Jane Eyre Volume 2 Revisited
volume two reading guide: chapters 16-26
Welcome to Reading Revisited, a place for friends to enjoy some good old-fashioned book chat while revisiting the truth, beauty, and goodness we’ve found in our favorite books.
Hello, Readers!
I hope you’re all having a wonderful September, despite the “blow” we’ve all got from our reading section this week. (Anyone else feeling the urge to put this book in the freezer right about now?…if you know, you know.)
I’ll admit that despite absolutely flying through the first volume, I slowed waaaay down around the middle of volume two to delay the impending heartbreak. No matter how many times I revisit Jane Eyre, I am always struck by Brontë’s ability to build up to the tragic moment at the end of this volume. The precision with language, the dramatic-yet-believable images, the gentle tone and sense of irony in this section are all truly extraordinary.
We need not trouble ourselves with looking back at our “gothic novel checklist” to be clear that our feet remained firmly planted in the genre. Here’s a few particularly gothic things I couldn’t help but notice in this section:
We are acquainted, now, with the great secret of Thornfield, but Jane’s confusion about Grace Poole, and the way she begins to notice the side-eyes and whispers of the servants feels decidedly gothic.
The weather continues to be an important feature, whether good or ill. Perhaps most dramatically seen in chapter nine following the proposal:
"But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we were all in shadow: I could scarcely see my master’s face, near as I was. And what ailed the chestnut tree? it writhed and groaned; while wind roared in the laurel walk, and came sweeping over us…” (vol 2, ch 9).
More disguises. Mr. Rochester continues to mask himself in this volume.
First, there’s the game of charades…more on that later.
Then, the ridiculous incident of Mr. Rochester’s gypsy impersonation.
Finally, the last of his concealments we come to understand is his “feigned courtship” of Miss Ingram.
And of course, as we close this section we are sadly back to Jane as the “damsel in distress”:
“to rise I had no will, to flee I had no strength. I lay faint; longing to be dead.” (vol 2, ch 11)
Volume 2, Chapters 1-4
Jane is perplexed the morning after the fire incident to find Grace Poole still going about her duties as usual, and is surprised to learn that Mr. Rochester has left to join friends at a house party in a nearby town. Weeks later, Rochester returns to Thornfield with a large party. Rochester shows a decided preference for the lovely Miss Ingram throughout the duration of their stay, though Jane notes that the lady’s haughtiness and insincerity makes the connection a shallow one on Rochester’s part. One afternoon while Mr. Rochester is away, a “fortune-teller” arrives at the house and the ladies go in turn to have their fortunes told. Jane is confused when the woman’s questions mostly focus on Mr. Rochester’s apparent admiration of Blanche Ingram. Eventually the gypsy lady reveals herself to be none other that Mr. Rochester in disguise. He is later distressed to learn about a visitor named Mason who had arrived at the house that afternoon.
a few things to note:
I love the rivalry set up between Jane and Blanche Ingram. Blanche, so clearly a foil for Jane, shows her colors clearly in these first few chapters of volume two.
Note, first, how she responds to the game of charades (which, closely considered, mirrors Mr. Rochester’s predicament and his state as a man “trapped” in his marriage and seeking solace in Jane’s love):
“of the three characters, I liked you in the last best…what a gallant gentleman-highwayman you would have made.” (vol 2, ch 3)
This scene also hearkens back to her comment in chapter two:
“I like black Bothwell better: to my mind a man is nothing without a spice of the devil in him” (vol 2, ch 2).
This “Bothwell” is the infamous earl who murdered the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, in order to abduct and marry her. Blanche represents here vividly the twisted feminine fantasy of the man who will do anything to have her. She desires the kind of “love” founded on unbridled passion - nothing less could gratify her vanity. This ‘fantasy’ is realized more fully than she (or anyone) could realize in Mr. Rochester’s desperate love for Jane.
Now, let’s fast forward to chapter four. Jane encounters Mr. Rochester in his ridiculous disguise, and as he “tells her fortune” he begins to reflect on Jane’s character:
“The flame flickers in the eye; the eye shines like dew; it looks soft and full of feeling…The forehead declares, ‘Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgement shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision.” (vol 2, ch 4)
Mr. Rochester sees that Jane is a woman of great passions, but unlike Blanche, he knows that she will not be controlled by them. Here again we’re reminded of the feelings vs. reason theme that is so often woven throughout the story.
Chapter four is SO full of foreshadowing. Not only do we have the arrival of Mr. Mason and the “blow” it gives to Rochester, but notice the way speaks to Jane after she tells him that the party does not seem at all disturbed or changed after the arrival of Mason:
“If all these people came in a body and spat at me, what would you do, Jane?
“Turn them out of the room, sir, if I could.”
“But if I were to go to them, and they only looked at me coldly, and whispered sneeringly amongst each other, and then dropt off and left me one by one, what then? Would you go with them?”
“I rather think not, sir: I should have more pleasure in staying with you.”…
“And if they laid you under a ban for adhering to me?”
“I, probably, should know nothing about their ban; and if I did, I should care nothing about it.”
“Then you could dare censure for my sake?”
“I could dare it for the sake of any friend who deserved my adherence; as you, I am sure, do.” (vol 2, ch 4)
Volume 2, Chapters 5-7
Late in the night of the gypsy incident, the house is awakened by a loud cry. Jane is summoned to stay with Mr. Mason who, bloodied and fading in and out of consciousness, appears to have been attacked, while Rochester fetches the doctor. Once Mason’s condition is stable, he and the doctor leave for town. Rochester remains vague on the attack, but Jane feels certain it was the work of Grace Poole. Mr. Rochester leads Jane to believe he intends to marry Miss Ingram. Jane is later summoned away to the sick-bed of her Aunt Reed. She passes a month at Gateshead, and though her attempts at reconciliation are rejected by the dying lady, Jane learns that Mrs. Reed had further injured her by keeping her from uniting with and inheriting from an uncle who lately made his fortune. Jane joyfully returns home after the death of her aunt, and though delighted to be reunited with Thornfield and Rochester, she laments the impending marriage that she knows will separate her from them both.
a few things to note:
If you are anything like me, you were probably eagerly awaiting, throughout this whole volume, the next tête-à-tête between Jane and Rochester. I love this one in chapter five after Mason’s departure:
“Come where there is some freshness, for a few moments, that house is a mere dungeon: don’t you feel it so?”
“It seems to me a splendid mansion, sir.”
“…you cannot discern that the gilding is slime and the silk draperies cobwebs; that the marble is sorted slate, and the polished woods mere refuse chips and scaly bark.” (vol 2, ch 5)
This brings us back to a conversation from volume one in which Mr. Rochester, much to Jane’s confusion, remarked:
“I like Thornfield; its antiquity; its retirement…and yet how long have I abhorred the very thought of it; shunned it like a great plague-house! How I do still abhor—”
Later, together in the orchard, Rochester asks Jane:
“you have noticed my tender penchant for Miss Ingram: don’t you think if I married her she would regenerate me with a vengeance?” (vol 2, ch 5)
This, yet again, brings us back to volume one:
“I know what sort of a mind I have placed in communication with my own…Happily I do not mean to harm it: but if I did it would not take harm from me. The more you and I converse, the better; for while I cannot blight you, you may refresh me.” (vol 1, ch 15)
These remarks get at the heart of Mr. Rochester’s desperation for Jane. She is to be his refreshment, his regeneration. The way Brontë slowly unfolds the nature of his desire for Jane is simply brilliant.
I would be remiss if I did not point out the way Brontë uses the natures of Eliza and Georgiana to, yet again, play upon this theme of feelings vs. reason:
“Feeling without judgment is a washy draught indeed; but judgment untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.” (vol 2, ch 6)
Finally, we have in chapter seven, another renaming:
“Pass, Janet, go up home, and stay your weary little wandering feet at a friend’s threshold.” (vol 2, ch 7)
Volume 2, Chapters 8-11
One evening (Midsummer-eve), Jane retreats to the orchard where she is soon followed by Mr. Rochester. They begin to discuss Mr. Rochester’s hopes of “being a bridegroom” and Jane shares with him her sorrow at leaving him. Mr. Rochester begins to slowly reveal his love for and intention of marrying Jane, and she, though initially incredulous, accepts his love and proposal with joy. The couple are rushed inside by a sudden storm which rends the chestnut tree with a strike of lightening. The wedding date is set, and Jane and Rochester spend the remaining month of their courtship happily together, though Jane strives to keep Rochester at arm’s length. Leading up to the wedding, Jane suffers nightmares and fears that something will go wrong.
The day of the wedding arrives, but Jane’s presentiments are realized when Mr. Mason and his lawyer arrive to object to the wedding on the grounds that Mr. Rochester is married to a woman still living. Rochester, angrily admitting defeat, takes Jane, the priest, and the two men to the attic at Thornfield and reveals Bertha Mason, his bride, who is the raving madwoman, sister of Mr. Mason who had attacked him during his stay. Jane retreats to her room in despair.
a few things to note:
A small, but interesting, tidbit is that Brontë points out that date of the proposal is Midsummer-eve. The significance of this date is important in many ways, but I’ll just point out that the festival observance of this day relates to nature and fertility, and the fact that their declaration of love occurs within the confines of the edenic orchard (which is continually set up as a “retreat” from the outside world) really sets the stage beautifully.
There’s so much that could be said about chapter nine, but I will limit myself to considering Rochester’s murmurings after the proposal:
“Are you happy, Jane?”
And again and again I answered, “Yes.”
After which he murmured, “It will atone — it will atone. Have I not found her friendless, and cold, and comfortless? Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart, and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God’s tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world’s judgment — I wash my hands thereof. For man’s opinion — I defy it.” (vol 2, ch 9)
This scene is so essential for understanding Mr. Rochester and his motives, and more than that gets at the nature of sin and the ways in which we rationalize our failings. I think it’s important that we keep this image of Rochester in our minds as the story unfolds. We dare not justify his actions the way he tries to here, in fact, immediately after these words are uttered we get this note on the changing weather:
“But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we were all in shadow…And what ailed the Chestnut tree?” (vol 2, ch 9)
that is pretty damning evidence in the gothic novel world that something is not quite right…nonetheless, keeping in mind this view of Rochester can help us remember his complexity as a character and consider more precisely the nature of his offense.
A bit more foreshadowing here with some famous lines that end chapter nine:
“My future husband was becoming to me my whole world…He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for his creature: of whom I had made an idol.” (vol 2, ch 9)
Those of us with any familiarity with the Bible and salvation history know all too well how things tend to end with the idolaters.
I’ll end with a quick note on the “child” imagery of chapters ten and eleven. We see it first in Jane’s dream while Rochester is away:
“I continued also the wish to be with you, and experienced a strange, regretful consciousness of some barrier dividing us…I was burdened with the charge of a little child…and which shivered in my cold arms, and wailed piteously in my ear.” (vol 2, ch 10)
Then later as Jane rests with Adèle, she sees in the little child, “the emblem of my past life”, and sobs as she leaves the room.
Finally, after the truth has been made known and Jane has retreated to her room, she muses:
“I looked at my love: that feeling which was my master’s — which he had created; it shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle; sickness and anguish had seized it: it could not seek Mr. Rochester’s arms — it could not derive warmth from his breast.” (vol 2, ch 11)
Brontë’s language and images in this section bring Jane’s suffering so close to us. These last few pages, too, are simply dripping with biblical allusions, and despite the pain, we’re left with the hope: “a remembrance of God”.
Questions I’m Asking…
After two “re-namings” how will we see Jane come to terms with her identity in volume 3?
Jane said in chapter seven, “wherever you are is my home, — my only home.” Will Jane be able to make a home apart from Rochester? Or will be she doomed to “homelessness” (literal or figurative)?
The horse-chestnut tree is an important symbol.
“The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsoldered below; though community of vitality was destroyed — the sap could flow no more…” (vol 2, ch 10)
Will the fate of Jane and Rochester mirror that of the tree? Or does any possibility of life remain?
Until next time, keep revisiting the good books that enrich your life and nourish your soul.
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Kelsie- Agreed. I think this is great as well: “I love the rivalry set up between Jane and Blanche Ingram. Blanche, so clearly a foil for Jane, shows her colors clearly in these first few chapters of volume two.” It presents for an interesting character dynamic. I appreciate this reminder.