Jane Eyre is an 1847 novel by English author Charlotte Brontë. It tells the life story of its protagonist, Jane Eyre, over a period of ten years. The novel is written in the form of a fictional autobiography.
The novel begins at Gateshead Hall, where Jane, an orphan, lives with her aunt, Mrs Reed, and her cousins John, Georgiana and Eliza. Following a violent fight with her cousin John, Jane is sent away to Lowood, a charity school. Jane suffers physically and emotionally under the cruel regime at Lowood. Her friendships with Helen Burns and Miss Temple help her to overcome these challenges, and she spends her final two years at Lowood as a teacher.
Following Miss Temple’s departure from Lowood, Jane seeks employment as a governess. She finds work at Thornfield Hall, where she is governess to Adèle Varens, the ward of Thornfield’s owner, Edward Rochester. Jane and Rochester fall in love and Rochester asks Jane to marry him. On their wedding day, Jane finds out that Rochester already has a wife, Bertha Mason, a lunatic who he has been kept confined in the attic at Thornfield.
Fleeing Thornfield, homeless and penniless, Jane is taken in by the Rivers family. St John Rivers, a devout clergyman, finds her a job as a village schoolteacher. Jane discovers that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a fortune. St John asks her to marry him and join him as a missionary in India. She refuses, because she still loves Rochester.
Returning to Thornfield, Jane finds out that the Hall has been destroyed in a fire, in which Bertha has died. Rochester has suffered injuries that have left him blind. Jane is reunited with Rochester at Ferndean and marries him.