I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons because her rank and connexions suited him I felt he had not given her his love, and that her qualifications were ill adapted to win from him that treasure. Do you think that’s supposed to be some kind of OMEN or something? Hmm, something that begins with a marriage ends with being in prison. In this particular case, the pretend wedding is meant to be a charade for the word “bride” – but that’s only the first half of the word being acted out in the game, which is “Bridewell,” a famous prison. This is the first of several not-quite-real weddings we’ll see in Jane Eyre, each of which suggests something about the actual marriages and pairings in the novel.
Rochester pair up for an elaborate game of charades, and the first thing they do is play-act their own wedding, silently, in front of the other houseguests and Jane. A ceremony followed, in dumb show, in which it was easy to recognize the pantomime of a marriage. Dent and Louisa Eshton, dressed also in white, took up their stations behind them. Rochester, and together they drew near the table. Then appeared the magnificent figure of Miss Ingram, clad in white, a long veil on her head, and a wreath of roses round her brow: by her side walked Mr. Somebody, unseen, rang the bell merrily then Adèle (who had insisted on being one of her guardian’s party) bounded forward, scattering round her the contents of a basket of flowers she carried on her arm. Rochester’s cloak, and holding a book in her hand. Rochester had likewise chosen, was seen enveloped in a white sheet: before him, on a table, lay open a large book and at his side stood Amy Eshton, draped in Mr. Within the arch, the bulky figure of Sir George Lynn, whom Mr. Blanche thinks that opposites attract, but Jane knows that kindred spirits attract more strongly.Įre long, a bell tinkled, and the curtain drew up. Notice how different this is from Jane’s (and Rochester’s) ideas about love and marriage–they’re drawn together because they are alike.
As a stunning beauty, she doesn’t want a handsome husband, but a hideous one – that way she’ll always get all the attention. I will suffer no competitor near the throne I shall exact an undivided homage: his devotions shall not be shared between me and the shape he sees in his mirror.” (2.2.128)īlanche Ingram’s idea of a good marriage is one in which the partners are distinctly different and one partner is far superior to the other. “Whenever I marry,” she continued, after a pause which none interrupted, “I am resolved my husband shall not be a rival, but a foil to me. This isn’t the first time Jane has felt affection for someone – but it may be the first time she’s felt like somebody else. Despite Jane’s and Rochester’s different class backgrounds, their master-servant relationship, and the strict gender roles of Victorian society, Jane can tell that they share something intangible – but she doubts that they can overcome all the social obstacles keeping them apart. Seeing Rochester among his high-class houseguests, Jane realizes that he has more in common with her than he does with them. I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered: – and yet, while I breathe and think I must love him. I believe he is of mine – I am sure he is, – I feel akin to him, – I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. “He is not to them what he is to me,” I thought: “he is not of their kind.
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