Long after I've read the works of her sister (Wuthering Heights), it's now the turn of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. There are many similarities between the two sisters'works. And in the same way I've loved the works of Emily, I've loved Charlotte's Jane Eyre as much.
Here's the story: ***BEWARE, SPOILER WARNING***
Jane Eyre is a poor orphan. Her kind adopted father is dead and she lives with her adopted mother, who hates her, and her 2 adopted sisters and her adopted brother, who make her life miserable. She is high spirited and emotional but subdues her nature in this hostile environment. After a outburst with her adopted mother, she is sent to the school of Lowood, where she will integrate and blossom under the strictest of discipline, until she ranks among the teachers. At eighteen, she decides to leave the Lowood establishment to become a governess for a rich family's children. She then advertises and become the private teacher of Adèle, a little French girl in the care of Mr Edward Rochester.
Mr Rochester is an imposing figure in his forties, he has charisma but is not beautiful, at all. Jane is herself rather a plain (if not a little ugly) little thing. Love installs itself between them, but this love and complete trust is ended at the altar of the church when it is reported that Mr Rochester is indeed already married. His wife is a mad woman, a fury who he keeps confined in a secret room: he had been cheated upon by his own father and brother into marrying her with no love, and she has revealed herself to be a madwoman. Jane's pride gives her no choice but to leave the house, alone, in the middle of the night.
She will go alone, an outcast, even a beggar, for 3 days, until she is saved by Mr Saint John, a parson, and his two sisters. Saint John finds a employment for her, a teacher at the local school, where she has poor and uneducated children but she grows fond of them. Then, one day, she learns that her uncle died, leaving her a fortune; at the same time, she learns that St John and his sisters are her cousins. She divides the lot in 4 equal shares and enjoys her new family, a loving one like she never had. This money will help Saint John realize his long cherished project: going to India to spread the Lord's message, and, he asks Jane to marry him and accompany him there. Jane knows that Saint John likes her, for her wits and her works, but that he does not love her; she has known real love in Mr Rochester, and wouldn't have him. Instead, she flies back to Mr Rochester to get some news. When she arrives at his house, everything is burnt down; she inquires and hears that Mr Rochester is now blind, that he has lost a hand, and lives retired in a farm. She goes to him, learns that his mad wife has burnt the house, perished in the fire and has become infirmed when trying to save her and the servants. She stays with him, at long, he will recover some sight, and I guess it will be a "happily ever after" ending...
