Jane Eyre

Preface-Chapter 9

READING CHECK

1. After thanking “three quarters” (the public, the press, and the publishers), to what ‘quarter’ does Currer Bell direct her/his attention and remarks in the Preface?

2. While Jane is living with the Reed family, who bullies and terrifies her?

3. What was the profession of Jane’s father?

4. Lowood is a boarding school for whom?

5. Mr. Brocklehurst decides the girls’ locks must be cut to teach them a lesson about vanity. In the same chapter, what kind of clothing do Mr. Brocklehurst's own children wear?

QUIZ

1. Of the following, which characterization best describes Jane as a young girl?

A. timid and passively accepting of her fate

B. fair-minded and outspoken on matters of justice

C. scheming and good at getting what she wants

D. haughty and convinced of her own superiority

2. In what manner does Jane’s Aunt Reed, who considers herself a good Christian, encourage her children to treat their orphaned cousin?

A. as a poor relation deserving of charity and pity

B. as a sinner deserving of forgiveness

C. as a child of God who is equal to themselves

D. as an inferior relation who cannot be trusted

3. According to Mrs. Abbot in a comment to Bessie, what trait does Jane lack that prevents Mrs. Abbot from feeling compassion for her?

A. loyalty

B. beauty

C. intelligence

D. courage

4. What kind of conduct does Helen Burns, Jane’s friend at Lowood, exemplify for Jane?

A. feminine passivity and self-sacrifice

B. girlish preoccupation with pretty appearances

C. moralistic self-righteousness and intolerance

D. youthful optimism and initiative

5. After contacting Mr. Lloyd, Miss Temple publicly exonerates Jane of what charges? (short answer)

6. Why does Helen eagerly “count the hours” until she dies? (short answer)

Chapters 10-16

READING CHECK

1. Who becomes Jane’s mentor during her remaining years at Lowood?

2. What does Jane discover from Bessie about her father’s brother?

3. What does Jane hear as she stands in the corridor leading to the attic entrance?

4. Why does Jane douse Mr. Rochester with water in the middle of the night?

5. To remind herself that she could never win Mr. Rochester’s affections, what does Jane paint?

QUIZ

1. What is Jane doing when she first encounters Mr. Rochester?

A. walking alone at night

B. investigating the attic

C. singing French songs with Adéle

D. spying on Grace Poole

2. What does Jane find intriguing about Mr. Rochester’s disposition?

A. He is always in high spirits.

B. He is formal and reserved towards her and Adéle.

C. He is moody and brooding.

D. He seems anxious and worried about his health.

3. Why does Jane feel uncomfortable when she talks with Mr. Rochester?

A. He treats her as an uneducated servant.

B. He treats her as equal to himself.

C. He treats her as a woman who lacks virtue.

D. He treats her as a helpless child.

4. According to Mr. Rochester, why does he choose to confide in Jane his remorse over his immoral past?

A. She is too young to understand what he is telling her.

B. She should learn what the real world is like, beyond Lowood.

C. She seems to have bewitched him into confessing everything.

D. She listens without judgement and without susceptibility to sinfulness.

5. What does Jane suspect Grace Poole of attempting to do? (short answer)

6. After Mr. Rochester leaves Thornfield Manor, why does Jane harshly judge herself, thinking “that a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life”? (short answer)

Chapters 17-22

READING CHECK

1. As she listens to the servants talking among themselves, Jane learns that which one of them receives the highest pay from Mr. Rochester?

2. What do Mr. Rochester and Blanche Ingram pantomime during a game of charades?

3. Who wears the disguise of a gypsy woman to tell fortunes for Mr. Rochester’s unwitting houseguests?

4. What happens to Mr. Mason during the night?

5. What does Jane discover about the fate of John Reed, her childhood tormentor?

QUIZ

1. How does Jane feel when Mr. Rochester’s elegant guests arrive at Thornfield Hall?

A. elated at the opportunity to mingle with aristocrats

B. insignificant because of her lower social status

C. angry because Mr. Rochester ridicules her appearance

D. amused by the games of the witty guests

2. When the gypsy woman reads Jane’s "fortune," what does she reveal?

A. Jane is about to receive an unexpected inheritance.

B. Jane is destined to marry a missionary.

C. Jane is cold, sick, and silly.

D. Jane is too critical and intolerant.

3. Why does Jane imagine that, despite her beauty, Blanche Ingram could not make Mr. Rochester happy as his wife?

A. Blanche Ingram’s family is not wealthy enough.

B. Blanche Ingram loves another man.

C. Blanche Ingram lacks kindness and wisdom.

D. Blanche Ingram’s first love is God.

4. How does Mrs. Reed explain her poor treatment of Jane when Jane was a child?

A. Mrs. Reed resented her husband’s favoritism towards Jane.

B. Mrs. Reed was jealous of Jane’s intelligence.

C. Mrs. Reed was suffering depression over her husband’s death.

D. Mrs. Reed was jealous of Jane’s future inheritance.

5. How does Mrs. Reed respond when Jane says she longs “earnestly to be reconciled” with her before she dies? (short answer)

6. In the weeks following Jane’s return from Gateshead, what surprises her regarding the preparations for Mr. Rochester’s wedding to Blanche Ingram? (short answer)

Chapters 23-27

READING CHECK

1. The night after Mr. Rochester and Jane profess their mutual love under a tree in the orchard, what happens to the tree?

2. How does Jane respond when Mr. Rochester gives her expensive gowns and jewels?

3. When will Mr. Rochester tell Jane his reasons for keeping Grace Poole at Thornfield, according to a promise he makes?

4. Who informed Richard Mason about the impending marriage between Jane and Mr. Rochester?

5. What did Bertha’s family conceal from Mr. Rochester before he married her?

QUIZ

1. When Jane fears Mr. Rochester is mocking her with his marriage proposal, what reason does he offer to assure her that she, not Miss Ingram, is his rightful “bride”?

A. She needs him more than Miss Ingram does.

B. She is a better mother for Adéle.

C. She is not a fortune-seeker like Miss Ingram.

D. She is his equal in mind and spirit.

2. Taking into account what becomes of the tree under which Mr. Rochester proposes to Jane, what does the tree most likely symbolize?

A. the flowering of love in an unexpected place

B. the bounty their union will bring as their family tree grows

C. the support they will give each other when tragedy strikes

D. the natural beauty of their love for one another

3. Why does Jane send news to her uncle in Madeira about her intentions to marry Mr. Rochester?

A. to improve her financial prospects so she feels more independent

B. to invite him to the wedding

C. to ask for his approval, as he is her closest male relation

D. to ask about the social status of the Eyre family

4. Why does Jane choose to provoke and irritate Mr. Rochester, instead of trying to please him during the weeks before their wedding?

A. She considers herself unworthy of him and wants him to realize it, too.

B. She does not intend to be a submissive wife and wants him to know it.

C. She is becoming less enchanted with him and tries to warn him of it.

D. She no longer wants to marry him and hopes he will call it off.

5. Upon first catching sight of Bertha Mason in the attic, with what kind of imagery does Jane describe her? (short answer)

6. When Mr. Rochester vindictively refers to Bertha as a “demon” and a “fearful hag” and promises to “nail up” Thornfield to imprison her, of what does Jane accuse him? (short answer)

Chapters 28-35

READING CHECK

1. When Jane arrives at the house of St. John and his sisters, what does she tell them her name is?

2. With the help of St. John, what position does Jane take for work?

3. To what kind of work does St. John wish to devote his life?

4. What is on the corner of Jane's drawing that St. John tears away?

5. Why is the solicitor, Mr. Briggs, trying to locate Jane?

QUIZ

1. How do St. John’s religious beliefs and practices differ from Jane’s?

A. His are more compassionate.

B. His are more severe and intolerant of weakness.

C. His are more like those of the Hindus in India.

D. His are more centered on good works than scripture.

2. What is the “last conflict with human weakness” St. John must overcome before he can leave for India?

A. his attraction to Rosamond

B. his attraction to Jane

C. his attachment to Diana and Mary

D. his desire for more money

3. How does Jane react when she learns that St. John, Mary, and Diana are her cousins?

A. She is disappointed that she will have to share her inheritance.

B. She suspects that they are deceiving her to get her inheritance.

C. She is happy to finally be part of a supportive family.

D. She hopes it will increase St. John’s fondness for her.

4. Why does Jane refuse St. John’s marriage proposal? 

A. She knows he does not love her.

B. She does not want to live in India.

C. She worries that they will be poor.

D. She believes Mr. Rochester will leave his wife.

5. After Jane tells St. John she would marry him if she knew it were God’s will, he directs her to pray, immediately, for guidance. What does she hear in answer to her prayer? (short answer)

Chapters 36-38

READING CHECK

1. When Jane arrives at Thornfield, what is she shocked to see?

2. What has become of Bertha Mason?

3. Why doesn’t Mr. Rochester immediately recognize Jane when she enters his room?

4. Mr. Rochester tells Jane that, shortly before her return to him, he called out her name several times and heard what in reply?

5. At the time that Jane is narrating the novel, how long have she and Mr. Rochester been married?

QUIZ

1. As she sets eyes upon Thornfield once again, Jane invites the reader to “Hear an illustration” of her experience. With what comparison does she describe it?

A. a starving person arriving at an elaborate feast

B. a blind lover regaining his vision of his mistress

C. a lover discovering his seemingly sleeping mistress is dead

D. a ship breaking on unseen rocks just as it enters the harbor

2. After Jane pledges to stay with Mr. Rochester and wait on him “as a kind little nurse,” why does his expression become “more overcast”?

A. He considers her offer too presumptuous.

B. He concludes she is not interested in marrying him.

C. He cannot forgive her for leaving him.

D. He is too proud to allow her to help him.

3. Jane allows Mr. Rochester to think St. John is perfect in every way, but then says she has no wish to marry St. John. What reason does she give?

A. He is better at talking about great deeds than doing them.

B. He is not well-rounded in terms of education.

C. He is too self-centered.

D. He is as cold as an iceberg.

4. According to Jane, why does she love Mr. Rochester “better now” than when he was the fully able-bodied ‘master’ of Thornfield?

A. because he was too proud and independent then

B. because he was married then

C. because he rarely had time for her then

D. because he was too dark and brooding then

5. As Jane’s narrative ends, for what event does St. John gladly express his anticipation? (short answer)

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1. Use Reading Check Question 5 (Preface-Chapter 9) to begin a discussion of the ways in which the novel represents Christianity through the faith practices of various characters. Although Aunt Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst both see themselves as good Christians, how do their actions expose them as hypocrites? Alternatively, Helen Burns exemplifies a truly self-sacrificing form of faith, but how does Jane react to Helen’s belief that only eternal life after death matters and not life itself?

2. Use Quiz Question 2 (Chapters 10-16) as a prompt to discuss the figure of the Byronic Hero in Romantic literature. What is the origin of the Byronic hero, and what are the defining characteristics of this literary figure? How does Mr. Rochester fit the profile of the Byronic hero, and in what ways does he not?

3. Use Reading Check Question 4 (Chapters 17-22) to introduce or review the genre of Gothic Literature. What are the typical elements of the 19th-century British gothic novel? Re-read this passage from the scene in which Jane tends to Mr. Mason’s wounds and consider its gothic features:

a. “What crime was this, that lived incarnate in this sequestered mansion, and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the owner?—What mystery, that broke out, now in fire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of night?—What creature was it, that, masked in an ordinary woman’s face and shape, uttered the voice, now of a mocking demon, and anon of a carrion-seeking bird of prey?” (Chapter 20)

4. Use Quiz Question 5 (Chapters 23-27) to introduce criticism of the novel related to racial representations and British colonial racism. Although Bertha’s racial heritage is ambiguous, she was born in Jamaica and is identified as “creole.” How is Jane’s description of her as “some strange wild animal” informed by British Victorian beliefs that colonial “natives” were intellectually and morally inferior to “whites”? How does the novel use Victorian racial assumptions to dehumanize Bertha and, in so doing, attempt to justify her confinement and captivity?

5. Use Quiz Question 6 (Chapters 23-27) to begin a discussion of Bertha’s symbolic value in the novel. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s pioneering feminist study, The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), takes its title from Bertha’s character and argues that she symbolizes the anxieties of 19th-century women who didn’t conform to their conventional gender role. Other readings of the novel interpret Bertha as a symbol of Jane’s repressed desires or the guilt Mr. Rochester harbors over his dissipated past. What examples from the novel might support these ideas?

6. Use Quiz Question 1 (Chapters 28-35) to begin or continue a discussion of the ways in which the novel represents various practices of Christian faith. How does St. John ‘live’ his faith differently than Helen Burns did, and can those differences be attributed to gender and class differences? Why is Jane not satisfied with either Helen’s or St. John’s form of faith?

7. Use Quiz Question 4 (Chapters 36-38) to begin or continue a discussion of how Jane often challenges Victorian gender stereotypes and models an identity that expresses feminist values. Over the course of the novel, how has Jane continually asserted her independence and autonomy? What experiences have helped her in realizing that she is worthy of and entitled to a loving, even passionate relationship? Mr. Rochester repeatedly refers to Jane as his equal, but how is their relationship actually more equitable by the end of the novel?