# Chapter XI explained — Jane Eyre

> Chapter companion for Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

## What happens

Jane Eyre arrives at Millcote and is taken to Thornfield Hall, where she meets Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper, and her pupil, Adèle Varens. She learns that Mr. Rochester is the master of Thornfield and begins to explore the house and grounds, feeling a sense of curiosity and anticipation about her new position.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Inequality

Jane reflects on her position as a governess, a dependent role, and notes the equality between herself and Mrs. Fairfax, both being dependants of Mr. Rochester.

### The Search for Belonging

Jane feels alone and uncertain upon arriving at Thornfield, but finds comfort in the prospect of a new home and connection with Mrs. Fairfax and Adèle.

## Character check-ins

### Jane Eyre

Arrives at Thornfield Hall, meets Mrs. Fairfax and Adèle, and begins to settle into her new role as governess.

### Mrs. Fairfax

The housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, who welcomes Jane and shows her around the house, explaining the history and layout.

### Adèle Varens

Jane's pupil, a young French-speaking girl who is Mr. Rochester's ward.

## Key lines

> It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone in the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted.

Jane feels the anxiety and excitement of being young and alone, having left her past behind and unsure of her future at Thornfield.

_This passage captures Jane's emotional state as she begins her new life._

> I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness of these retreats in the day; but I by no means coveted a night's repose on one of those wide and heavy beds: shut in, some of them, with doors of oak; shaded, others, with wrought old English hangings crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings.

Jane enjoys the old, mysterious atmosphere of the third-storey rooms during the day but finds them too eerie to sleep in at night.

_This description foreshadows the secrets and mysteries of Thornfield Hall._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jane_eyre_se/chapters/xi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jane_eyre_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/jane_eyre_se/chapters