Bitesize and Sounds revision podcasts | Overview
Revise GCSE English Literature by listening to these podcasts from Bitesize and BBC Sounds.
BBC Sounds is where you can catch the latest music tracks, discover binge-worthy podcasts or listen to live radio, all in one place.
Listen on the BBC Sounds app when you're out and about, or listen at home as part of your revision.
Join hosts Jean Menzies and Carl Anka to get to grips with the plot, characters and themes from Jane Eyre, as well as key quotes to use in your exams.
Supercharge your revision with more podcasts for GCSE English literature and GCSE Biology
Episodes are roughly ten minutes long and there are up to nine episodes in each series.
Episode 1 - Plot
Jane Eyre is a novel written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847. The novel presents Jane’s life from childhood to adulthood.
Listen to a podcast about the plot of Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast.
Jean: I'm Jean Menzies, author and ancient historian.
Carl: I'm Carl Anka, journalist and author.
Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English Literature.
Carl: It's worth noting that there will be spoilers in this as we look into each text as a whole. So if you're not quite finished reading, or you're not quite ready for spoilers, just come back later.
Jean: And don't forget that whilst you're in the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the texts you might be studying, revision playlists, and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different subjects.
Jean: In this series, we're heading to Northern England in the 19th Century to explore Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Carl: And in this episode, we're going to look at the plot of Jane Eyre.Jane Eyre is a novel that was written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. It's a first person narrative. So everything is described as “I” and everything we are told is read from the perspective of Jane Eyre, she's the “I”. We hear her story from childhood through to adulthood.
Jean: And Jane is seemingly ‘the plain girl’, at least that's how she's described throughout the book by herself and others, who meets a lot of challenges in life.I guess it makes sense though, to start at the beginning of the story. So let's go.
Jean: When we first meet Jane Eyre at the start of the novel, she's living at her aunt, Mrs Reed’s house:
Extract:
God will punish her. He might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums. And then where would she go? Come Bessie, we will leave her. I wouldn't have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself. For if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away. They went, shutting the door and locking it behind them.
Jean: That's Miss Abbott speaking. She's a servant at Mrs Reed’s house, Gateshead and as you can hear she's not kind to Jane. None of them are. Jane is not treated well at all there.
Carl: Mrs Reed is not a kind woman.
Carl: Mrs Reed and her children, who she idolises, are all very cruel to Jane. And this clip we're hearing is Jane being locked in the Red Room as punishment, which is apparently a haunted room in the house.
Jean: Jane actually believes herself that she can see ghosts in there, but nobody else cares. She is still thrust in there for punishment with no one allowed to let her out.
Carl: Jane stands her ground with Mrs Reed and lets her know that her behaviour isn't fair or justified. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in episode two when we look at Jane's character in more detail, but for now, the plot.
Jean: So after her time at Gateshead, which is where she lives with Mrs Reed, Jane then goes to Lowood school.
Carl: I really want a happy ending for Jane but that's not going to happen just yet. Lowood School - the supervisor there is a gentleman called Mr Brocklehurst, who has been warned by Mrs Reed that Jane is apparently a bad child. So Mr Brookhurst is just as cruel to Jane, and dishes out loads of punishments towards her.
Jean: There is something though, or someone, who makes Jane’s time at Lowood a little happier, compared to her time at Mrs Reed’s house.
Extract:
I was the first who spoke. “Helen, why do you stay with a girl who everybody believes to be a liar?” “Everybody, Jane? Why, there are only 80 People who have heard you called so and the world contains hundreds of millions.” “But what have I to do with millions? The 80 I know despise me.” “Jane you are mistaken. Probably not one in the school either despises or dislikes you. Many I am sure pity you much.”
Carl: Right, that extract there, that's the first sort of real introduction of Helen and Jane as a partnership. It can be argued that these two are the first real love story of the book, as Jane finds her first kind and caring friendship with Helen at Lowood school.
Jean: It's a real moment of lightness in the book where you have a little bit of hope, right? And we'll learn more about Helen Burns in episode three of this podcast but she is an important part to the plot of the story. Because as you say, she is Jane's first real friend and the first person who shows her consistent kindness.
Carl: She's also an important part of Jane's life because, unfortunately, Helen dies of tuberculosis, or as it was known at the time, consumption.
Carl: Helen dies of consumption while still at school, and this has a real impact on Jane.
Jean: It's a really heart wrenching extract from the book when Helen dies, and we will hear more in episode two but it definitely stays with you in this story. Two little girls who became best friends and are with each other right to the end of one of their lives.
Carl: It is such a sad moment in the story, but it's lovely to be told that after 15 years, a gravestone is added to her grave. Helen is not forgotten.
Jean: And as for Jane, life continues at Lowood school after Helen's gone. Once she finishes as a pupil there, she becomes a teacher and she's there for a total of eight years before she moves on to her next place.
Carl: Which is as a governess at Thornfield Hall. A governess was a woman who was employed in a private household to educate pupils, normally girls, in loads of different subjects at home.
Extract:
I looked at my pupil, who did not at first appear to notice me. She was quite a child, perhaps seven or eight years old, slightly built, with a pale, small featured face, and a redundancy of hair folding in curls to her waist. “Good morning, Miss Adela”, said Mrs Fairfax. “Come and speak to the lady who is to teach you and to make you a clever woman someday.” She approached.
Carl: Jane becomes governance at Thornfield Hall to help a little girl called Adele. We just heard her meeting for the first time in that clip you've just heard there.
Jean: And we actually see Jane quite happy here. It feels like she's landed in a good place. Finally she meets her new employer, Mr Rochester and they spend some time together and we see Jane Eyre start to fall in love.
Carl: We do, but there also seems to be something strange going on and something strange about Thornfield in general, Jane thinks that she hears voices sometimes and also there's a fire that breaks that nearly kills Mr Rochester
Jean: And Jane saves him. She manages to wake him up and stop the fire. But there is a bit of a mystery about how that fire started. Mr Rochester blames one of the servants Grace Poole and Jane is very suspicious of her and believes that she started the fire.
Carl: Well, Grace has been getting the blame for a lot hasn't she? First time Jane heard a strange laugh in house, Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper says it was Grace. So after that, Jane understandably assumes that all the strange events are to do with Grace because all the noises that Jane hears always seem to come out from the direction where she first heard laughter and as the story moves on, you don't really hear about the fire and how it was started until a bit later on.
Jean: That is such a plot twist. But you're absolutely right. This is Charlotte Bronte foreshadowing or predicting what's to come later on. There are a few other moments like Mr Mason, who's already staying at the house being attacked by someone who again, Jane thinks is Grace. But the story moves on from the fire and Jane instead sweeps us along with her on her burgeoning love affair with Mr Rochester, which she actually doubts for a while because she thinks he wants to marry Blanche Ingram, who we're told is a beautiful, elegant young woman who's interested in Mr Rochester herself.
Carl: But it's Jane that Mr Rochester asks to marry him. And he confesses his love for her as well. And it all seems like it's going so well for Jane. She's going to marry the man that she loves and he loves her back. But then we realise, in this story, happily ever after is not going to be that easy.
Jean: We said at the beginning that this is a story of a girl who faces a lot of challenges, and this is another one of those.
Carl: Because it turns out Mr Rochester is already married.
Carl: This is all revealed by a character called Mr Mason who shows up when Mr Rochester and Jane Eyre are at the altar, no less. Mr Mason we'll get into in a little bit, but what you need to understand is he pops up at the wedding and announces that Mr Rochester cannot marry Jane Eyre, because Mr Rochester is already married. This point, the arrival of Mr Mason is where all the little niggles about Thornfield and the voice they've heard start to make sense.
Extract:
In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not at first sight tell. It grovelled seemingly on all fours. It snatched and growled like some strange, wild animal. But it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.
Jean: What we've just heard is Jane seeing Bertha for the first time, and her behaviour is described as wild. She's running around the house on all fours. They end up having to tie her up to control her. And Mr Rochester is adamant that this woman who is his wife is, as he describes, mad and not even similar to a human being anymore. And instead he still wants to be with Jane. It's a really difficult scene to read.
Carl: The extract we just heard describes Bertha as “it” and says that she's grizzled. They're really portraying her as something other than human there. We look at Bertha as a character more in episode four. Let's just step in here and say the Victorian views on mental health are not the same as they are today. We'll get into this a little bit more, but I think it's important to address that right now.
Jean: We'll take a look at the context around this in episode six.
Carl: Now, Mr Rochester still wants to be with Jane. But that's not really an option for Jane anymore. She won't be with Mr Rochester while they’re still married. So Jane then decides to run away. Jane ends up homeless and then she gets really sick. Things aren't good for her until she stumbles upon the Rivers family, that’s St John, Mary and Diana Rivers who nurse her back to health
Jean: So now we have Jane living with the Rivers, she becomes a teacher again at a local school and she even comes into money as she finds out she's inherited her uncle's wealth and estate.
Carl: And then Jane Eyre finds out that the Rivers are actually her family, just none of them knew at the beginning, but it turns out that they are cousins. So she splits the money with them, and carries on with her teaching.
Jean: St John Rivers is an interesting character. We'll discuss it more in episode three.
Jean: He feels like such a good character at the beginning when he lets Jane into his home. But then he loses his shine a little when we see how cold he is and quite set in his ways and ideas. He wants to Jane to marry him so she can join him as a missionary abroad. But Jean says no because she wants to marry for love. She's such a strong character throughout this book.
Carl: Well, Jane nearly says yes at one point. But then she hears Mr Rochester calling to her in a dream and she realises that she cannot do it.
Extract:
I had heard it, where or whence forever impossible to know. And it was the 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.
Jean: Now, that's the moment that Jane decides to go back to Thornfield to find Mr Rochester and see what has happened to him because she really believes that she has heard him calling for her.
Carl: But in the time that Jane has been away, she finds out that Thornfield has been burnt down. Bertha has died and Mr Rochester is now blind and injured after trying to save Bertha from the fire.
Jean: And it doesn't end there because when she meets Mr Rochester again they realise they still love each other and…
Extract:
Reader. I married him.
Jean: What a line!
Carl: That's where it comes from!
Jean: Yes, on all of those novelty items that you see are all those references to “Reader, I did something,” that comes from Jane Eyre. Now you know.
In the final chapter we hear from Jane about how the next 10 years are happy and content. Mr Rochester regains his sight in one eye. They have a child who he is able to see. The Rivers sisters go on to get married and they still see each other. St John rivers is sick and is expected to die but Jane thinks that he will be happy, as a deeply Christian man, to be closer to meeting his God.
Carl: You don't walk away from the story thinking what about Mary Rivers? I wonder where she ended up because we know Jane and Charlotte Bronte ultimately tell us everything.
Jane: And like we said at the beginning Jane Eyre is the story of a girl who meets a lot of challenges in life. And I think we can conclude that that is exactly what it is. That simple sum-up doesn't quite prepare you for her many challenges, but it's a start.
Carl: Thanks for listening to episode one of the Bitesize English literature podcast all about the plot of Jane Eyre.
Jean: In episode two we're going to take a closer look at some of the characters in this book. You can listen now on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
Jane lives at a few different places with several different characters. List where she lived and with who, in the order of the narrative.
Gateshead Hall with Mrs Reed
Lowood School with Mr Brocklehurst
Thornfield Hall with Mr Rochester
With The Rivers’ family
Back with Mr Rochester
Episode 2 - Characters - Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative told from the perspective of Jane.
Listen to a podcast about the character of Jane in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast.
Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature.
Jean: In this series, we're heading to Northern England in the 19th century to explore Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm Jean Menzies.
Carl: I'm Carl Anka, and this episode we're taking a close look at the characters within Jane Eyre.In Jane Eyre, we have main, secondary and minor characters. The main character is Jane due to this book being a first person bildungsroman.
Jean: Bildungsroman is a type of novel that follows a main protagonist or leading character through their struggles from childhood to adulthood. They learn from their experiences, which usually leads them to succeed in life and have a happy ending. So a more modern day example might be Anita and Me.
Carl: Yes, anything that you might describe as a coming of age story, or anything where the character might go through puberty, can roughly be described as a bildungsroman. So let's start by looking at Jane.
Extract:
I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you Aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up. And if anyone asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty.
Jean: There are so many incredible quotes from Jane Eyre, that just make me want to punch the air. I love her. This one where she's speaking to her aunt, Mrs Reed who has treated her terribly. She's still a young girl, but she's so strong willed and passionate, and she will stand up for what's right, no matter how that affects her. We've mentioned this previously, and we'll take a look at Bertha as a character in Episode Four.
Carl: I think that sums it up really well. When we first meet Jane, she is a young orphan who is living with her aunt, Miss Reed. She speaks out about both her aunt and her cousin's cruelty towards her. And that's what ends up with her being completely alienated in the house. Eventually over time, we find out that Miss Reed didn't really want Jane, she only reluctantly agreed to take care of her when Mrs Reed husband, Jane’s uncle, made her promise on his deathbed to take care of Jane. Mrs Reed has always been uneasy about this agreement. Even though she looks after Jane, she treats Jane awfully. And the thing you've just heard there is Jane telling Mrs Reid exactly what she thinks of her just before Jane leaves.
Jean: She's got a really strong sense of justice and she's not afraid to say it. She's about to move to Lowood School here, and though seeing all this surely means she's cutting off this family, she chooses to say it out loud and let Mrs Reed know that her behaviour has not been acceptable.
Extract:
My dear children, pursue the black marble clergyman with pathos. This is a sad, a melancholy occasion. For it becomes my duty to warn you that this girl who might be one of God's own lambs, is a little castaway. Not a member of the true flock, but evidently an interloper and an alien.You must be on your guard against her. You must shun her example, if necessary, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports. And shut her out from your converse.
Jean: That you heard there, It was Mr Brocklehurst.
Carl: Mr Brocklehurst a supervisor at the school and he enjoys making all of the girls there fearful because Mrs Reed told Mr Brocklehurst previously that Jane is bad child. So Mr Brocklehurst goes out of his way to pick on her with punishments and taunts, just like you heard there.
Jean: So living with punishments and being poorly treated by adults continues at Lowood school. But she doesn't remain as isolated as she did at Mrs Reed’s house because she finds someone she admires in her teacher, Maria Temple, and true friendship and real love in the form of her best friend Helen Burns.
Carl: They really do have a lovely friendship and Helen is Jane's only friend at Lowood. She also deals with a lot of punishment and humiliation from teachers. Helen deals with things in different way, as she doesn't stand up for herself in the same way that Jane does.
Jean: We will talk more about Helen in episode three. We definitely see during her time at Lowood, Jane's ability as a good judge of character. She warms instantly to Miss Temple and Helen Burns whilst loathing Mr Brocklehurst. Helen’s is a really special friendship and when Helen dies, Jane is left absolutely heartbroken and lost.
Extract:
I was not reprimanded for leaving my bed. People had something else to think about. No explanation was afforded then to my many questions. But a day or two afterwards, I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn had found me laid in the little crib, my face against Helen Burns’ shoulder, my arms around her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was dead.
Carl: One thing Charlotte Bronte is going to do, she's going to make you feel all of the feelings when you are reading her books. As the reader, you feel so happy when Jane has found this friendship with Helen and you really care for Helen as well. And then when Helen is taken away, it's utterly devastating.
Jean: And there's still so much more to come in this story. Because another part of Jane's character that we hear a lot about in this story is that Jane is always someone who's described as being plain. And she certainly doesn't see herself as a beauty.
Carl: She's pretty ordinary. I don't think you really expect a love story for Jane, because of this, which is a fairly ridiculous idea. I understand what Charlotte Bronte was trying to challenge.
Jean: There is an expectation in romance, that we have the most beautiful of beautiful characters falling in love, which is a terribly outdated idea of how women and love stories should be, because we all deserve love. But Charlotte really drives home that Jane is plain and still gives her the love story that she deserves. Thankfully, I do think attitudes have changed since this book was written and we can see everybody falling in love now. And Charlotte Bronte was really leading the way here.
Carl: Yes, because after eight years at Lowood as a student and then a teacher, Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. This is where she meets and eventually falls in love with Mr Rochester.
Jean: Mr Rochester falls in love with her, and they plan to get married. Oh, it's all looking sunny, isn't it? But those plans are thwarted right at the last moment at the altar when we find out that Mr Rochester already has a wife.
Carl: Mr Rochester eventually shows his wife, Bertha to Jane. And then we find out that unfortunately, Bertha is mentally unwell. We're told that she's been locked in the attic for her own safety and the safety of everyone else. She's being looked after by Grace Paul, who also works in the home. It's at this point that we see more key character traits of Jane. And they are her integrity, her principles and selflessness because even though she's deeply in love, she cannot sacrifice her principles to live with a man that she cannot marry.
Jean: And so she leaves sacrificing, seemingly, her chance of happiness.
Extract:
The house cleared, I shut myself in, fastened the bolt that none might intrude, and proceeded not to weep not to mourn. I was yet too calm for that, but mechanically to take off the wedding dress, and replace it by the stuffed gown I had worn yesterday, as I thought, for the last time.
Jean: So that extract you just heard is just after Jane finds out that Mr Rochester is already married, and she leaves. She's always had that strong sense of right and wrong that we've known since the beginning of the book. And she keeps that as she decides she can't be with a man who already has a wife.
Carl: Which is great for her and her morals, but not so great for practicality. She ends up homeless without work or food. She is really sick. But luckily she finds refuge at the Rivers’ home with St John, Diana and Mary who she eventually finds out are her cousins.
Jean: It turns out the people that took her in are actually her family. They helped Jane at her lowest so when she finds out she's been left a 20,000 pound inheritance (that would be over 3 million pounds in today's money) she splits it with her three cousins. She's kind and fair and she cares for other people's happiness.
Carl: She never forgets Mr Rochester during this time even when cousin St John asks her to marry him and join him as a missionary, Jane eventually refuses.
Extract:
I saw nothing. But I heard a voice somewhere cry, “Jane, Jane.” nothing more. Oh, god. What is it? I gasped.
Carl: That is the part where Jane is thinking about possibly marrying St John. But she hears Mr Rochester and we see how trusting she is of her own instincts.
Carl: Jane believes that when she hears Mr Rochester calling out to her in a dream that there is something actually happening in real life. So she trusts her instincts enough to travel all the way back to him and find out what's happened.
Jean: And it turns out her instincts are right because she finds that while she was gone, Bertha has started another fire and is now dead. Mr Rochester, meanwhile, has been left blind and injured in the fire.
Carl: Then in the end, they finally get married. Jane gets the ending she's always wanted.
Jean: Reader, she married him!
Extract:
I have now been married 10 years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on Earth. I hold myself supremely blessed. Blessed beyond what language can express. Because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.
Jean: So we leave Jane happy, content, independent and everything she's been working towards throughout the book. She really reflects Charlotte Bronte at this point in her life which was different for many women at the time, but we'll discuss that more in Episode Six.
Carl: She's happy with Mr Rochester the man she loves and I think that's quite a nice place to leave things in this episode.
Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast all about Jane Eyre.
In episode three, we'll take a closer look at Mr Rochester and St John Rivers.
You can listen now on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
Why don’t Jane and Mr Rochester actually get married when they are first at the altar together?
It is revealed that Mr Rochester is already married, and his wife Bertha is secretly living in the attic.
Episode 3 - Characters - Mr Rochester and St John Rivers
The secondary characters of Mr Rochester and St John Rivers are also central to the novel.
Listen to a podcast about the characters of Mr Rochester and St John Rivers in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to get all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.
Jean: While you're in the BBC Sounds app, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with you revision. Full versions of some of the texts you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.
In this series, we're heading to Northern England in the 19th century to explore Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm Jean Menzies.
Carl: And I'm Carl Anka.
Jean: In this episode, we're taking a closer look at more of the characters within Jane Eyre. In Episode Two we shone the spotlight on Jane Eyre herself. And in this episode, we're going to find out more about Mr Rochester and St John Rivers.
Carl: We've heard a little bit about Mr Rochester already in episode two, and we know that he is the master of Thornfield Hall, where Jane works as a governess and therefore he has a large fortune.
Extract:
"Here is Miss Eyre, sir," said Mrs Fairfax, in her quiet way. He bowed, still not taking his eyes from the group of the dog and child "Let Miss Eyre be seated," said he: and there was something in the forced stiff bow, in the impatient yet formal tone, which seemed further to express, "What the deuce is it to me whether Miss Eyre be there or not? At this moment I am not disposed to accost her."
Carl: Charlotte Bronte describes him as being aloof, which is him being quite cold and unfriendly, as well as rugged, intelligent and witty, and we can certainly hear his aloofness in what we've just heard from Jane. The very first meeting when Mr Rochester falls off his horse, and their next couple of meetings solidify the idea that this man is indeed aloof, wild and outspoken. But he wants to spend time with Jane and they spend their evenings arguing and discussing topical issues. We just know she's going to fall in love with him. It's really the first time anyone's taken her seriously as an adult. And in a way it's a little bit manipulative of him.
Extract:
“Well, tonight, I Excuse you. But understand that so long as my visitors stay, I expect you to appear in the drawing room every evening. It is my wish, don't neglect it.“
Jean: So this is what Mr Rochester says to Jane about her joining him and his guests in the drawing room. But one of those guests is Blanche Ingram who openly wants to be the next Mrs Rochester herself. And he flirts with her and even pretends he's going to marry Blanche. We know later that this is to make Jane jealous so that she'll confess her love, but at the time, it does seem like he's going to marry Blanche.
Carl: However, Mr Rochester eventually declares his love for Jane too, and says they must get married right away. But then we know what happens next - at the altar, we find out Mr Rochester is already married. And that's where we see an angry and self-pitying version of him.
Extract:
“You shall see what sort of a being I was cheated into espousing, and judge whether or not I had a right to break the compact, and seek sympathy with something at least human.”
Jean: So that's Jane Eyre telling us what Mr Rochester said when he first takes her to see Bertha. He is not apologetic about the situation. He is just so mad that he got found out basically, and he really doesn't believe in his marriage to Bertha anymore. Like we just heard he refers to her as not even being human, which is reflective of the times and a complex attitude that we'll look at more in episode seven. Mr Rochester is desperate for Jane to stay with him, and quite selfishly pleads with her and stresses his love. But Jane can't do it.
Carl: And that's the last we hear from Mr Rochester for a while, until Jane believes that she hears him calling out to her in a dream and she heads back to find out that there's been a terrible fire. Mr Rochester has lost his sight.
Extract:
Jane, you think me I dare say, an irreligious dog. But my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent god of this earth just now. He sees not as man sees but far clearer. Judges not as man judges, but far more wisely. I did wrong.
Jean: At the end, he does seem truly to be sorry, he seems like he's learned a lot when Jane left. He loses his sight trying to save Bertha from the fire and that's the same Bertha he treated so poorly earlier and spoke of in such an awful manner.
Carl: Rochester is definitely a complex character. But in some ways this does show he has truly changed. He has his hero moment here. He put other people’s safety before his and he truly repents for his past actions. He does all this without knowing that Jane is going to come back to him. So we know it’s for the right reasons as well. Now I don't want to come off too lightly on him. I'm always really confused as to what his plan was. If he did marry Jane, how long did he think he'd be able to get away with Jane not realising his first wife was locked in the attic.
Jean: Especially when it becomes officially her house and she's not just an employee there. She's not going to wander around and take a look?
Carl: He didn't really think that one through. However, the true change of the character is what was needed for Jane. And throughout the book, it becomes quite obvious that Mr Rochester truly does love Jane. He cries when he hears her voice, and he can't believe that she has come back for him.
Jean: It's fair to say he does come around in the end, and Jane herself tells us how happy her life is over the next 10 years with him. So I'm going to trust Jane’s judgement on this one. And I think it's also really important that by the time she does come to him, she's an independent woman of means, because Jane needed to feel like his equal. Charlotte Bronte needed that for Jane too.
Carl: We shall move on to the next main character St John Rivers.
Extract:
"Hannah," said Mr St. John, at last, "let her sit there at present, and ask her no questions; in ten minutes more, give her the remainder of that milk and bread. Mary and Diana, let us go into the parlour and talk the matter over."
Jean: So this is Jane Eyre telling us what St John Rivers has said. When we first meet St John he's allowing Jane Eyre into his home and helping to nurse her back to health along with his sisters. He also arranges for Jane to become a teacher at the local charitable school. And it's clear from the beginning that he's a man who's very committed to his religion.
Carl: He's protective of his family and strives to do the right thing, whether it's perfectly right for him to do that or not. St John Rivers is quite a cold hearted character.
Jean: So when Jane starts managing the local school, it's here she sees that St John is completely in love with Rosamond Oliver, another lady who lives in the village, but as you just said, he's so set on doing the right thing that he doesn't consider what's right for him.
Extract:
His chest heaved once, as if his large heart weary of despotic constriction, had expanded despite the will and made a vigorous bound for the attainment of liberty. But he curbed it, I think, as a resolute rider would curb a rearing steed.
Carl: that bit is Jane speaking about St. John's love for Rosamond and how he curbs that love.
Jean: Well, St John believes that God has called him to become a missionary in India, which was a British colony at this point in time. And he doesn't believe that Rosamond would make a good missionary’s wife, so he refuses to act on his feelings and instead removes himself from Rosamond and becomes cold-hearted and distant.
Carl: He’s extremely pious and determined to become a missionary in India which, as mentioned, was a British colony at the time. Actually, the British were forcibly introducing religion and customs. St. John eventually proposes to Jane because he believes that she will be a good missionary’s wife. Love doesn't factor into it, because he's so set on being the person he ought to be as a missionary.
Jean: And that's not for Jane. She refuses his proposal because she cannot marry without love. And that seems to confuse St. John and make him extremely cold towards her. This is what St John said to Jane:
Extract:
“God and nature intended you for missionary’s wife. It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you. You are formed for labour, not for love.”
Jean: So, what you just heard there sums up this cold heartedness we keep mentioning, “You are formed for labour, not love, he says to Jane,” suggesting that no one will ever love her.
Carl: It's all insulting and reductive when he says this, his belief is that women can be for one thing or the other: labour or love. Now when he says labour St John is talking about labour in the sense of work, rather than labour as in childbirth. In St John Rivers’ eyes, a woman's only good for work or love. St John tries to tell Jane that she is good for labour, and love isn't something that she will receive. There's a lot of Jane being called plain that feeds into this as well. St. John believes that because Jane is so plain that makes her more suitable to be a missionary’s wife.
Jean: He treats her pretty badly, but in a different way from how we heard about Mr Rochester treating her badly earlier on. Jane, in the meantime, has already felt love from Mr Rochester. So it means she knows that it exists and she needs it if she's going to get married. And she obviously knows it's not one or the other.
Carl: Yes, there's a really interesting contrast between Mr Rochester and St John Rivers. As the fiery free Mr Rochester declares his love for Jane and that's juxtaposed with the cold hearted St John Rivers who is so determined in his path that he will not stray. Not even for love.
Jean: Someone once explained juxtaposition to me as being able to see the light of the stars only because of the darkness of the space around them. When you put the two things together that are different, the contrast stands out even more when you see them together. It's really nice way of putting it and that's something we've come to expect from Charlotte Bronte. She uses beautiful imagery and symbolism around these characters, St John and Mr Rochester. Fire features a number of times in the story around the fiery and passionate Mr Rochester, whereas there is a cold and snowy imagery painted around the reserved and controlled St John Rivers, really highlighting those personality traits.
Carl: Charlotte Bronte always paints a full picture. She knows what she's doing when she's telling a story.
Jean: Thank you so much for listening to the Bitesize English literature podcast. In Episode Four, we'll carry on looking at the characters in Jane Eyre. We'll focus on Helen Burns, Mrs Reed and Bertha. You can listen now on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
Where does Mrs Reed lock Jane to punish her?
Mrs Reed locks Jane in the Red Room as punishment. Mrs Reed is a cruel woman who doesn’t seem to interact much with Jane, except to punish her.
Episode 4 - Characters - Helen Burns, Mrs Reed and Bertha
Helen Burns is Jane's only friend at Lowood School.
Mrs Reed is Jane's aunt and she looks after Jane at Gateshead.
Bertha is Rochester's first wife and she lives in Thornfield's attic.
Listen to a podcast about the characters of Helen Burns, Mrs Reed and Bertha in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. This series is designed to help you tackle your GCSE in English literature and give you the key things you need to ace your exam.
Jean: You can find an audio book of Jane Eyre read by Catherine Press on BBC Sounds to listen to the whole story.
Carl: I'm Carl Anka.
Jean: And I'm Jean Menzies. And in this episode, we're taking a closer look at even more of the characters within Jane Eyre. In episode two and three we looked at Jane Eyre, Mr Rochester and St John Rivers. Today it's all about Helen Burns, Mrs Reed and Bertha Mason.
Carl: There's a lot of important characters in this book Jane Eyre is quite hefty. So if you find it easier to make notes as you go along, grab a pen and paper before we look at the three characters within this podcast episode. We’ll start the lovely Helen Burns.
Extract:
“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you. And besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”
Jean: How do you even some her up, she's Jane’s only friend at Lowood School. She has such an influence on her life. Jane is instantly drawn to her and she's the first person to ever be consistently kind to Jane. She is a good person. She takes her faith very seriously. She's an honest and loyal friend.
Carl: Helen is also, like Jane, continually victimised by the teachers and readily punished. However Helen’s strong religious beliefs make her handle those punishments in a different way to Jane.
Jean: We've come to know Jane's fiery attitude and ability to stand up for herself and what's right. Helen is completely accepting of her punishment. The Bible has taught her to turn the other cheek, and she should accept whatever failings she's been told she has, apologise for them and take her punishment.
Carl: This just confuses Jane, who wants Helen to stand up for herself. Helen and Jane really love each other. They're a great pair of friends throughout the whole book. We know that Helen is unwell. In fact, we know this even before they meet as Jane says, “The sound of a cough close behind me made me turn my head.” Heartbreakingly, Helen goes on to die while still at the school.
Jean: And even in these tragic circumstances, she manages to maintain her accepting and peaceful way. She is content at the idea of death and going to heaven. She's mature beyond her years when she instructs Jane not to be sad, because she'll be in a better place.
Carl: I'm not sure I can ever forgive Charlotte Bronte for taking Helen like that in a story with so many awful people for Jane to contend with. Helen was our first experience of true goodness and love for Jane, and she's just taken away. Really suddenly.
Jean: Yeah, I'm completely with you on that one. Whilst we're on the subject of awful people and characters though, we still need to talk about Mrs Reed.
Carl: Oh yes, we do.
Jean: Jane's aunt and an antagonist for a large portion of the Book, which means the villain or the person who goes against the protagonist or main character. Mrs Reed is the person who looks after Jane at Gateshead and she doesn't do it very nicely.
Extract:
Then Mrs Reed subjoined – “Take her away to the red-room and lock her in there.” Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.
Jean: The red room is where Jane gets locked away and isn't allowed out when she's punished. Mrs Reed is a cruel woman who doesn't seem to interact much with Jane except to punish her.
Carl: Mrs Reed makes it very obvious from the start that she doesn't like Jane. She does, however, adore and idolise her three other children: John, Georgiana and Elisa. They can do no wrong in Mrs Reed's eyes. Even when John is violent towards Jane, it's Jane who needs to be punished.
Jean: At the beginning of the story we don't really ever understand why Mrs Reed dislikes her so strongly. She's a bit of a fairy tale villain. We do get an inkling that it's something to do with her husband or Jane's uncle, Mr Reed. And in this extract, we hear Jane say that herself.
Extract:
“What would Uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive?” Was my scarcely voluntary demand. I say scarcely voluntary, for it seemed as if my tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance.
Carl: What we heard just there happens quite early in the story. It's Jane questioning Mrs Reed, on what the late Mr Reed would have thought of the punishments she gives out to Jane.
Jean: And Mrs Reed does react to her saying that. Bronte tells us that she becomes troubled with a look of fear. And we know there's something more to this, which only makes a lot more sense later on in the story when Jane visits Mrs Reed on her deathbed and we find out that Mrs Reed has been driven by jealousy of Jane.
Extract:
I hated it the first time I set my eyes on it — a sickly, whining, pining thing! It would wail in its cradle all night long — not screaming heartily like any other child, but whimpering and moaning. Reed pitied it; and he used to nurse it and notice it as if it had been his own: more, indeed, than he ever noticed his own at that age.
Carl: That's what Mrs Reed said to Jane on her deathbed, isn't it?
Jean: Yes, she's describing why she hated Jane so much. And we learned that her husband, Jane's uncle, had loved her dearly. Perhaps even more than he loved his own children, which had made Mrs Reed incredibly jealous.
Carl: So that's why Mrs Reed treated Jane so badly. She was completely jealous of her, and had been since the day Jane had been born.
Jean: Jane tells us that Mrs Reed still hates her even on her deathbed. She never changes.
Carl: Time for the final character of this podcast episode. Bertha Mason, a character that we don't even know exists for quite a large chunk of this story.
Extract:
This was a demonic laugh—low, suppressed, and deep—uttered as it seemed, at the very key-hole of my chamber door.
Jean: So even before we find out Bertha exists, she's portrayed as a threatening presence. She is responsible for the fire that Jane saves Mr Rochester from. She's the source of the demonic laugh we've just heard Jane refer to. She attacks Mr Mason and tears Jane’s veil before the wedding.
Carl: But we don't know who the person is behind all these things as they happen. So it's a real eye-opener when it is eventually revealed that it's Bertha during the first attempted wedding of Jane and Mr Rochester.
Jean: So Bertha's character is one that's really difficult to talk about because the way she's portrayed in the book is pretty awful. It's representative of the time and how people viewed mental illness, but it makes for very uncomfortable reading.
Carl: There's been a lot of discussion about how Charlotte Bronte makes Bertha “the other”. Betha is often framed as the obstacle in the way of Mr Rochester and Jane's marriage, and she's described in ways that are quite dehumanising and separate from the rest of the characters.
Jean: There's not much sympathy shown towards her for her mental illness. Bertha is described as being of Creole descent. So she was a daughter of a white European settler living in the West Indies. Mr Rochester was shipped to Jamaica to marry Bertha in a wedding arranged by his father, because Bertha was a wealthy woman.
Carl: It's all very complex. We'll take a look at this more in episode seven of the podcast. I will say by making Bertha come from the Caribbean, this really evokes the whole history of slavery, colonialism and slave exploitation. The first colonies of the British Empire were founded in North America and the West Indies. So a Caribbean character who was treated as “the other” opens up much deeper conversations about ethnicity at this time.
Jean: Another thing in this story, and with Bertha's character is that she doesn't have her own voice and I really wanted to hear her voice, because we only get to hear Rochester’s version of events and what's described as her madness. But we all know that he isn't always the most truthful.
Carl: I've been told there's actually a book called Wild Sargasso Sea by the author Jean Reese, which has been written as a prequel to Jane Eyre and focuses on Bertha's story.
Carl: Jane Eyre is the story of a plain girl who meets a lot of challenges and you really see those challenges personified when you can see some of these secondary characters. Mrs Reed, St John Rivers, Bertha Mason, Helen Burns who was nothing but kind and died young. We said that Jane goes through a lot of challenges. That might have been an understatement.
Jean: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bitesize English literature podcast about some of the characters in Jane Eyre.
Carl: In Episode Five. We're going to be taking a closer look at the themes of Jane Eyre.
You can listen now on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
What happens to Helen Burns at Lowood School?
Tragically, Helen Burns dies from tuberculosis while at Lowood School. Jane stays with her friend until the end of her life and returns to the school many years later to lay a gravestone for Helen.
Episode 5 - Themes
A theme is a key idea that runs through the text. In Jane Eyre, the main themes are love and hate, social class and personal discovery.
Listen to a podcast about the themes in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Jean: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. I’m Jean Menzies.
Carl: And I’m Carl Anka, and in this episode we're taking a closer look at the themes within Jane Eyre. Today we're going to take a look at three of them in particular. Theme one is love and hate, theme two is social class, theme three is personal discovery.
Extract:
Resting my head on Helen's shoulder, I put my arms around her waist. She drew me to her, and we reposed in silence.
Jean: We're looking at love and hate. And this extract is definitely one that shows us love.
Carl: One thing I enjoy about Jane Eyre is that Charlotte Bronte weaves love throughout the story. We see how characters respond. It's not just Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester, a great love story. In this novel we see different kinds of love in different relationships like the one we've just heard here between Jane and Helen Burns.
Jean: And we've mentioned this in previous episodes, but this relationship is truly a love story of these two girls who find a real solid friendship in their school. For Jane Eyre, it's the first relationship like this that we see for her having lived with the Reeds, who are so cruel. Her relationship with Helen however is built on kindness and caring and it shows why Jane feels true heartbreak at Helen’s death.
Carl: Later on, we'll see Jane fall in love with Mr Rochester and him with her. Throughout the novel, there are different moments where we learn the true value of love, and Jane responds to it. It develops her as a person.
Extract:
“Look here; to gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest–"
Carl: This is Jane speaking to Helen Burns and saying herself how desperately she seeks and craves love and affection because she hasn't had it in her childhood from Mrs Reed.
Jean: And meanwhile, her story with Mr Rochester is actually a very simple familiar plotline. Two people meet and fall in love, things go wrong. Then they're reunited after hardship and live happily ever after. But surely Bronte teaches us so much more with it. Jane builds independence and maturity in her time away from Rochester. He sees the error of his ways and is a much better person by the time they unite. It's how they both respond to love and the loss of it which is incredibly interesting to read, I think.
Carl: Alongside this tale of love, Charlotte Bronte also shows us the binary opposite of love, meaning the complete opposite emotion, which is hate, and what hate can do to a person as well. Examples of hate in Jane Eyre are not few and far between. You can find them pretty much everywhere.
Extract:
Turning at the door, my judge said - "Let her stand half-an-hour longer on that stool, and let no one speak to her during the remainder of the day." There was I, then, mounted aloft; I, who had said I could not bear the shame of standing on my natural feet in the middle of the room, was now exposed to general view on a pedestal of infamy.
Jean: So this is Jane at Lowood school being humiliated in front of her class as a punishment. Actually, a lot of the moments of hate that I remember in this novel are centred around Jane's childhood, which makes it particularly sad.
We have her aunt Mrs Reed and her family who are both emotionally and physically abusive towards Jane. Then she moves to Lowood. And as we've just heard in that clip, Mr Brocklehurst also carries on the cruelty towards Jane. It's only through Helen that Jane, a girl who's so used to hate, starts to understand what love really is.
Carl: In addition to that, Bertha, Mr Rochester’s wife is also someone who shows the emotion of hate in this play. On one occasion Bertha escapes from the attic. But Jane has yet to know she is. Bertha stamps on and rips Jane's veil signalling her dislike towards Jane. Or that could be interpreted as Bertha’s dislike of what Jane has, rather than her personally. Bertha feels like a constant threat, even though we're not really aware that she's there.
Jean: Bertha receives her own amount of hate too. She's not given any respect, and she's treated really poorly by the other characters, particularly Mr Rochester, who quite openly dislikes or even hates her. Bertha is definitely part of the representation of the theme of hate in a number of ways.
Carl: Now, let's take a look at our next theme. And that is social class.
Extract:
On that same occasion I learned, for the first time, from Miss Abbot's communications to Bessie, that my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent: that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.
Jean: So another recurring theme in Jane Eyre is the theme of social class. As we see that class dictates what a character can or cannot do, or how they are perceived by others.
Carl: Bronte sets this out for us very early on in the novel as Jane speaks about her parents’ marriage and their death. She tells us here about the strict social class structure of the Victorian period, and how class determines how an individual should live their life and even who they should marry. When Jane's parents went out against the social classes, they were disowned by their family and friends.
Jean: This early influence was clearly powerful for Jane. She holds this idea of marrying for love as a guiding ideal throughout the story, which is rare for the time.
Carl: She wants the love that her parents had.
Jean: Meanwhile, it was a very restrictive time for women in society, and this idea of strict social class structure and marriage really represents the patriarchal nature of the Victorian era. Women and particularly lower class women were in a much more vulnerable position than men, as their families tended to choose a suitable wife on the basis of a women's dowry, which was a sum of money that the man received from the bride's family through marriage.
Carl: Throughout the book, we see social class represented in Jane Eyre, through Jane's lack of money through the first part of the book in particular, and how others view her because of this.
Extract:
"I believe she thought I had forgotten my station, and yours, sir."
Carl: That was Jane Eyre discussing Mrs Fairfax, who is the housekeeper of Thornfield while Jane is the governess. And that is Mrs Fairfax’s reaction when Mr Rochester announced he was going to marry Jane. Mrs Fairfax shunned her and now she's horrified that, as she sees it, Jane has stepped above her social class.
Jean: We also get an idea of Charlotte Bronte’s true feelings about social class and how she wants to challenge it as she has Rochester respond to Mrs Fairfax comments with, "Station! station! – your station is in my heart.” It's fair to say that Mr Rochester, like Jane, believes in marriage for love, which is in complete contrast to St John Rivers and his belief in the purpose of marriage.
Carl: He says that when Jane is the governess and she doesn't have much money. But she does get the inheritance from her uncle, which seems to change things for her. Not outwardly with her social class, but within herself.
Extract:
I told you I'm independent, sir, as well as rich. I am my own mistress.
Jean: So this all happens towards the end of the novel when Jane has returned to Mr Rochester. And as we hear she deems herself now as being independent. The money she has inherited has given her that independence and she now sees herself as being Mr Rochester’s equal, which is Charlotte Bronte's ideal situation.
Carl: The final theme we're going to explore on this episode is personal discovery.
Extract:
You will change your mind I hope when you grow older, as yet you are but a little untaught girl.
Jean: This is Helen Burns, speaking to Jane about not always reacting or retaliating to punishments. It's just a really lovely introduction to this young girl Jane or little untaught girl as Helen says, and how she will do so much growing and learning.
Now I actually think Jane's personal discovery is one of my favourite themes of the book. I love that we see her find out who she is within her identity and personality. We watch her find happiness, and at times, we don't think she'll get to that happiness. But then she figures it out.
Carl: Bildungsroman is a German word meaning any piece of fiction that follows a protagonist through their life and struggles, typically through childhood to adulthood, which is exactly the story of Jane Eyre. We talked about that, particularly in episode two when we looked at the character of Jane Eyre.
The main protagonist of Jane Eyre is Jane. She learns from experience, she develops along the way and ends with a somewhat happy ending.
Jean: And Helen told her from the beginning how much she'd grow and really predicted that Jane had such an exciting but challenging journey ahead of her.
Carl: There are a few key moments where we really see that growth and discovery.
Extract:
"I scorn your idea of love," I could not help saying, as I rose up and stood before him, leaning my back against the rock. "I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer: yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it."
Jean: This is the moment Jane turns down St John Rivers offer of marriage and we all let our collective cheer because she knows that she wants to marry for love and that isn't why St John proposing. He wants her because he believes that she would be a suitable missionary’s wife, and she can't go along with that. She sticks to her principles and says no.
Carl: Not only does she want to marry for love, but she has a moment of personal discovery where she realises that she's still in love with Mr Rochester. This is the same little girl who once only knew cruelty and punishment, but now is so open to love that when she hears Mr Rochester calling to her in a dream, she makes a huge decision about her life.
Jean: As a coming of age story dictates, we see her happy ending. She is now an independent woman who marries Rochester as an equal. She's learned the value of both independence and love and she finds perfect harmony, when they're joined together.
Extract:
I am my husband's life as fully is he is mine.
Carl: She worked through all of those challenges that came her way, went on a journey of personal discovery, and ended up with happiness.
Jean: The definition of a heroine is a woman admired for her courage, outstanding achievement and noble qualities and Jane is a true heroine. She conquers Victorian society by pursuing her own happiness and she finds love and peace along the way. Charlotte Bronte shows us that instinct and integrity are guiding principles even when they conflict with social expectations. What more could you want from a story?
Carl: These are some of the most important themes for Jane Eyre: the concepts of love and hate, the concept of social class, and personal discovery.
Thanks so much for listening to episode five. In episode six, we'll be looking at the form, structure and language in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. You can listen to this and the rest of the episode right now. Just search Bitesize on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
Which two characters show Jane real love during the novel?
Helen Burns and Mr Rochester. Helen, Jane’s friend at Lowood School, shows Jane love for the first time in her life. Mr Rochester loves Jane as an equal and in the end they marry.
Episode 6 - Form
Exploring the form, structure and language of Jane Eyre can help to reveal Brontë's intentions. It cans also strengthen understanding about she wanted to make the reader think and feel.
Listen to a podcast about form, structure and language in Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast. If you want to get all the episodes in this podcast, make sure you download the BBC Sounds app.
Jean: And don't forget that whilst you're in the BBC Sounds App, there's loads of other things you can use to help you with your revision. Full versions of some of the texts you might be studying, revision playlists and other Bitesize podcast series to help with different GCSE subjects.
Carl: In this series, we're heading to Northern England in the 19th century to explore Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm Carl Anka.
Jean: And I'm Jean Menzies. And in this episode, we're taking a closer look at the form, structure and language within Jane Eyre. We’ll start with the form. Jane Eyre is a novel. This is very common in the Victorian period, everyone was all about the novel. This is right at the beginning of Jane Eyre, setting up the story:
Extract:
Dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.
Jean: So this was taken from chapter one of Jane Eyre. In fact, it's the second paragraph. So a good introduction of how we meet Jane, and find out about her in her own words, right from the beginning.
Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman, which is a coming of age story. It's a novel that follows a main protagonist, in this case Jane through the struggles they have from childhood to adulthood.
Carl: This is a story with a lot of twists and turns. Jane Eyre, the character, faces a lot of challenges throughout the book.
Jean: Usually in this kind of story, the character learns from their experiences and once they've developed as a person, this usually leads them to succeeding in later life and finally finding happiness.
Jean: And another thing we've just heard from that clip, which is a really effective choice for a coming of age story, is that Charlotte Bronte writes in the first person, so the reader knows what's happening to Jane, how she thinks and how she feels. We are part of that journey with her.
Carl: And we hear certain points in her life from different perspectives. Not only do we live her childhood moments with her, but she also reflects on them as an adult. In this extract, Jane is newly engaged to Mr. Rochester. And now she's telling a story directly addressing the reader:
Extract:
Is this my mustard-seed? This little sunny-faced girl with the dimpled cheek and rosy lips; the satin-smooth hazel hair, and the radiant hazel eyes?" (I had green eyes, reader; but you must excuse the mistake: for him they were new-dyed, I suppose.)
Carl: So this is her discussing Mr Rochester’s comments when they were newly engaged. As she retells the story as an adult a few years later, she can recognise the feelings and have sarcasm about it now, and this makes the bildungsroman even more effective because now the adult Jane Eyre can comment on her own past and how she has changed.
Jean: Charlotte Bronte used this so effectively to draw the reader into Jane Eyre as the protagonist and it makes us feel invested in her story. She even has Jane directly addressed the reader, like we've just heard there, which just gives the reader even more of a personal link to this character and her story. It's like she's rolling her eyes to us that he didn't know the colour of her eyes.We mentioned another moment where she used this technique earlier, when Jane says “Reader, I married him.” She's confiding in the reader. And there's this relationship that's built between reader and character.
Carl: Bildungsroman. Let's look at the structure of the novel and how that impacts the story. Jane Eyre follows a linear format, and it's structured by the places where Jane lives and how each location relates to her development into adulthood. So let's have a listen to them and see where they fit.
Extract:
The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion.
Jean: The first place we meet Jane is at Gateshead Hall, and each of these places link to a development or milestone in Jane's life. And the place names are symbolic of that too. Gateshead Hall which is Mrs. Reed's home and not happy place for Jane is her gateway into the journey of adulthood.
Extract:
A stone tablet over the door bore this inscription: -Lowood Institution.
Carl: Lowood school is a low point in Jane's life. She's punished and her best friend dies whilst they're there. Lowood for a low time fits perfectly in this bildungsroman story.
Extract:
"How do you like Thornfield?" she asked. I told her I liked it very much.
Jean: Thornfield - the thorn could be symbolic of the difficulties Jane faces here. She falls in love with Mr. Rochester but finds he is already married to Bertha. I do wonder if perhaps the thorn also references your rose which is all romance except for that little jagged dangerous bit.
Extract:
"Some calls it Marsh End, and some calls it Moor House."
Jean: After Thornfield is Moor House, which is the Rivers’ home. Jane ends up there after she runs away from Mr Rochester and Thornfield. “Moor” could symbolise how free Jane becomes there - a moor is a wide open space very common where Charlotte Bronte grew up herself. It has connotations of freedom. Moor House is the place where Jane finally finds her own identity, freedom and future in front of her.
Extract:
The manor-house of Ferndean was a building of considerable antiquity, moderate size, and no architectural pretensions, deep buried in a wood.
Jean: And finally, Ferndean, the place where she finds Mr. Rochester again, and Charlotte Bronte confirms to us later that he and Jane have spent 10 content years together there after they are reunited. The Fern in Ferndean could symbolise the new growth that Jean and Mr. Rochester will experience there, and it's a great name for the happy ending we know exists for them.
Carl: I love the use of place names to symbolise Jane's life in these locations. Sometimes we don't spot these interpretations at first, because we don't truly know exactly what Charlotte Bronte intended. This also leads us quite nicely into the language that Charlotte Bronte uses in Jane Eyre, because she was clearly a woman who used language well, and creates incredible pictures for the readers with her words.
Jean: She is able to create a picture in the readers mind through highly descriptive language.
Extract:
While disease had thus become an inhabitant of Lowood, and death its frequent visitor; while there was gloom and fear within its walls; while its rooms and passages steamed with hospital smells.
Carl: Charlotte Bronte doesn't just want us to be able to visualise the school, she wants us to be able to smell it. This is when she's describing Lowood as a disease, sweeping, threatening, infecting so many of the girls in the school.
Jean: Gloom and fear within its walls. That's another technique she uses - personification. So she's giving a nonhuman object, which is the wall, a human characteristic, which is gloom and fear, to really make a vivid image for the reader and to create a sense of the negative feelings in the setting.
Carl: We've just discussed symbolism in place names throughout the story. But we see that elsewhere in the novel too.
Extract:
The next thing I remember is, waking up with a feeling as if I had had a frightful nightmare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed with thick black bars.
Carl: Both red and black have connotations of death, fire, hell and the devil. Charlotte Bronte uses these symbolic colours to evoke the terror that Jane felt when being trapped in the red room as a child. They also highlight the room’s supernatural conditions. Later on, Jane believes that she had seen a ghost in the room.
Jean: Pathetic fallacy is about giving human emotions or responses to an inanimate object or animal. So when Jane is on her way to Lowood school, we hear the winter morning was raw and chill, and how she heard the wild wind rushing amongst the trees. This not only helps to paint a picture for the reader, but also foreshadows her time at Lowood school which is not going to be pleasant.
Carl: You will very often experience pathetic fallacy being used to describe the weather, particularly dreary weather. The fact I've just called weather dreary is me using pathetic fallacy there.
Charlotte Bronte is a far better writer than me. So she is going to be using a lot of pathetic fallacy for foreshadowing and telling us things without telling us. Hinting through place names and weather, and however she can. The final part of language that Bronte uses that I want to highlight is her use of imagery.
Imagery is the use of language by writers to create images in the readers mind. Bronte is very good at this. For example, Bronte describing the Moors.
Extract:
High banks of moor were about me; the crag protected my head: the sky was over that.
Jean: Which in turn highlights the wildness and beauty of Jane's personality. We've mentioned in other episodes how the word plane is used a lot to describe Jane’s looks in this book. But Charlotte Bronte is challenging this reductive way of judging women by their appearance, by instead highlighting all the wonderful things about this woman that aren't just based on her face or body.
Carl: You are completely drawn to Jane throughout the story for her magnetic personality and ways.
Jean: And then she ends up at Moor House which we've discussed earlier when we spoke about structure. And this symbolises how free Jane becomes. We’ve just come full circle.
Thank you for joining us for episode six of the Bitesize English literature podcast all about the form, structure and language in Jane Eyre.
Carl: In episode seven we'll be diving into the context of Jane Eyre and when it was written. You can listen to this and the rest of the episodes on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
How does Charlotte Brontë use place names, for example Lowood School, in Jane Eyre?
Place names are used to symbolise Jane’s life in those locations. For example, Lowood represents a low point for Jane as she loses her first friend there.
Episode 7 - Context
The book is set in the Late-Georgian and Victorian periods of British history.
Listen to this podcast to learn more about the social and historical context in which Jane Eyre was written
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast.
Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature.
In this series, we've been chatting all about Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm Jean Menzies.
Carl: I'm carl Anka and this episode we're taking a closer look at the context of Jane Eyre, and the time in which it was written.
Jean: Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre in 1847.
Carl: Well, actually, Charlotte Bronte didn't publish Jane Eyre in 1847, Currer Bell did.
Jean: You're right. To publish as a woman in the 19th century was extremely difficult. So she published under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
She deliberately chose an ambiguous name, so that she didn't feel like she was pretending to be a man, but so that she could avoid some of the prejudice that women writers received at the time.
Carl: it was a very different time for women and Charlotte Bronte addressed many of the social issues around class and women at the time when she created the character of Jane Eyre. Jane was an advocate for women at a time where their skills and independence were seen as being of no real value to society. If a woman came from a background without money, like Jane, her only real option was to get married or find employment which must be suitable, like becoming a governess.
Charlotte Bronte is really aware of this position for women in the late Georgian and early Victorian society. That is the time period where this novel was set. Bronte is also aware of the difficulties faced by women who had no choice but to make their own way in the world.
Jean: Even marriage wasn't as simple as meeting someone, falling in love and getting married.
Extract:
"I believe she thought I had forgotten my station, and yours, sir."
"Station! station! – your station is in my heart, and on the necks of those who would insult you, now or hereafter. – Go."
Jean: So we heard this extract in episode four when we discussed the theme of social class and Jane Eyre. It's another really important part of the context of this novel. There was a strict social class structure in this period in history and class determined how an individual lived their life, and even who they would marry. Mrs Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield, feels like Jane is going above her station, and not marrying within her own social class and she doesn't like it.
Carl: This is another time where we see how undervalued and vulnerable women were at the time, because men and their families tended to choose a suitable wife on the basis of a woman's dowry, which was a sum of money that the male received from the bride's family through marriage.
Jean: This shows Charlotte Bronte is writing with a full awareness of the position many women were in at the time. There's also a lot of elements within Jane Eyre that echo Charlotte Bronte's own life, which shows how she writes from such a place of understanding.
Extract:
He stood at Miss Temple's side; he was speaking low in her ear: I did not doubt he was making disclosures of my villainy; and I watched her eye with painful anxiety, expecting every moment to see its dark orb turn on me a glance of repugnance and contempt.
So this is when Jane was at Lowood School, which mirrors Charlotte's life as she and her own sisters went to a school, which was run by a headmaster who was as severe as Mr Brocklehurst.
Extract:"I came to see you, Helen: I heard you were very ill, and I could not sleep till I had spoken to you."
"You came to bid me good-bye, then: you are just in time probably."
"Are you going somewhere, Helen? Are you going home?"
"Yes; to my long home – my last home."
Carl: Helen Burns’ death from tuberculosis or as it was known at the time consumption mirrors the death of two of Charlotte Bronte’s sisters to the same disease. Charlotte actually believed that their deaths were due to the poor conditions at the school, which is reflected in Helen's experiences.
Jean: Charlotte was also a governess for a wealthy family, which is why she gave Jane the same job, writing from experience.
Extract:
"He is stone-blind," he said at last. "Yes, he is stone-blind, is Mr Edward."
I had dreaded worse. I had dreaded he was mad. I summoned strength to ask what had caused this calamity.
Jean: And even Mr Rochester’s blindness echoes experiences of her own father suffering from temporary blindness after a stroke.
Carl: Miss Bronte definitely drew on personal experiences to write Jane Eyre so it represents the time in which it was written.
Jean: Although she did say that, despite the fact that Jane Eyre looked like her, they had little else in common, but the theme of the novel was felt deeply by her which shows in all we've just discussed.
Carl: It was deeply felt by a lot of people too, because the novel was enormously popular. Not only was Charlotte Bronte writing about this great heroine but novels as a form were growing in massive popularity at this time. Novels that told stories about ordinary people were fairly new. So Jane Eyre stood out as a story about an ordinary member of society without wealth or social status.
Jean: Now this is a time where the “penny dreadfuls” were flourishing. These were cheap serialised comics that tended to feature crime, adventure or detectives. So you can see how a novel about a real ordinary woman in that era found such a great audience who hadn't seen that before. There's a huge audience for reality TV now, because we love seeing people like us on the telly. Well, this was reflecting real people for one of the first times in a book.
Extract:
I lived with that woman upstairs four years, and before that time she had tried me indeed: her character ripened and developed with frightful rapidity; her vices sprang up fast and rank: they were so strong, only cruelty could check them, and I would not use cruelty. What a pigmy intellect she had, and what giant propensities!
Jean: This is Mr Rochester describing Bertha as having a pygmy intellect, which is something we would not say now. He’s saying she's not particularly smart. “Giant propensities,” is a word that describes a tendency to act a certain way. And we know that that's not a good way to Mr Rochester.
Bertha’s character is really interesting to look at in terms of the context of when this novel was written. When we spoke about the character of Bertha Mason in episode three, we mentioned how the portrayal of mental illness was a real sign of the times. Bertha is portrayed as “the other” to Jane and she's described as a character to fear. As we just heard, Mr Rochester speaks about her in a really demeaning way. As the reader, we're told she's mentally ill and there is no sympathy or explanation for this. It's just used to add to her “otherness.”
Carl: Now, what does Jane Eyre tell us about how Victorians viewed mental health? Charlotte Bronte's descriptions drew upon wording she found in the family's medical encyclopaedia, called the Modern Domestic Medicine. The Bronte copy still survives. The British Library describes it as being well thumbed, and clearly frequently consulted and has annotations throughout. So Charlotte Bronte went through this book a lot.
How is Bertha described in the novel? Well, if you complete Jane Eyre, you will find terms like “eyes protruding and wild.” Things like “incessant talking, singing, shouting.” There's something there where Bronte says, Bertha has “rapid and successive change of features.” These are all descriptions given to Bertha. All of these descriptions feature in that same medical book, too.
Jean: And this is why I said Bertha’s character’s really interesting to look at in the context of the time it was written. Yes, it is an outdated view. But Charlotte Bronte could have been writing her character based on what she thought to be an accurate depiction of someone with mental health problems at the time, based on her medical encyclopaedia. Alternatively, she could have written about mental health in this way to draw attention to mental health struggles. We’ll never truly know.
Extract:
“When I left college, I was sent out to Jamaica, to espouse a bride already courted for me. My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram: tall, dark, and majestic.”
Jean: Bertha is described as being of Creole descent, so she was the daughter of a white European settler living in the West Indies.
As we just heard, Mr Rochester was shipped to Jamaica to marry Bertha in a wedding arranged by his father, who, having left his estate to Rochester’s older brother, arranged for Mr Rochester to marry a wealthy woman, Bertha. Charlotte Bronte leaves the precise nature of Bertha as “ethnicity ambiguous,” but we hear that her parents wanted Bertha to marry Rochester, because he was “of good race.” And there's also references to her “dark hair and discoloured, black face,” which bring up questions about her racial identity.
Carl: The fact that Bertha Mason is a character who comes from the Caribbean really evokes the history of slavery, colonialism and slave exploitation. From 1607, England began developing colonies in the Americas and began to use enslaved labour within them.
Jean: Jane Eyre was written and published shortly after the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, so this would have all been very recent to Charlotte and something she would have been aware of.
Carl: Bertha was sent far away from a home and made to live in a different country with a man who didn't treat her that well and had been chosen for him because Bertha was wealthy. Was Bertha actually just reacting to her circumstances?
Is Charlotte Bronte using Mr Rochester’s reactions and descriptions of Bertha to address those big issues of the time?
Jean: We’ll never be certain. Bertha is an incredibly interesting character with so many factors that we can interpret in different ways. And that is why looking at the context of when the novel was written is so important. We can look back at things with our received wisdom of the time, but this was written over 175 years ago in an entirely different world. It's hard to know how the audience would have reacted.
Carl: That's why we study context.
Thanks for listening to episode seven of the Bitesize English literature podcast all about the context of Jane Eyre. You can test what you've learned about Jane Eyre from this and all the other episodes in our final episode of the podcast - our recap quiz. You can listen to this and the rest of the episodes on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
Under what name did Charlotte Brontë originally publish Jane Eyre and why?
Brontë initially published Jane Eyre under the pseudonym ‘Currer Bell’. She deliberately chose an ambiguous name so that she didn’t feel like she was pretending to be a man but so that she could also avoid some of the prejudice that women writers received at the time.
Episode 8 - Quiz
Use this episode to help recap, consolidate and test your knowledge.
Listen to a podcast to revise and test your understanding of Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre
Carl: Hello, and welcome to the Bitesize English literature podcast.
Jean: We're here today to help you dive a little deeper into some of the texts in GCSE English literature.
In this series, we've been exploring Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I'm Jean Menzies.
Carl: I'm Carl Anka, and this episode we're testing everything we've learned so far with a recap quiz.
We're going to ask questions about Jane Eyre with multiple choice answers.
Jean: Question number one: At the beginning of the book, we find Jane as a penniless orphan living with her cruel aunt. What is her aunt's name? Is it…
A. Mrs. Thornfield
B. Mrs. Reed
C. Mrs. Fairfax
MUSIC
Jean: It is Mrs. Reed – Jane’s aunt. They live together at Gateshead Hall. You can recap that in episode one where we explore the plot of Jane Eyre, or in episode four where we look at Mrs. Reed's character in particular.
Extract:
I learned, for the first time, from Miss Abbot's communications to Bessie, that my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent: that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.
Carl: What does “considered the match beneath her” mean in that extract?
A. Jane's father was not rich enough
B. Jane's father was not tall enough
C. Jane's father was not kind enough
MUSIC
Carl: Option A. He's not rich enough. There was a strict social class structure in the Victorian period and that structure determined who people could marry. Jane's mother married below her social class. That wasn't very well received by friends and family. If you'd like to know more about this, you can recap it in episode five of this podcast series, all about the themes of Jane Eyre, including social class.
Jean: Let's stick with that theme with this question: What was a dowry? Was it…
A. A place on the moors?
B. An amount of money paid by a bride's family to a groom?
C. Was it a disease that swept through Lowood School?
MUSIC
Jean: It was a sum of money that the groom received from the bride's family through marriage. Men and their families often chose a suitable wife based on that dowry.
Carl: What is a bildungsroman?
A. A type of novel
B. A type of character
C. A type of medicine
Carl: A bildungsroman is a type of novel that follows a protagonist through their struggles from childhood to adulthood as they learn from their experiences. Typically, bildungsromans have the main character succeed in later life and have a happy ending. You can find a good recap of this in episode one, where we discuss the plot and also in episode six about the form, structure and language of Jane Eyre.
Extract:
His chest heaved once, as if his large heart weary of despotic constriction had expanded despite the will and made a vigorous bound for the attainment of liberty. But he curbed it, I think, as a resolute rider would curb a rearing steed.
Jean: Why does St John Rivers not act upon his love for Rosamond Oliver? As Jane describes, he instead curbs it.
A. He doesn't find her attractive
B. He does not think she is a suitable missionary’s wife
C. He has fallen in love with Jane.
MUSIC
Jean: The answer is that despite being in love with her, St John believes that God has called him to become a missionary in India. He doesn't believe that Rosamond would make a good missionary’s wife. So he refuses to act on his feelings and instead removes himself from Rosamond and becomes cold-hearted and distant.We also mentioned how India was a British colony at the time and the British were forcibly introducing religion and customs. Many Indian people wanted independence and had their own religion and customs already, you can recap more on this and St. John Rivers character in episode three.
Extract:
Reader. I married him.
Carl: Jane Eyre addresses the reader directly on a number of occasions. Why does Charlotte Bronte do that? This one's not multiple choice.
MUSIC
Carl: By directly addressing the reader, Charlotte Bronte gives more of a personal link between the character of Jane Eyre, the story and the reader. If you want to know more about the form, structure and language of Jane Eyre, make sure you head to episode six of this podcast series.
Jean: Why can Mr. Rochester and Jane not get married the first time they plan their wedding?A. Jane is a different social class
B. Mr. Rochester is already married
C. Jane is marrying St John Rivers\
MUSIC
Jean: If you said that Mr. Rochester is already married, then you would be correct because he is married to Bertha and Jean did not know of her existence before the wedding. Once she finds out that Mr. Rochester is already married, she decides that even though she loves him, she cannot go against her principles and be with a man who's already married.Bonus points if you did also mentioned the housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, who is shocked by Mr. Rochester and Jane’s engagement and believes Jane is marrying above her station. But it isn't that difference in social class that stops the wedding, though it's certainly mentioned. You can find out more about this in episode one, looking at the plot of Jane Eyre.
Carl: A pseudonym is another term for a fake name. Earlier on in this series we mentioned to you how Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre under a pseudonym. What pseudonym was that?A. Emily Bronte
B. Currer Bell
C. William Shakespeare
Bonus question - Why did Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre under a pseudonym?
MUSIC
Carl: Yes, Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. As for that bonus question, it was because to publish as a woman in the 19th century was extremely difficult. Charlotte Bronte deliberately chose an ambiguous pseudonym, so that she didn't feel like she was pretending to be a man. At the same time she could avoid some of the prejudice that women writers received at the time.You can find out loads more about this in episode seven of this podcast where we talk about the context of Jane Eyre.
Jean: If you did recognise the name Emily, it's because she also was an author and a sister of Charlotte Bronte. Final question:
Extract:
I hated it the first time I set my eyes on it – a sickly, whining, pining thing! It would wail in its cradle all night long – not screaming heartily like any other child, but whimpering and moaning. Reed pitied it; and he used to nurse it and notice it as if it had been his own: more, indeed, than he ever noticed his own at that age.
Jean: Who is Mrs. Reed talking about and what characteristic of hers does it show?
A. Is she talking about Jane whilst showing the characteristic of jealousy?
B. Is she talking about Helen and showing the characteristic of kindness?
C. Or is she talking about Mr. Rochester and the characteristic of determination?
MUSIC
Jean: Answer: A. Jane and jealousy. She's talking about Jane as a baby and we learn that she was jealous of her husband who was Jane’s uncle and his love for Jane and how he seemingly cared for her more than he did his own children. You can learn more about this and Mrs. Reid's character in episode four.
Carl: That's the end of our recap quiz. It also brings the end of our series on Jane Eyre. Thank you for listening to this series of the Bitesize English podcast, all about this wonderful book.
Jean: Remember, you can listen back to any episodes at any time if you need to on BBC Sounds, and you'll find loads on there to help with your studies.
Carl: You can find more BBC Bitesize podcasts. They help with different English literature, texts, and other subjects, revision playlists and plenty of audiobooks, music or podcasts to help you relax between your revision sessions. We hope you'll join us for more. Just search for Bitesize on the BBC Sounds app.
Jean: Bitesize English literature podcast, listen on BBC Sounds.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Question
What type of novel is Jane Eyre?
Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman. This is a type of novel that follows a protagonist through their struggles from childhood to adulthood.
Links to further learning for GCSE English
More on Podcasts
Find out more by working through a topic
- count6 of 9
- count7 of 9
- count8 of 9
- count9 of 9
