Chapter 33

Summary

It is wild and stormy outside. Jane gets a nice fire going, and curls up with a book to wait it out. Suddenly, St. John enters her house. He takes his frozen cloak off, and sits down by the fire. He seems very broody, and there commences a rather hilarious conversation in which Jane tries to make small talk, and St. John is deeply distracted and fails to reply in more than single words. Jane decides that he if doesn’t want to talk, and just traveled in the snow to sit there, she will ignore him. She tries to read her book, but he acts so very mysterious that it is hard to concentrate. And then, as suddenly as he entered her house, St. John finally begins to speak.

Apparently, the piece of paper that he had so dramatically stolen the day before has Jane’s signature on it, and he found out her real name. He was surprised because people are looking for Jane, and she’s in the local papers. She is sought after because when her uncle John died, he gave her, instead of her cousins, all his money. Sounds familiar? Yep, he’s the same uncle that the Rivers siblings didn’t get any money from. And yes, that means that Jane is their cousin. Oh coincidence! Since St. John was filled in on her complete back-story by the officials looking for Jane, she asks him about Mr. Rochester. Unfortunately, no one knows what how he’s doing. Jane is delighted to have a family, and decides to divide up her new-found fortune with them. The Rivers siblings protest, but eventually give in. Now Jane, Diana, Mary, and St. John each have five thousand pounds.

Reaction

This is the happiest chapter in the book so far. It’s great to see Jane to joyful and carefree as she is when she finds out that she’s related to Diana, Mary, and St. John. Now Jane is wealthy, and has cousins that she loves. This is a very pleasant chapter, but I still wonder what happened to Mr. Rochester. Also, I wonder why Jane never locks her door, since St. John has come in twice without knocking.