It’s a dark and stormy night.
Rain lashes against the window while the wind rattles the window panes. Inside, your candle flame flickers and - wait, did you hear that noise?
There’s nothing like a good scare, especially around Halloween. While #spookyseason keeps on trending on social media, it all started with the original 19th-century gothic novels - especially Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre is more than just one of the best gothic novels. It’s one of the best classics for beginners of all time.
Most of today’s books and movies that lean into the scary side rely on gore, horror and jump scares, and are often held up by questionable plots.
Here’s where Jane Eyre stands out: even though it’s packed with haunting moments and goosebump-inducing horror, all of its dramatic elements support a rich plot and timeless themes.
While pop interpretations of Jane Eyre tend to reduce it to a Twilight-esque romance, Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel is so much more than a love story.
It’s about how strength of character transcends circumstances. It’s about true happiness, and what you’re willing to trade for it. It’s about living with integrity when it costs you everything except your self-respect.
Whether you’re looking for some classic literature to thrill you on Halloween night or you need a challenge to act with more self-respect, Jane Eyre is a must-read.
Get started learning about it right now with this summary and analysis of the plot and themes in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.
Summary of Jane Eyre
Bronte's classic gets off to a violent and disturbing start with Jane’s abusive childhood.
As an orphan, Jane is raised by her aunt, who shamelessly favors her own two children over Jane. In the opening scene, Jane’s cousin attacks her, only to make sure that Jane gets blamed for the incident.
The child Jane lashes out at her cruel and neglectful aunt, who sends her away to boarding school.
At school, Jane endures food shortages, unheated rooms, and psychologically abusive punishments.
Jane’s fiery personality rebels against these injustices. However, when she befriends a classmate, Helen Burns, she starts to learn about Helen’s philosophy of enduring suffering with patience.
Jane begins to practice the philosophy herself and learns to rise above her suffering instead of being dragged down by it.
Soon, though, Helen dies of a chronic illness, leaving Jane alone in the world.
The story skips ahead to Jane’s adulthood. By patiently persevering through her suffering, Jane has risen through the ranks at the school and is now a respected teacher.
Still, Jane’s adventurous spirit won’t let her rest in the quiet life of a teacher.
Seeking new horizons, Jane leaves her job at the school to work as a governess. However, when she arrives at her new home, she realizes that things are not all as they seem.
Her pupil is the ward of a mysterious nobleman who continually broods on the past. The house, Thornfield Hall, is haunted by strange noises and unexplained disasters.
Eventually, Jane and her employer, Mr Rochester, find an unexpected connection in each other. Jane’s unconventional spirit wins Rochester’s affection, while Rochester is the first to value Jane as the intelligent, creative woman that she is.
Despite the discrepancy in their ages and social statuses, Jane and Rochester plan a hurried marriage. When they are about to make their vows, however, a magistrate interrupts the ceremony.
The secret of Thornfield Hall is finally revealed: Mr Rochester has a wife who went insane shortly after their marriage. The wife now lives confined in the Hall’s attic, where she occasionally escapes to attack the Hall’s residents.
Jane is devastated by Mr Rochester’s deceit. However, since they cannot legally marry, Mr Rochester implores Jane to live with him as his mistress.
Jane’s conscience won’t allow her to live a lie, even if it costs her the only chance at happiness she will ever get.
Knowing that Mr Rochester wouldn’t accept her decision, Jane escapes the situation by running away from Thornfield onto the wild moors.
Jane nearly starves before she stumbles upon a home that will take her in. Eventually, a family of three adult siblings adopt her: two kind sisters and their missionary minister brother, St. John Rivers.
The family soon helps Jane find work. She establishes a new life in the rural countryside while hiding her past and identity from everyone around her.
She plans to live a quiet life to prevent Mr Rochester from finding her. However, St. John Rivers begins to pressure Jane to marry him and join him on his missionary expedition.
Although Jane is willing to sacrifice her own desires to become a missionary, she again refuses to live a lie by marrying St. John when she still loves Mr. Rochester.
As the conversation escalates into a fight, Jane hears a far-away voice calling her name. She recognizes it as Mr Rochester’s, and although she knows she may have hallucinated the voice, she takes the incident as a sign and rushes back to Thornfield - only to discover that the Hall is a charred ruin.
From village gossip, Jane learns that Mr Rochester’s wife set the house on fire and then committed suicide, while Mr Rochester is permanently disabled from injuries he received by getting everyone to safety in the fire.
Jane finds the blinded Mr Rochester living a miserable existence in a nearby cottage, believing that Jane is dead after running away from him. “Reader, I married him,” Jane explains, and the couple finally live a happy life together.
Themes in Jane Eyre
Radical Responsibility
When Jane runs away from Thornfield Hall, she’s at a low point.
She has no money, no people, and no options. She’s lost in a desolate landscape with - literally - nothing but the clothes on her back.
Not only that, but her predicament isn’t her fault. She’s done her best all her life, and now, because Mr Rochester hid the fact that he already had a wife, she has to fend for herself in the wilderness.
It’s safe to say that most people would give Jane a free pass if she felt overwhelmed by her situation.
Amazingly, though, Jane won’t let herself rebel against fate. As she said earlier in the novel, “it would be weak and silly to say you cannot bear what fate required you to bear.”
Jane practices what she preaches. Even after wandering alone for days and expecting to die from hunger, she knows that she is responsible for her own life:
Life … was yet in my possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and responsibilities. The burden must be carried; the want provided for; the suffering endured; the responsibility fulfilled. (Jane Eyre, Chapter 28)
We’re all carrying the burden of life. And we all know the temptation to give up on carrying that burden.
That might look like giving up on doing your best at work, letting your physical fitness go, checking out of your relationships, or even committing suicide.
When life gets overwhelming, those temptations are inevitable. That’s when we need stories about people like Jane - examples of taking radical responsibility for your life.
Even when the deck is stacked unfairly against you, Jane’s story shows that you can always do something small to take responsibility for your life - even if it’s just picking yourself up off the moor and taking a stumbling step forward.
Self Pity vs Acceptance
When Mr Rochester first meets Jane, he cynically commands her to tell her “tale of woe.”
If most of us were in Jane’s shoes, we’d seize the opportunity to describe how badly fate had treated us. We’d rant about becoming an orphan and being abused, accuse our aunt and boarding school teachers of cruelty and negligence, and bemoan losing our only friend.
Instead of indulging in some well-deserved self-pity, though, Jane gives a curt reply: “I have no tale of woe, sir.”
Jane’s account of her life is resolutely positive: she was brought up by her aunt, who provided her with as good an education as she could have hoped for. That education, in turn, gave her the chance to live an independent life as a teacher and governess.
One wouldn’t blame Jane if she allowed herself a little wallowing in her bad luck. But if she had, she likely would have never seen opportunities where others saw only misery.
At school, she learned that blaming those who hurt her wouldn’t help her move forward.
When her best friend died, she learned that life’s losses make its gifts more precious.
Others might see her path in life as a governess as grim and stifling. But Jane saw it as a precious opportunity that few had: the opportunity for an independent life, not tied to or dependent on anyone.
Jane shows us that the opposite of self-pity is the radical acceptance of circumstances as they are.
Accepting her circumstances didn’t make Jane a slave to fate. In fact, it had the opposite effect.
It gave her the power to keep moving forward without getting bogged down in by self-pity.
Self-pity is a temporary indulgence but it cripples us in the long run. Even though we all have legitimate tragedies and setbacks, Jane Eyre shows us the power of accepting them and soldiering on.
Pleasure vs True Happiness
The turning point of Jane Eyre is Jane’s decision to leave Rochester even though she desperately wants to be with him. She refuses to live as his mistress or even continue to express romantic love while he has a wife.
It’s easy to write off this decision as Victorian sexual prudishness. But Jane’s actions are far more profound than knee-jerk obedience to social norms.
Jane knows that Rochester has already pledged his love and loyalty in marriage to another woman. If he acted as if Jane was his wife, he and Jane would both be living a lie.
Even though Jane loves Rochester, she wants more for herself than false happiness. She would rather live a life of honest work alone than accept happiness based on a lie.
Jane’s decision isn’t easy for modern audiences to swallow. We’re used to stories that celebrate forbidden love and illicit pleasure.
But that’s why we need to take a good look at the countercultural love story of Jane Eyre.
Jane’s actions show that she believes that true happiness can’t be separated from a clean conscience. (Shakespeare picks up on this theme in his tragic play Macbeth, where a guilty conscience ruins Macbeth’s political success.)
We might not ever face such a dramatic choice as Jane did, but we all face moral tests: when your boss hints that you should look the other way on a shady business deal, or when you’re tempted to get a little too friendly with the cute waitress (after all, your girlfriend will never know).
Whether you’re dealing with a moral quandary in politics or love, remember: the great stories agree that false happiness isn’t worth it.
Instead, take the risk of staying faithful to your convictions. And take it on faith from Jane Eyre that it’s most worth doing when it will cost you the most.
What is the Main Message of Jane Eyre?
The main message of Jane Eyre isn’t about crumbling castles, forbidden love or feminism.
It’s that life is unfair and often brutal, but that shouldn’t stop you from acting with integrity.
Jane’s story is an incredible witness to the fact that you can’t always have everything you want. In fact, you can’t always have the bare minimum.
But no matter what life does to you, it can’t take away your self-respect. We all have the freedom to choose how to respond to our circumstances, which means that we can always do the right thing.
And that’s worth more than a happy ending.
Develop Yourself With the Classics
Jane Eyre stands apart from most modern gothic media because it packs such a heavy moral punch.
There’s nothing moralistic or preachy about the novel, but it’s impossible to read Jane Eyre without being amazed by the protagonist’s inner strength - and being inspired to reach higher yourself.
That’s exactly how the classics change your life. They make you laugh and cry at the same time as they refine your character.
Among the classics, there’s no better place to start developing yourself than with Shakespeare’s plays.
Not only are they overflowing with still-relevant themes about how to live family life, political life, and sexuality, but they’re far more approachable than the average person thinks.
That’s why I wrote a book to unpack Shakespeare’s timeless themes.
To download it for free, click on the link above to get your copy of The Bard and the Bees: What Shakespeare taught me about sex, evil, and life in our modern world. You'll be surprised by how much the classics will transform you.
Until next time,
-Evan