Lesson video

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to our final lesson of "Jane Eyre".

Now, at the end of our last lesson, Jane made a heartbreaking decision to leave Mr. Rochester.

In today's lesson, we're going to find out what happens to Jane, now that she's left Thornfield Hall.

Now, you've been warned.

Today's lesson is going to be an emotional rollercoaster.

Bronte finishes her novel with a lot of drama.

Today's lesson is going to be filled with suffering.

It's going to be filled with heartbreak.

It's also going to have our character being severely injured, and one of the main characters dying.

Will Bronte finish her novel with tragedy, or will she finish her novel with a happy ending? We shall find out by the end of today's lesson, let's begin.

For today's lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper, and a pen.

If you do not have this equipment, press the pause button on your video now, go and collect this equipment, and then we will begin our lesson.

Let's begin with a recap from our last lesson.

Jane's decision to leave Rochester demonstrates that, option one, she hates Rochester, option two, she is a resolute character who will do what is right, even when it is difficult.

Option three, she thinks that she could live a happier life without Rochester, or option four.

She believes that Rochester no longer loves her.

Press the pause button on your video now and tell the screen the right answer, off you go.

I will now tell you the right answer, which is option two.

Jane's decision to leave Rochester demonstrates that she is a resolute character who will do what is right, even when it is difficult.

Even though Jane loves Rochester very much, she is still determined to do the right thing and avoid becoming his mistress.

Well done if you got that right.

Now, some of you may have chosen one of the other options.

You may have chosen option one.

Jane's decision to leave Rochester demonstrates that she hates Rochester, that's not true.

Jane still loves Rochester very much.

You may have chosen option three.

She thinks that she can live a happier life without Rochester.

Again, that's not true.

As you're going to see, Jane's life without Rochester actually becomes a lot worse.

Remember, Rochester is a person who provides Jane with money and is also the only person that Jane really has in her life who provides her with love.

So Jane's life without Rochester actually becomes a lot more difficult.

And you may have chosen option four.

She believes that Rochester no longer loves her.

Again, that's not true.

You may remember in the last lesson that Rochester begged Jane to stay with him.

Rochester still loves Jane very much.

Well done if you got that right.

I'm now going to tell you my plan for today's lesson.

First of all, we're going to find out what happens to Jane after she leaves Rochester.

We're then going to learn about a disaster that takes place at Thornfield.

And then we're going to learn about how this novel ends.

Let's begin.

So, first of all, we're going to think about what happens to Jane after she leaves Rochester.

However Jane has left Thornfield Hall, her life seems absolutely hopeless.

I mean, she has no job, she has no home, she has no money, she has no friends and no family.

But, worst of all, Jane has left the love of her life, Mr. Rochester.

This really is the darkest moment of the book.

Jane wanders through the Yorkshire Moors all by herself trying to process her sadness.

"I was weeping wildly as I walked along my solitary way, fast, fast I went like one delirious.

A weakness beginning inwardly, extending to the limbs, siezed me, and I fell.

I lay on the ground some minutes, pressing my face to the wet turf.

I had some fear or hope, that here I should die.

But I was soon up, crawling forwards on my hands and knees, and then again raised to my feet, as eager and as determined as ever to reach the road." Jane next arrives in a town.

And by the time that she gets here, she is absolutely starving.

But, as I said, Jane has no money.

She is therefore forced to beg on the streets for food and for money from other people.

And this is what she writes.

She writes, "I thus wondered about like a lost and starving dog." Later that night, Jane is forced to sleep in the middle of a wood.

It's very dark, it's very cold, and Jane feels very lonely.

But there's only one thought that helps her get through this miserable night in the wood.

"Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life? Because I know or believe Mr. Rochester is living." So this idea that Mr. Rochester is still alive is the only thing that makes Jane continue to struggle to stay alive herself.

Now the next night, Jane is forced to sleep in the middle of Yorkshire Moors.

Once again, it's absolutely freezing.

She's really hungry, she's had nothing to eat.

She's lonely and she's heartbroken.

And it's at this point, but Jane loses all hope.

"A pang of exquisite suffering, a throe of true despair, rent and heave my heart.

Worn out, indeed, I was, not another step could I stir.

I groaned, I wrung my hands, I wept in utter anguish.

Oh, this spectre of death! Oh, this last hour, approaching in such horror.

Alas, this isolation, this banishment from my kind! Not only the anchor of hope, but the footing of fortitude and strength was gone, at least for a moment.

But the last, I soon endeavoured to regain.

'I can but die,' I said, 'and I believe in God.

Let me try to wait His will in silence.

' These words I not only thought, but uttered, and thrusting back all my misery into my heart, I made an effort to compel it to remain there, dumb and still.

'All men must die,' said a voice quite close at hand, 'but all are not condemned to meet a lingering and premature doom, such as yours would be if you perished and died here of want.

'" So a stranger has now approached Jane Eyre on the Moors.

This man offers to help Jane.

Very kindly, he takes Jane back into his cottage, which is in the middle of the Moors.

And Jane sleeps here that night.

The next day, she wakes up, she is fed breakfast, and she meets the people who live in this cottage.

Now, the man who has rescued her is a man named St John.

It's spelled St John, but it's pronounced, St John.

Now, St John is a clergyman, that means that he is the leader of a church, and St John is just like Helen Burns, he's a very devout man.

He takes his religion very seriously.

St John loves God.

And he is prepared to give up a huge amount in his service of God.

St John is planning to go to India to become a missionary there.

That means he's planning to leave England, go to India, to tell people about Jesus.

Now St John lives with twos of his sisters.

He lives with Hannah, and he lives with Diana.

And Jane's life in this cottage is very happy.

She is warm, she is fed, and she also gets on very well with the three people that she's living with.

Jane then becomes a teacher at a school nearby.

Eventually hears some really welcome news.

Jane hears news that her uncle has died, leaving her an inheritance of 20,000 pounds.

Now 20,000 pounds in Bronte's day would have been at a huge amount of money.

Jane has now changed from being a very poor homeless woman to now, being incredibly rich.

Not only is Jane rich, she also gets on really well for people she lives with.

She makes great friends of Hannah and Diana, and she respects St John very much.

She respects him greatly for his devotion to his religion.

St John in many ways, is very similar to Helen Burns, Jane's old friend.

It's now appears that everything is going rather well for Jane.

She is now living in a lovely cottage, she has three great friends, she has a job as a teacher, and she has now become incredibly rich, but there's one thing still missing.

There's a lingering sadness in Jane's life.

Jane still misses Rochester very much.

This is what Jane writes.

"Perhaps you think I had forgotten Mr. Rochester, reader, amidst these changes of place and fortune.

Not for a moment.

The craving to know what had become of him followed me everywhere." In fact, Jane continues to have dreams about this man.

"I still again and again met Mr. Rochester, always at some exciting crisis, and then the sense of being in his arms, hearing his voice, meeting his eye, touching his hand and his cheek, loving him, being loved by him.

The hope of passing a lifetime at his side would be renewed, with all its first force and fire.

Then I woke.

Then I recalled where I was, and how situated.

Then I rose up on my curtainless bed, trembling and quivering, and then the still, dark night witnessed the convulsion of despair, and heard the burst of passion." Let's now test your memory on the main things that we've been through so far.

So after she leaves Thornfield, Jane wanders around wilderness heartbroken and starving.

She's invited to live in a cottage with a clergyman named St John, and his two sisters, Hannah and Diana.

Jane hears that their uncle has left her with a huge inheritance.

She is now rich.

While Jane is rather happy, she still misses Rochester.

Press the pause button on your video now, go through these four points, trying to memorise them before we quiz you on these ideas.

Off you go.

Let's now test your memory.

Press the pause button on your video now, go through these four sentences filling in the blanks, off you go.

Okay, let's now take a look at the right answers.

Number one, after she leaves Thornfield, Jane wanders around the wilderness heartbroken and starving.

She is invited to live in a cottage with a clergyman named St John, and his two sisters, Hannah and Diana.

Jane hears that her uncle has left her with a huge inheritance, she is now rich.

While Jane is rather happy, she's still misses Rochester.

Well done if you got those right.

Let's now learn about a disaster that takes place at Thornfield.

Jane lives with St John, Hannah and Diana for a long time, and they all get on very well.

And St John begins to realise that Jane is a moral and upright Christian lady, the sort of lady that would make the perfect wife.

St John makes a plan.

He wants to get married to Jane, and then bring her to India with him to help him with his missionary work.

There's one problem with this plan though.

Jane doesn't love St John.

So Jane is placed into a very difficult position.

On one hand, if she married St John, she could live a very exciting and fulfilling life as a missionary in India.

On the other hand, she does not love him.

In fact, she still loves Mr. Rochester.

One night, St John is talking to Jane, and St John begs Jane to marry him.

Jane does not know how to respond.

She does not know what choice to make.

And then, suddenly she hears a voice calling her name.

"I saw nothing, but I heard a voice somewhere cry.

'Jane! Jane! Jane!,' nothing more.

'Oh God! What is it?' I gasped.

I might have said, 'Where is it?' for it did not seem in the room nor in the house, nor in the garden.

It did not come out of the air nor from under the earth, nor from overhead.

I had heard it, where or whence, for ever impossible to know as it was a voice of a human being.

a known, loved well-remembered voice that of Edward Fairfax Rochester, and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently.

'I am coming.

' I cried.

'Wait for me! Oh, I will come!' I flew to the door and looked into the passage, it was dark.

I ran out into the garden: it was void.

"Where are you?" I exclaimed.

The Hills beyond Marsh Glen sent the answer faintly back.

'Where are you?' I listened.

The wind sighed low in the firs, all was moorland loneliness and midnight hush.

Jane now begins a long journey back to Thornfield Hall.

She believes that Mr. Rochester must need her help.

So this is a really significant moment in our book.

St.

John is begging Jane to marry him.

And Jane does not know how to respond.

And then Jane hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her name.

Now Rochester is physically nowhere near Jane.

He is not in the same room.

He is not in the cottage.

He is not in the garden.

He's not in the countryside around this cottage.

But spiritually Rochester's heart is still with her.

It's as if they have some sort of spiritual connection.

Rochester spirit is calling out to Jane.

It's clear that he's in trouble.

So Jane leaves the cottage right away.

She travels across the countryside towards Thornfield, she's anxious, but she's also excited.

She cannot wait to see Thornfield again.

She climbs over a Hill just beside Thornfield hole.

And then she sees a sight that freezes her blood.

Oh my word.

Oh my God!.

Jane sees a terrifying sight.

Jane sees that Thornfield Hall has been burned down.

Jane's nightmare from a previous chapter has now become true.

Thornfield Hall has become a ruin.

This is what Jane says.

I looked with timorous joy towards the stately house, I saw a blackened ruin.

No need to cower behind the gatepost indeed, to peep up at chamber latices, fearing life was astir behind them.

No need to listen for doors opening to fancy steps on the pavement or the gravel walk.

The lawn, the grounds were trodden and waste, the portal yawned void.

The front was, as I had once seen it in a dream, but a shell-like wall, very high and very fragile-looking perforated with painless windows.

No roof, no battlements, no chimneys all had crashed in.

And there was a silence of death about it.

The solitude of a lonesome wild.

The grim blackness of the stones told by what fate the Hall had fallen, by conflagration and fire.

But how kindled? What story belonged to this disaster? What loss, besides mortar and marble and woodwork had followed upon it? Had life been wrecked as well as property? If so, whose? Dreadful question, there was no one here to answer it.

Not even dumb sign mute token.

Jane now goes to a nearby inn to find out what happened on the night that Thornfield burns down.

At the end she talks to a staff member.

This staff member reveals that Bertha Mason burnt Thornfield down.

They then describe the terrible night that this happened.

Mr. Rochester went up to the attics when all was burning above and below and got the servants out of their beds and helped them down himself, and went back to get his mad wife Bertha out of her cell.

And then they called out to him that she was on the roof where she was standing waving her arms above the battlements and shouting out till they could hear her a mile off.

I saw her and heard her with my own eyes.

She was a big woman and had long black hair.

We could see it streaming against the flames as she stood.

I witnessed and several more witnessed Mr. Rochester ascend through the sky light onto the roof.

We heard him call Bertha! We saw him approach her, and then man, she yelled ma'am gave a spring.

And the next minute she lay smashed on the pavement, dead.

So Bertha Mason jumped of off the roof of Thornfield Hall and killed herself.

Jane now learns that Mr. Rochester was terribly injured in this fire.

His eyes were injured, which means that now he's blind.

Mr. Rochester also lost one of his hands.

He is now helpless indeed, blind and a cripple.

Let's now read to find out how this novel ends.

Jane has discovered that Mr. Rochester is still alive.

He now lives in a house called a Ferndean House which is in the middle of the woods.

Jane travels across the countryside to Ferndean House.

She waits outside this house to catch a glimpse of Mr. Rochester.

Late one evening, she sees a figure walk outside of the front door of this house.

Let's read to see what happens.

Yes.

Life of some kind there was, for I heard a movement.

That narrow front door, was unclosing.

And some shape was about to issue from the grange.

It opened slowly, a figure came out into the twilight and stood on the step, a man without a hat.

He stretched forth his hand as if to feel whether it rained.

Dusk as it was, I had recognised him.

It was my master, Edward Fairfax Rochester and no other.

I stayed my step, almost my breath and stood to watch him, to examine him, myself unseen and alas! to him invisible.

His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever.

His hair was still raven black.

Nor were his features altered or sunk, not in one year's space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled or his vigorous prime blighted.

But in his countenance and face, I saw a change that looked desperate and brooding, that reminds me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe and sadness.

The caged eagle who's gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished, might look as looked at sightless Samson.

Jane now approaches Rochester's house.

She goes in and meets one of Rochester's servants, Mary.

Jane introduces herself and asked to see Mr. Rochester.

Mary agrees.

Jane takes a tray of water from Mary and walks towards Mr. Rochester's room.

She is filled with excitement and anxiety.

Her heart is thumping in her chest.

Jane is finally going to meet the love of her life once again.

But will Mr. Rochester accept her? Let's read to see what happens.

I took the tray from Mary's hand.

She pointed me out deposit the parlour door.

The tray shook 'cause I held it, the water spilled from the glass.

My heart struck my ribs loud and fast.

Mary opened the door for me and shut it behind me.

'Give me the water Mary.

' Rochester said.

He checked the water on its way to his lips and seemed to listen.

He drank and put the glass down.

'This is you, Mary, is it not.

?' 'Mary is in the kitchen,' I answered.

He put out his hand with a quick gesture, but not seeing where I stood he did not touch me.

'Who is this? Who is this?' He demanded, trying as it seemed, to see with those sightless eyes, Unavailing and distressing attempt.

'Answer me, speak again!.

' he ordered, imperiously and aloud.

'Will you have a little more water, sir?' I spilt half of what was in the glass,' I said.

'Great God, what delusion has come over me? What's sweet madness has seized me?' 'No delusion, no madness, your mind, sir, is too strong for delusion, your health to sound for frenzy.

' 'And where is the speaker?' Is it only a voice? Oh! I cannot see, but I must feel, or my heart will stop and my brain burst.

Whatever, whoever you are, be perceptible to the touch or I cannot live.

' He groped, I arrested his wandering hand, and prisoned it in both mine.

'Her very fingers!' he cried, 'her small, slight fingers! If so there must be more of her.

' The muscular hands broke from my custody, My arm was seized, my shoulder, neck, waist.

I was entwined and gathered to him.

'Is it Jane? What is it? This is her shape, this is her size.

' 'And this is her voice,' I added.

She is all here, her heart too.

God bless you, sir! I'm glad to be so near you again.

' 'Jane Erye! Jane Eyre!,' was all he said.

'My dear master,' I answered, 'I am Jane Eyre.

I have found you out.

I have come back to you.

' 'In truth? In the flesh? My living Jane?' 'You touch me, sir.

You hold me and fast enough, I am not cold like a corpse, nor vacant like air, am I?' 'My little darling, these are certainly her limbs, and these her features, but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery.

It is a dream, such dreams as I have had at night when I've clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now, and kissed her, as thus, and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me.

' 'Which I never will sir, from this day.

' I pressed my lips to his once brilliant and now rayless eyes.

I swept his hair from his brow, and kissed that too.

'Is it you? Is it Jane? You are come back to me then?' 'I am.

' 'And you will stay with me?' 'Certainly, unless you object.

I will be your neighbour, your nurse, your housekeeper.

I find you lonely.

I will be your companion, to read to you, to walk with you, to sit with you, to wait on you, to be eyes and hands to you.

Cease to look so melancholy, my dear master, you shall not be left desolate so long as I live.

My spirits were excited, and with pleasure and ease, I talked to him during supper.

And for a long time after.

There was no harassing restraint, no repressing of glee and vivacity with him, for with him I was at perfect ease, because I knew I suited him.

All I said or did seemed either to console or revive him.

Delightful consciousness! It brought to life and light my whole nature.

In his presence I thoroughly lived, and he lived in mine.

Blind as he was, smiles played over his face, joy dawned on his forehead, his lineaments softened and warmed.

So Jane now lives with Rochester and shortly after this moment the two decide to marry.

And we have, what's probably the most famous line in this whole novel.

Reader, I married him.

From now on, Jane and Rochester will be happily married together and nothing will ever separate them from each other, ever again.

So that's what will brings us to the end of this novel.

Let's just go through the main things we've been through in this lesson, and test your understanding.

So true or false? Number one, Jane accepts St.

John's proposal to marry him.

Two, Jane hears Rochester's voice calling to her.

Three, Rochester burned Thornfield down.

Four, Bertha Mason died in the fire.

Five, Rochester lost his sight and one of his hands in the fire.

And six, Jane marries Rochester.

Press the pause button on your video now.

Go through the six points, telling the screen whether they are true or false, off you go.

Let's now take a look at the right answers.

Number one is false.

Jane does not accept St John's proposal to marry him.

Number two, Jane hears what Rochester's voice calling to her.

That is true.

And that is a sign that he is in trouble.

Number three, Rochester did not burn Thornfield down.

That was in fact, Bertha Mason.

Number four, Bertha Mason did die in the fire.

She was also the person who began this fire.

Number five is true.

Rochester lost his sight and one of his hands in the fire.

And number six is also true.

Jane does indeed decide to marry Rochester at the end of our novel.

Well done if you got those, right.

So this story is, as I said in one of our first lessons, is a Bildungsroman.

It's a story that follows a character as they grow up and mature.

Now at the beginning of our lessons, we saw about Jane as a young child at the start of this book.

She's young and immature, and she's also an orphan as well as living with Reeds.

She is powerless and she is unloved.

And she is not loved at all by anybody in the world.

And throughout this novel, we've watched Jane change and we've watched your circumstances change, until at the end of the novel, she's in a very different situation.

Jane is now a mature and wise lady.

She's no longer young and immature.

She is now independent.

She's no longer an orphan living off other people.

She's now rich and can choose to live her life as she pleases.

And whereas at the beginning of the novel Jane was an unloved orphan who was hated and isolated by the Reeds.

Jane Eyre, by the end of this novel is now dearly loved by her husband, Mr. Rochester.

So we can see just how much Jane's character and circumstances have changed across the course of this book.

So here's our extension task.

Complete this paragraph if you would like to in your book or on your page.

And how has Jane changed throughout the novel? You've got some key words and phrases that you can use to help you write that paragraph.

In your book or on your page.

If you would like to complete this extension task, press the pause button on your video now, off you go.

And we're now coming towards the end of this lesson.

Here's the credits that we've used today.

Wow, what an amazing ending to our novel! Jane is finally reunited with Rochester.

They can now, after everything they've been through, finally spend the rest of their lives together.

This a story about how love wins and it cuts me deep every time.

Charlotte Bronte, that was absolutely class.

Well, that brings us to the end of our final lesson.

It's been an absolute pleasure to teach you.

I hope that you've enjoyed reading this novel just as much as I have.

It's now time for us to leave behind our favourite characters, Rochester and Jane, and to go back to the real world.

All the best.

And before you go make sure you complete our final end of lesson quiz.