Jane Eyre: Characters (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Jane Eyre: Characters

The most important thing to remember about characters is that they are usually used to express a writer’s ideas. In Jane Eyre, Brontë’s characters symbolise her views about important aspects of human nature and society. Therefore, it is extremely useful to learn about each character and the way they interact and contrast with each other. This will help you to understand how they represent the central ideas in the novel. 

Below, you will find character profiles of:  

Main characters

• Jane Eyre

• Edward Rochester

Other characters

• Mrs Reed

• The Reed children (John, Georgiana and Eliza)

• Mr Brocklehurst

• Helen Burns

• Miss Temple

• Blanche Ingram

• Bertha Mason

• St John Rivers

Jane Eyre

• Jane Eyre is the protagonist of the novel

• The novel is written as her fictional autobiography

• She tells her story in the first person:

  • Every event in the novel is seen from her perspective

  • She gives us a subjective account of her experiences, thoughts and emotions 

• She is the moral centre of the novel:

  • Her views illustrate Brontë’s ideas about social and moral justice

  • Her story suggests that Brontë believes in the power of personal integrity to overcome injustice 

• Jane is presented as:

  • Moral:

    • She speaks out against injustice, even when she is punished for it

    • She is critical of hypocrisy and oppression, such as the regime at Lowood

    • She speaks honestly about her thoughts and feelings

    • She tries to do the right thing, even if it does not make her happy, such as when she leaves Rochester

• Passionate:

  • She often speaks her mind without thinking about the consequences

  • She feels things intensely, even when she does not express her feelings

  • Her attachments to the people she loves are sincere and enduring

• Rational:

  • She understands the limitations of her personal agency

  • She knows that she is plain-looking and socially awkward

  • She is capable of making evidence-based decisions, such as applying for a suitable job when she wants to leave Lowood in Chapter 10

  • She can evaluate situations critically:

  • For example, when she reflects on the lack of opportunities for women in Chapter 12

• Imaginative:

  • She is sustained by her ability to escape into her imagination:

    • She paints pictures based on imaginary scenes and characters

    • She responds positively to the natural world (often referred to as “Nature”) and finds joy in natural beauty

    • She can be frightened by unexplained events, such as the “demoniac" laughter she hears at Thornfield

    • She often perceives a supernatural dimension to her experiences:

      • She “hears” Rochester’s voice calling her, even though he is hundreds of miles away

• Jane is used by Brontë to represent the experience of many women in England during the Victorian era:

  • Her limited personal agency is caused by a lack of meaningful opportunities for women in Brontë’s time

  • Her lack of wealth increases her disadvantages as a woman in a patriarchal society

• Jane also represents the way that independence can be empowering:

  • Her independence of thought and spirit means that she makes the right personal choices

  • Her refusal to take the morally wrong option results in her eventual happiness:

    • Her decision not to become Rochester’s mistress is vindicated when they are reunited

• Her eventual financial independence enables her to make choices that would have been unavailable to her previously

Edward Fairfax Rochester

• In Jane Eyre, Rochester represents romanticism and moral ambiguity:

  • He is outspoken, sincere and passionate

  • He is also deceptive, cruel and arrogant

  • He is honest and direct in his emotional responses to Jane

  • He also conceals vital information about himself

  • He uses his power as a rich man to manipulate and control the people around him:

    • He compels his servants to keep the secret of his imprisoned wife

• In many ways, he is Jane’s opposite and acts as an antagonist in the novel:

  • He disguises himself as a gypsy fortune-teller to trick her into revealing her feelings for him

  • He convinces Jane he is going to marry Blanche Ingram to make her declare her own love for him

  • He acts dishonestly and immorally by concealing the existence of his wife

  • He behaves deceptively in order to provoke a reaction from Jane:

• In other ways, he is Jane’s soulmate and they share a deep affinity:

  • He reflects Jane’s (often unspoken) passionate feelings and responses

  • He is sensitive and reacts honestly to Jane’s views and opinions

  • He values Jane’s innocence, honesty and directness

• He is often described as a “Byronic hero": 

  • He is moody, intense and often mysterious

  • He has a “dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow”, as described by Jane when she first meets him in Chapter 12

• Brontë uses Rochester to represent the power imbalance between men and women, and between wealthy and poor people:

  • This emphasises her small stature, but also her relative lack of power

  • He is able to imprison his wife and ensure this is kept secret by his servants

  • Jane is his employee and calls him “sir” and “master” throughout the novel

  • He frequently refers to Jane using the adjective “little”: “little girl”; “little nonette (nun)”; “my little wife”:

• Rochester also symbolises the possibility of redemption:

  • Rochester acknowledges that he was “wrong”, and experiences “remorse” and “repentance”

  • He recognises Jane as his moral superior, telling her: “you are my better self – my good angel”

  • The ending of the novel is a happy one for Rochester, demonstrating that even the worst actions can be redeemed by repentance and good intentions

Other characters

The minor characters in Jane Eyre may only appear for a few pages each, but they are still important. They often move the action along, or enable the main characters to learn something about themselves. Brontë also uses them to express her ideas, just like the main characters.

Mrs Reed

• Mrs Reed is Jane’s aunt and legal guardian, with whom Jane lives until she is ten

• She is consistently unkind and unfair in her treatment of Jane

• Mrs Reed is used by Brontë to represent injustice, which Jane rebels against

John, Georgiana and Eliza Reed

• John, Georgiana and Eliza are Jane’s cousins, who Jane has been brought up with

• They look down on Jane and treat her unfairly

• John Reed bullies Jane “continually”, often violently

• Brontë uses the characters of the Reed children to illustrate how injustice can be normalised within systems like families

Mr Brocklehurst

• Mr Brocklehurst is the manager of Lowood school, where Jane is sent at ten years old

• He is a cruel hypocrite:

  • Jane sees him as a “black pillar”, suggesting his lack of human feeling

• His character is used by Brontë to represent religious hypocrisy:

  • He preaches Christian values like honesty and humility, while benefiting from his position dishonestly

Helen Burns

• Jane’s first friend at Lowood, Helen Burns is an extremely devout girl who is ill with “consumption” (tuberculosis)

• She helps Jane to accept her situation and moderate her outspoken behaviour

• Brontë uses Helen to represent the acceptance of injustice in the context of Christian faith:

  • However, Jane does not agree with Helen entirely, rejecting her focus on the afterlife as a solution to suffering in life

• This allows Brontë to show that faith in the afterlife is not a universal solution to human injustice

Miss Temple

• The supervisor and only good teacher at Lowood, Miss Temple becomes Jane’s mentor

• She is an idealised character, like Diana and Mary Rivers, and presents a contrast with Mrs Reed and her daughters

• Brontë uses her character to demonstrate the power of female friendships:

  • Such friendships echo Brontë’s close relationships with her own sisters 

• Miss Temple is also used by Brontë as a plot device:

  • Her departure from the school motivates Jane to leave Lowood and find employment, which takes her to Thornfield Hall

Blanche Ingram

• Blanche Ingram is the daughter of an aristocratic family, whom Rochester pretends to want to marry:

  • Her family has high social status, but is not wealthy

  • Blanche welcomes Rochester’s attention, but rejects him when he pretends he has no money

• Blanche is beautiful and talented, but shallow and calculating:

  • Jane sees her as emotionally cold, “not genuine” and “spiteful”

• Brontë uses Blanche to represent Jane’s opposite in terms of class and character

• Blanche’s character also enables Brontë to illustrate Rochester’s capacity for cruelty and deception:

  • He causes suffering by deceiving both Blanche and Jane about his intentions

Bertha Mason Rochester

• Bertha is Rochester’s wife

• She is a woman of Creole heritage, and is an alcoholic who has become mentally ill

• She is secretly imprisoned by Rochester in an attic room at Thornfield

• Bertha frequently escapes her nurse/minder, Grace Poole, and wanders around Thornfield:

  • Jane hears her laughter and believes it is Grace Poole’s

  • Bertha tries to kill Rochester by setting fire to his bed curtains

  • She breaks into Jane’s room on the evening before Jane’s wedding to Rochester and rips her wedding veil in two

  • Finally, she sets fire to Thornfield Hall, destroying it, injuring Rochester and dying when she jumps from the roof

• Brontë uses Rochester’s treatment of Bertha to illustrate his cruelty and deception

• Bertha’s character symbolises the fear of races and cultures that were exploited and repressed by the British Empire in the 19th century

• Bertha is also used as a plot device to prevent Jane’s bigamous marriage to Rochester and cause her departure from Thornfield

St John Rivers

• St John is the oldest of the Rivers siblings, who care for Jane after she runs away from Thornfield

• He is a clergyman, whose devout religious beliefs are central to his character

• He is tall, fair and extremely handsome in terms of Victorian conventions

• He puts pressure on Jane to marry him and accompany him to India as a missionary, which he sees as his “vocation:

  • He is in love with Rosamund Oliver, but thinks she would be unsuitable as a missionary’s wife

• Brontë uses the character of St John to show how religious faith can sometimes lead to extreme self-denial and disregard for the feelings of others

• St John enables Brontë to present a contrast with Rochester’s physical appearance and personality:

  • St John is fair, handsome and moralistic, whereas Rochester is dark, “not a handsome man”, and frequently immoral in his actions

  • St John is self-controlled and morally severe, whereas Rochester is impulsive and often motivated by self-interest

• Brontë also uses St John’s character to contrast with Rochester’s love for Jane:

  • In Chapter 35, Jane realises that St John “almost” loves her, but “I knew the difference – for I had felt what it was to be loved”