Jane Eyre is about a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel aunt. One day as punishment for fighting with her bullying cousin John, Jane’s aunt locked her in the room in which her Uncle Reed had died. While there Jane scares herself into believing that she sees her uncles ghost, screams and faints. When She wakes, She finds herself in the care of the apothecary Mr. Lloyd. He suggested to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school. The school’s headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst was a cruel, hypocritical man.
He would preach of poverty to his students but steal from the schools funds to support a lavish lifestyle for his own family. A massive typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood, and many, including Jane’s friend Helen died of consumption. The epidemic also results in the departure of Mr. Brocklehurst by attracting attention to the dangerous conditions at Lowood. Jane the stays on at the school for many more years. She accepts a governess position at a manor called Thornfield, where she is to teaches a little French girl named Adele.
Jane’s employer at Thornfield is Rochester, with whom Jane starts finding herself secretly falling secretly in love with. She saves Rochester from a fire one night, which he claims was started by a drunken servant , but seeing as how the servant continues to work at Thornfield, Jane doesn’t believe that she’s been told the whole story. Rochester proposes to Jane, who accepts almost disbelievingly. The wedding day arrives, and as Jane and Mr. Rochester prepare to exchange their vows, the voice of Mr. Mason cries out that Rochester already has a wife. Mason introduces himself as the brother of that wifea woman named Bertha.
Rochester does not deny Mason’s claims, but he explains that Bertha has gone mad. He takes the wedding party back to Thornfield, where they witness the insane Bertha scurrying around on all fours and growling like an animal. Rochester keeps Bertha hidden on the third story of Thornfield and pays Grace Poole to keep his wife under control. Bertha was the real cause of the mysterious fire earlier in the story. Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane leaves. Penniless and hungry, Jane is forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food.
Finally, three siblings who live in a manor alternatively called Marsh End and Moor House take her in. Their names are Mary, Diane and St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Rivers, and Jane soon becomes friends with them. St. John is a clergyman, and he finds Jane a job teaching at a charity school in Morton. He surprises her one day by declaring that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large fortune: 20,000 pounds. When Jane asks how he received this news, he shocks her further by declaring that her uncle was also his uncle: Jane and the Reverses are cousins.
Jane immediately decides to share her inheritance equally with her three newfound relatives. St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he urges Jane to accompany himas his wife. Jane agrees to go to India but refuses to marry her cousin because she does not love him. St. John pressures her to reconsider, and she nearly gives in. But, she realizes that she cannot abandon the man she truly loves when one night she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name over the moors. Jane hurries back to Thornfield and finds that it has been burned to the ground by Bertha , who lost her life in the fire.
Rochester saved the servants but lost his eyesight and one of his hands. Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence, Ferndean, where he lives with two servants. At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon marry. At the end of her story, Jane writes that she has been married for ten blissful years and that she and Rochester enjoy perfect equality in their life together. She says that after two years of blindness, Rochester regained sight in one eye and was able to behold their first son at his birth.
