelings towards Mr. Rochester after these chapters: I am disheartened, distraught, and almost positive he is a pisces. He’s manipulative, misleading, and vile for what he’s done.
Grace Poole: quite the mysterious character and a rather creepy one at that. Grace’s purpose within Thornfield is simply that of a seamstress, but, from the start, we are left to wonder what makes her so strange and unsettling. We know Jane, our lovely heroine, as having a very intuitive perspective on the people and environments around her. She is observant of character and has the ability to determine one’s deep and inner emotions through connection. From that analysis of Jane alone, I would trust her to clearly read out someone’s initial energy upon first interaction. From the start, Jane had a disliking towards Grace Poole, in that she gave her an uncomfortable feeling; Grace is a mystery to Jane or rather the catalysts to a chain of mysterious events that occur at Thornfield. Following the mysterious arrival of Mr. Mason, on which we have no comprehensible explanation, is seemingly stabbed and bitten after making personal contact with Grace…that’s right, bitten! What a beastly act of aggression! I can not help but assume Grace’s connection to the Devil within the novel. Why else would this scene take place within a room loaded with noticeable biblical ideologies? The room had a hanging crucifix (with the dying Christ), portraits of Luke and St. John. According to the text, the “devilish face of Judas, grew out of the panel and seemed gathering life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor – Satan himself- in his subordinate’s form” (page. 243). I will argue that Grace is that said subordinate form in which the Devil has taken his toll. It is right to assume there are story books full of reasons why Grace Poole resides in her current situation, and why there is so much left unsaid. However, this is simply just my prediction as I have much to learn about why she is so unsettling and devilish.
Oh, man, did this third act take a turn. The proposal scene is probably my favorite in the book so far, because I found it sweet, funny, and so true to the characters’ personalities. I think we all knew the book was rearing up for Mr Rochester and Jane to get married, but I guessed as soon as Mr Rochester had asked Jane if she thought the coach would “suit Mrs Rochester well” that it was happening very soon; I thought the convenient use of his surname rather than saying “Miss Ingram” was significant, and was his silly way of trying to reveal his intentions to marry Jane (along with a few other obfuscating hints). Which, speaking of, I found the obfuscating from both of them very frustrating, and I think they could’ve suffered a lot less heartache if they had just been straight up with each other the whole time. Especially Mr Rochester, he really has no excuse for stringing Jane (and Blanche) along for that long.
Still, though, the garden scene took me pleasantly by surprise. I was very happy to finally see Jane act spirited and passionate again, and when I read that they had kissed, I had to go back and read the paragraph again because I thought I has misread it. Additionally, I noted that Mr Rochester referred to Jane as a bird once more, though this time Jane rejects the label outright, which I feel is a significant testament to her character development. She contradicts him by saying she’s not a bird, she’s a free human, and I believe that means she no longer feels imprisoned or torn between passion and coldness, or at least she’s almost there.
When Jane found out that Mr. Briggs was objecting to the wedding, I do not think she was expecting the reason he had said. I do not blame Jane for being shocked after finding out Mr. Rochester lied to her and had been married to a woman named Bertha for 15 years. I think it’s crazy he was married and did not tell her sooner as it just ruined the whole marriage and her trust with him was already dwindling. I do understand though why he lied about Bertha, because of the way they described her in the book, it all makes sense she’s unique in ways that are too unique. I find it shocking though that he was already married, and she was alive still and she lived on the third floor of the house. I also find it crazy how Mr. Briggs (I think) told Jane that Mason was sent by her uncle to stop the marriage and to tell the truth about who she was marrying aka Mr. Rochester. I do not really love Mr. Rochester knowing he is still married but, it would make sense why he would want to marry someone like Jane. I think it added some suspense to the book when you find out one of the main characters is lying about many things such as who Mrs. Bertha is and why she is locked upstairs and more. I have no idea what she will represent or how she will still be involved but, I want to know now.
In chapters 20-26, this book took an unexpected turn. I always liked Mr. Rochester. I did think of him as a bit odd after his impersonation of the gypsy, but I mostly just thought of it as messing around. I always liked the way he saw Jane for who she was, but assumed they wouldn’t end up together. I was shocked while reading his proposal to her especially when he was talking about his intentions with Blanche. Yet, I was naive and excited to see them get their happy ending. So as you could image when I was reading about Jane and Mr. Rochester’s wedding service interruption I was shocked to know he already had a wife. It frustrated me to know he called Bertha Mason crazy and had her locked away and secretly under the care of Grace Poole. My first thought was that this could be symbolic of marriage during this time period. I believe in a way that having her imprisoned and isolated in a sense probably drove her insane. This kinda made me think of a repressed wife. These of course are my theories and ideas, but I’m not fully sure. This started to make me resent Mr. Rochester a little bit. Just because I’m still not fully sure why he handled the situation like this.
When Jane returns to Gateshead she is changed. She realizes how different her life has become, and she has definitely matured. This scene is significant because she can see that Eliza and Georgiana have stayed the same (selfish and vain) while Jane has developed into a better person. Mrs. Reed also has not changed, she still obviously strongly dislikes Jane and is unable to let go of that hatred, even on her deathbed. After spending time at Thornfield, Jane has been able to find out who she is and what she desires in life. She has been able to separate herself from the harsh times at Gateshead. Jane is the only one out of Eliza, Georgiana and Mrs. Reed who has changed. This scene is significant because it shows that Jane has learned to become forgiving while finding her identity, and the people at Gateshead have remained the same awful people. This scene shows Jane’s development and how she is becoming herself.