Chapter 10

Summary

Jane skips eight years in her narrative, explaining to us that they were uninteresting. She was an excellent student – the best in her class – and graduated to teach at Lowood for two years. In addition, the conditions at Lowood improved for those eight years, because the outbreak of illness caused an investigation in which the deplorable conditions were revealed to the public, and new management changed it for the better. After Jane’s two years of teaching, Miss Temple marries and leaves. Now, Jane has no reason to continue at Lowood, and after a night of thinking, decides to advertise as a governess to get a job. A woman named Mrs. Fairfax replies to the advertisement and offers Jane a job at a large house called Thornfield. Her pay will be “thirty pounds per annum” (97) – which is about 50 dollars per year in a modern conversion. After tedious back-and-forth permission letters, Jane is given formal permission to work at Thornfield. While Jane is waiting to leave for Thornfield, guess who shows up to visit? Bessie!

Bessie is now married, and has two kids – she named the girl after Jane, aww. The two reunite joyfully and catch up. Apparently, the Reed family is not very happy nowadays. John Reed misbehaves a lot and makes Mrs. Reed very anxious and upset. Georgiana almost eloped, but Eliza stopped her and now the sisters hate each other. Jane then tells Bessie about Lowood. After hearing about Jane’s experience, Bessie concludes that Jane is still not beautiful, but is accomplished, ladylike, and talented. She tells Jane that a man named Mr. Eyre stopped by about a year after Jane left. He was in a hurry, so was not able to visit Lowood, but he talked to Mrs. Reed, who was rude to him. Mr. Eyre was Jane’s uncle and wanted to see her. His visit proves that Jane’s family is “gentry” (102) as much as the Reed family is. Bessie and Jane talk about good times for a while longer, but Jane then has to get going to Thornfield, so the two women part amiably.

Reaction

This is another transition chapter, this time between Lowood and Thornfield. Jane skipping eight years in the narrative does not throw me off balance though, because Jane’s important scenes and character development at Lowood were already done. I liked seeing her initiative and independence in getting a job. In the Victorian era, nursing, being a governess, and writing were pretty much the only socially acceptable jobs for women, so Jane’s best option was applying for the position of governess in a rich household. Most intriguing of all was Bessie’s news about Mr. Eyre dropping by seven years ago – why has he never visited before, and why hasn’t he visited again?