GCSE · English Literature · AQA · Spec 8702

Jane Eyre: love and class

A poor governess marries her rich employer: rags to riches. Except Jane keeps refusing to be lifted, and that refusal is the whole story.

Chapter XXIII · Close reading

'Do you think, because I am poor…?'

Rochester has just reminded Jane of her responsible and dependent position and told her she must find a new situation. She feels that wealth, caste and custom stand between her and the man she loves. Now she answers him. Tap each highlighted phrase and watch her argument build.

Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart! … I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal,—as we are! … I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XXIII

Focus a highlighted phrase to read its analysis.

Reading “poor, obscure, plain, and little”

A list of labels

What to notice

Four words, four ways of being ranked: money (poor), status (obscure, meaning unknown, a nobody), looks (plain) and size (little).

Effect

Jane says the labels herself, one after another, as if she is laying out the whole case against her before she knocks it down.

Meaning

These are the labels her position puts on her. Her real question is whether they make her any less of a person.

Focused phrase “poor, obscure, plain, and little”. technique A list of labels. Four words, four ways of being ranked: money (poor), status (obscure, meaning unknown, a nobody), looks (plain) and size (little).. effect: Jane says the labels herself, one after another, as if she is laying out the whole case against her before she knocks it down.. meaning: These are the labels her position puts on her. Her real question is whether they make her any less of a person.

Watch out: Jane never claims to be as rich or as high-ranking as Rochester. The equality she claims is of soul and spirit. Mix those two up and you'll misread the whole novel.

Where Jane stands, from start to finish

Follow Jane's position, not just the romance. At each point ask: who has the money, and who has the power?

Two brides, one money test

Miss IngramvsJane

Read across each row. In which match is money doing the choosing?

Focus

The money test

Miss Ingram

Rochester has a rumour reach her that his fortune is not a third of what was supposed.

Jane

No test is needed: Jane has not a shilling but what he has given her.

The insight

He shrinks his money to test one woman. The other has no money in the picture at all, except what came from him.

The response

Miss Ingram

Coldness, from her and from her mother. Rochester will not marry her.

Jane

He asks Jane to accept him as a husband, though she is poor and obscure, and small and plain.

Why he chooses

Miss Ingram

When his fortune seems to shrink, so does her warmth.

Jane

His bride is here, he says, because his equal is here, and his likeness.

Chapter XXIV · Three views of one engagement

What should this engagement mean?

Switch between the three voices. Each one has a different answer to the gap in money and rank between a governess and her master.

A wealthy gentleman is to marry his governess. What should that mean?

Rochester: raise her up

Chapter XXIV

  • He has written to his banker in London for the family jewels, heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield, to pour into her lap.
  • She is to have every privilege and every attention he would give a peer's daughter, the daughter of a lord.
  • When Jane worries about her station, he replies that her station is in his heart.
In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be yours that I would accord a peer’s daughter, if about to marry her.

Mrs Fairfax: mind the gap

Chapter XXIV. Jane believes Mrs Fairfax thought she had forgotten her station, and Rochester's.

  • Equality of position and fortune is often advisable in such cases.
  • There are twenty years of difference in their ages.
  • Gentlemen in his station are not accustomed to marry their governesses.

Jane: stay herself

Chapter XXIV

  • She asks him not to send for the jewels, and not to talk to her as if she were a beauty: she is his plain, Quakerish governess.
  • She will go on as Adèle's governess, earning her board and lodging and thirty pounds a year, and buy her own clothes out of that money.
  • She wants nothing from him but his regard, which she will return.
  • She remembers that her uncle, John Eyre, once meant to adopt her and make her his legatee (the person who inherits his money), and decides to write to him in Madeira: a small independency would be a relief, because she can never bear being dressed like a doll by Mr Rochester.

Common ground

  • All three can see the gap in money and rank between a governess and her master. They disagree about whether it matters, and about what, if anything, should close it.

Compare the positions, then weigh them yourself.

What to notice

Rochester's answer to the gap is to give Jane more: jewels, silks, a peer's daughter's privileges. Jane's answer is to keep earning. She doesn't want to be raised by his money. She wants to stand on her own feet beside him.

Comparing 3 positions: Rochester: raise her up, Mrs Fairfax: mind the gap, Jane: stay herself.

Watch out: Don't turn Mrs Fairfax into the villain. She isn't cruel: she is voicing custom, the usual rules about station and fortune that Jane has already argued against.

Jane Eyre · Love before and after

Key Quotations

Tap an underlined word to zoom into the language, then reveal how each quotation works.

Love before1

My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun.

Jane, as narratorChapter XXIV, during the engagement

Love after3

I hold myself supremely blest—blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.

Jane, as narratorChapter XXXVIII, looking back on her marriage

we are precisely suited in character—perfect concord is the result.

Jane, as narratorChapter XXXVIII

perhaps it was that circumstance that drew us so very near—that knit us so very close: for I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand.

Jane, as narratorChapter XXXVIII: Rochester stayed blind for the first two years of the marriage

Your judgement

Is it a rags-to-riches love story?

The claim

Jane Eyre is a story in which love raises a poor governess into wealth.

Place each piece of evidence to load the balance. Mark the strong ones — they count double.

  1. Rochester is a wealthy man. Jane is his governess, with not a shilling but what he has given her.

    Evidence 1: does it support or challenge the claim?

  2. Rochester sends for the family jewels and promises her every privilege he would give a peer's daughter.

    Evidence 2: does it support or challenge the claim?

  3. In the end Jane marries Rochester.

    Evidence 3: does it support or challenge the claim?

  4. Jane asks him not to send for the jewels, and plans to keep her wage of thirty pounds a year to buy her own clothes.

    Evidence 4: does it support or challenge the claim?

  5. At Millcote, the more he buys her, the more her cheek burns with 'annoyance and degradation'.

    Evidence 5: does it support or challenge the claim?

  6. Before the marriage, Jane inherits a lot of money of her own from a relative.

    Evidence 6: does it support or challenge the claim?

  7. Jane describes the marriage as mutual: 'I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.'

    Evidence 7: does it support or challenge the claim?

Exam line: Don't just agree or disagree. Say how far, and prove it: set one moment that fits the claim against one that breaks it.

WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED

A quick recap of today's lesson.

What you need to know

  • In Chapter XXIII Rochester reminds Jane of her dependent position. She answers that being 'poor, obscure, plain, and little' does not make her 'soulless and heartless': 'I have as much soul as you'.
  • Jane says she is speaking not 'through the medium of custom, conventionalities', but spirit to spirit, as if they stood at God’s feet, 'equal,—as we are!'
  • 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me': poverty may make her dependent for her job, but not for her will.
  • Money tests love: Miss Ingram and her mother turn cold at a rumour that Rochester's fortune is smaller than supposed, while Rochester calls Jane, who is poor, his equal and his likeness.
  • In Chapter XXIV Rochester offers jewels and a peer's daughter's privileges; Mrs Fairfax warns about station and fortune; Jane refuses the jewels, feels 'annoyance and degradation' when he buys for her, and plans to keep her wage.
  • Before the marriage Jane inherits money of her own, and in Chapter XXXVIII she describes a mutual marriage: 'I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.'

The big picture

Jane Eyre is not a rags-to-riches romance. In Chapter XXIII Jane tells Rochester she is his equal in soul and spirit, whatever wealth, caste and custom say. In Chapter XXIV she turns down his jewels and plans to keep earning her own wage. By the end she has money of her own, and she describes a marriage in which each is the other's life.

Key points

1The novel's argument about class is Jane's own: her worth lies in soul and spirit, not in money, rank or looks.
2Custom is the enemy in the class theme: it is the voice that says gentlemen don't marry their governesses.
3Rochester answers the class gap by giving; Jane answers it by refusing to be raised.
4Love before the wedding is an eclipse that blocks out everything; love at the end is balanced and shared.
5The novel places Jane's inheritance and Rochester's injuries side by side; how they connect is a reading to argue, not a fact to state.

Worked example

Problem

At Millcote Jane says: 'Glad was I to get him out of the silk warehouse, and then out of a jeweller’s shop: the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation.' Write one paragraph on what this shows about Jane's attitude to Rochester's money.

⚠ Watch out

Treating the ending as Jane being rescued into wealth by marriage. By the time she marries Rochester she has inherited money of her own, and she describes the marriage as two people giving equally, not a rich man lifting a poor woman.

🧠

Memory hook

No bird, no net, no jewels: Jane won't be caught by poverty, and she won't be bought by Rochester's money either.

✓

Check yourself

Without looking back: explain in two or three sentences why the ending of Jane Eyre is not simply a poor governess being lifted up by a rich husband. Use one event and one quotation.

Flashcards

(15)
What is Jane's job at Thornfield Hall, and who runs the house?
She is a governess. Mrs Fairfax manages the house for its absent owner, Mr Rochester.
Complete Jane's question: 'Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, …'
'…I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart!' (Chapter XXIII)
What does 'custom' mean, and why does Jane say she is not speaking 'through the medium of custom, conventionalities'?
Custom is the way things are usually done. Jane sets aside the social rules that rank a governess beneath her master, and speaks spirit to spirit.
Why does 'as we are' matter in 'equal,—as we are!'?
It is present tense: Jane claims they are equal now, not only after death at 'God’s feet'.
Complete: 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; …'
'…I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.' (Chapter XXIII)
How does Rochester test Miss Ingram, and what happens?
He has a rumour reach her that his fortune is not a third of what was supposed. She and her mother turn cold, and he will not marry her.
Why, according to Rochester, is his bride Jane?
Because his equal is here, and his likeness, even though she is poor and obscure, and small and plain.
What does Rochester promise Jane in Chapter XXIV?
The family jewels, heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield, and every privilege and attention he would give a peer's daughter.
What three things does Mrs Fairfax say to warn Jane?
Equality of position and fortune is often advisable in such cases; there are twenty years between their ages; and gentlemen in his station are not accustomed to marry their governesses.
What does Rochester say when Jane worries about her station?
That her station is in his heart.
How does Jane plan to keep her independence during the engagement?
She will stay Adèle's governess, earn her board and lodging and thirty pounds a year, buy her own clothes from it, and want nothing from him but his regard.
Why does Jane decide to write to her uncle John Eyre?
He once meant to adopt her and make her his legatee. A small independency would be a relief, because she can never bear being dressed like a doll by Rochester.
What does the eclipse image in Chapter XXIV show about Jane's love before the wedding?
Rochester has become her whole world. He stands between her and every thought of religion, as an eclipse comes between us and the sun.
How has Jane's position changed by the time she marries Rochester?
She has found family she never knew she had and inherited a lot of money from a relative who has died.
Quote the line in which Jane describes her marriage as mutual.
'I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.' (Chapter XXXVIII)

Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.

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