How does Jane Eyre end?

Jane inherits money, discovers she is related to the Rivers family, and hears Rochester’s call. She returns to find Thornfield burned, Bertha dead, and Rochester blind and maimed at Ferndean. They marry as equals in fortune and need: Jane can choose him without becoming his dependent mistress, and he can receive her without the old asymmetry of master and governess.

The ending is domestic and hard-won, not a fairy-tale wipe of the Gothic. Fire clears the secret; inheritance clears the economic trap; blindness revises Rochester’s power. Readers who only want “do they marry?” miss why the novel delays the yes until Jane holds her own.