XVII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Social Class and Inequality

  Jane is acutely aware of the social distance between herself and Mr. Rochester, reminding herself to 'keep to your caste' and not to lavish love where it would be despised.

• Self-Respect and Integrity

  Jane actively works to control her emotions and maintain her self-respect, refusing to indulge in romantic fantasies about Mr. Rochester despite her growing feelings.

• Love and Morality

  Jane's internal conflict between her love for Rochester and her moral principles is central, as she acknowledges her feelings but resolves to conceal them.

Characters to notice

• Jane Eyre

  Struggles with her feelings for Mr. Rochester, resolves to maintain her self-respect, and observes the guests with a mix of admiration and pain.

• Mr. Rochester

  Returns to Thornfield with a party of guests, showing particular attention to Blanche Ingram, and avoids speaking to Jane.

• Adèle Varens

  Excited about the guests and prepares eagerly for the evening, but is eventually sent to bed.

• Mrs. Fairfax

  Manages the household preparations for the guests and advises Jane on how to handle the evening.

• Blanche Ingram

  The elegant and admired lady equestrian who rides alongside Mr. Rochester, appearing to be his preferred companion.

Key passages

• “You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield, further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protégée, and to be grateful for such respectful and kind treatment as, if you do your duty, you have a right to expect at his hands.”

  Jane reminds herself that her relationship with Mr. Rochester is purely professional: she is his employee, paid to teach Adèle, and should expect no more than respectful treatment in return for doing her duty.

  Jane's internal admonition reflects her struggle to suppress her romantic feelings and maintain a proper sense of social distance.

• “I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking—a precious yet poignant pleasure; pure gold, with a steely point of agony: a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless.”

  Jane experiences a bittersweet joy in watching Mr. Rochester, comparing it to a dying man drinking from a poisoned well—the pleasure is intense but laced with the pain of knowing it is dangerous and forbidden.

  This metaphor captures Jane's awareness that her love for Rochester is both irresistible and potentially destructive.

• “He is not to them what he is to me... I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him.”

  Jane feels a deep spiritual and intellectual kinship with Mr. Rochester that transcends their differences in social rank and wealth, believing they are fundamentally alike in mind and spirit.

  This passage reveals Jane's conviction that her connection with Rochester is based on a profound inner affinity, not merely external circumstances.