Jane Eyre at Thornfield
Bronte's Heroine Finds Love with Mr Rochester
Jane's decision to leave Lowood in order to work at Thornfield is a key point in the novel, showing her new independence and introducing her to her true love.
At first, Thornfield seems an unlikely venue for a young woman to find romance. Although she cannot see much of the house when she arrives in darkness, upon entering she finds "a snug small room; a round table by a cheerful fire; an arm-chair high-backed and old-fashioned, wherein sat the neatest imaginable little elderly lady" (chapter 11). Jane soon learns that this lady, Mrs Fairfax, is not the mistress of the house but is instead the housekeeper: Mr Rochester is the master. Would Jane have accepted the position if she had known she would be working for a bachelor gentleman?
Gothic Atmosphere
The cosy atmosphere shown in this episode is soon replaced by a more sinister mood, as Thornfield begins to reveal its secrets. Jane hears mysterious laughter, just one of the gothic aspects of this dark, brooding house. The master, when she meets him, seems the living embodiment of the house: capable of great charm and levity, but with all the secrets and enigmatic qualities familiar in the classic Byronic hero.
Conversation Between Equals
Jane, however, proves more than a match for Mr Rochester, and it is at Thornfield that she truly begins to shine as a heroine. During their first real conversation in Chapter 13, Jane speaks with her master as if she were an equal - which in her mind, she is: when he teases her for bewitching his horse, "I shook my head. 'The men in green all forsook England a hundred years ago,' said I, speaking as seriously as he had done. 'And not even in Hay Lane, or the fields about it, could you find a trace of them. I don’t think either summer or harvest, or winter moon, will ever shine on their revels more.' Mrs. Fairfax had dropped her knitting, and, with raised eyebrows, seemed wondering what sort of talk this was."
Bride-to-be Blanche Ingram
However, although Jane is happy to speak in this way with her master, teasing him and telling him he is not handsome, she never once considers him as husband material, revealing that she is perhaps more constrained by issues of social class than her conversations with Rochester would suggest. She assumes that spoilt but beautiful Blanche Ingram will be his bride, a woman not afraid to remind Jane of her lowly station: during a party at Thornfield she expresses her dislike of governesses even though Jane is within earshot, and then remarks “'I noticed her; I am a judge of physiognomy, and in hers I see all the faults of her class'” (chapter 17).
The Garden of Eden
Despite these setbacks, Rochester does of course eventually propose to Jane, in a beautiful scene set in the gardens at Thornfield. The weather is perfect and the garden is reminiscent of paradise: "I went apart into the orchard. No nook in the grounds more sheltered and more Eden-like; it was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers" (chapter 23). It is here that Jane finally believes that she is worthy of a gentleman's love, but the fact that the horse-chestnut tree under which he proposes is subsequently split in two by lightning suggests the course of their love will not run smoothly. The roots are still intact, however, and although Jane flees from Thornfield upon learning of Bertha rather than consider life as Rochester's mistress, we suspect that they are perhaps not to be parted forever.
