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The Plot of Jane Eyre

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The novel begins with a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre who is living with her uncle's family, the Reeds, as her uncle's dying wish. Jane's parents died of typhus. Jane’s aunt Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her like a servant. She and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically and emotionally. One day Jane gets locked in the room in which her uncle died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She is finally rescued when she is allowed to attend Lowood School for Girls. At the charity institution, Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. However, when a typhus epidemic strikes, Helen dies of consumption in her arms. After eight years of school Jane decides to advertise her services as a governess, and receives one reply. She takes the position offered by Thornfield Hall, teaching a young French girl. One night while Jane is walking to a nearby town, she meets Edward Rochester, master of the house. Both of them enjoy each other's company and spend many hours together, and Jane longs for him. On a midsummer evening, Mr. Rochester proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is married to Mr. Mason’s sister Bertha. Mr. Rochester explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Bertha rapidly becomes madness and locked in Thornfield. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, despite her love for him, Jane leaves at midnight. In her way through England, she discovers her relative, St. John. And she was told her uncle John has died and left her his entire fortune of £20,000. Jane shares the money with her cousins, and rejects the St. John’s proposal. Jane returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Mr. Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from

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