 My friends, my name is Alpata Karwa and in this video I am going to talk about a very famous work by Charlotte Bronte that is Jane Eyre in autobiography. Most students find the plot of this novel very confusing and therefore I am making this video with an intention to explain this novel in such a simple manner that you will be able to visualize the entire plot in front of your eyes. And for this I have divided the novel into 10 sections. I am going to take you through each of the sections and I am also going to give you some important factual details about the novel. So before moving on to the summary, let us understand some basic facts about the novel. So the novel is written in the year 1847, set in Northern England and narrated in first person point of view. A very interesting fact is that Mr. Rochester, who is the male protagonist of the novel, is considered as the most romantic character in literature. A poll was taken in the year 2009 by Mills and Boone, a romance publisher, where it was found that Mr. Rochester received even more votes than Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Heath Cliff from Wuthering Heights and Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind. So Mr. Rochester's character is very interesting and I am going to introduce you very soon with this character. Other important details about the novel is that it is a hybrid of three genres. The three genres are Gothic novel, romance novel and building's romance. A Gothic novel is a kind of novel which utilizes the mysterious supernatural or horrific setting. A romance novel on the other hand emphasizes on love and passion, representing the notion of lovers designed for each other, whereas a building's romance narrates the story of a character's internal development as he or she undergoes a succession of encounters with the external world. So this was a brief introduction to our favorite novel, Jane Eyre and Autobiography. Now let's get onto the plot summary and look at the important events that happened throughout the course of the novel. The story begins with the introduction of its protagonist Jane Eyre. Jane is an orphan, sad, right? And so has to live at her uncle Mr. Reed's house located at a place called Gateshead. Another sad part is Uncle Reed has passed away a few years ago. So Jane is now at the mercy of Mrs. Reed and her two children, two daughters Georgiana and Eliza and a son John. And all of them are not treating her well at all. They do not leave a single chance to her Jane. There is one person who feels bad for Jane in the entire house and the torture she is going through. And that person is Bethy Lee, the maid. She takes care of Jane as much as she can. She consoles little Jane whenever the Reed cousins or their mother hurt her. One day, one of the Reed cousins picks up a fight with Jane, for which Jane gets punished. It's not even her fault, but her aunt Mrs. Reed shuts Jane into a room. They call it the Reds Room. It is the same room where her uncle Mr. Reed had died a few years ago. Can you imagine how scared Jane must have felt in that room? Jane is all alone there. The idea that her uncle's ghost is around keeps haunting her the whole time. She is scared as hell, but she has been shut into the room and thus she cannot do anything about it. She sits there crying helplessly. Soon after that incident, her aunt sends her over to a place called Lowood Institution. Lowood is a charity institution. You can say a charity school that was run by a bad man. His name is Mr. Brocklehust. He is a very selfish man. He is the school principal. He dislikes Jane from the first day of her school. Life at this new school is far from perfect for Jane and she faces many hardships there. On the other hand, there are few people who prove to be her biggest support pillars during her stay at Lowood. One of them is her friend Helen Burns. Helen is nice to Jane. She helps Jane to adjust with Lowood. However, Helen is weak and mostly remains ill and she soon dies of her illness and constant weakness. Another support pillar to Jane was her favorite teacher, Ms. Maria Temple. During her stay at Lowood, a disease called typhus starts spreading amongst the students of the campus. With the outbreak of typhus and many students dying, the Lowood Institution gained a lot of attention from the public. As a result, the school relocates to a more healthy and suitable location and a new management takes over. The school's new management makes every possible effort to improve the situation and to keep the disease under control. Days become weeks and months, turns into years. Jane studies at this campus for six years. During her stay at Lowood, Ms. Maria Temple, Jane's favorite teacher, gets married and leaves Lowood School. Subsequently, Jane joins the same school as a faculty member. She teaches at the school for two years, thereby continuing a prestigious tenure of eight years at Lowood Institution. This way, Jane stays in the school for eight years, six years as a student and two years as a teacher. When Jane reaches the age of 18, she starts looking for a job as a private tutor. After searching for a while, she gets a job as a governess. Who hires her? It's the male protagonist of the novel, Mr. Rochester. Now this person, Rochester is a dusky looking man who owns a place called Thornfield. There, he wants Jane to teach his little girl, Adele, and also be her governess. Jane starts working there and soon Adele grows fond of Jane. One day, suddenly, there's a fire in Mr. Rochester's bedroom. Rochester gets stuck in the room. Jane rushes to his help. She acts quickly and smartly and saves his life. She helps him in many such critical situations after this. Rochester is impressed by her helpful nature and alertness and starts liking her. Jane too develops feelings for Rochester while working closely with him. Young Jane experiences love for the first time in her life and she is happy. But soon her heart breaks when one day, Rochester brings home a pretty girl. The girl's name is Blash. Blash is very smart and cunning. With her body language, she makes Jane believe that she and Rochester are lovers. Jane knows that soon Rochester will propose to Blash and they will get married. But then, there's another twist and a pleasant one. Mr. Rochester proposes to Jane and not Blash. What a surprise! Jane is speechless. She is already in love with him so she obviously says yes to him. She accepts his proposal and soon, Rochester announces his wedding with Jane. Now here is an unpleasant twist. On the wedding day, when they are getting ready for the function, a man called Richard Mason turns up. He tells everyone loudly that Rochester is a married man. Richard claims to be Rochester's brother-in-law. Rochester has married my sister Bertha Mason when he was young. He tells this to everyone. Rochester does not deny that he married Richard's sister. He says, yes, I did marry his sister Bertha but she is mentally ill. Rochester urges all his guests to come with him to the third floor of his house. There, they all see his wife Bertha Mason looked after by a servant called Grace Poole. Bertha is seen walking on all four of her limbs and growling like an animal. Rochester tells everyone that he was tricked into this wedding. The fact that she was mentally ill was hidden from him. He says that his wife keeps doing crazy things at home and tortures him a lot. He says to Jane, now you know the truth, now do you trust me and will you marry me? Jane is unable to accept this. She refuses to marry him. Next morning, she quietly leaves the place and decides to not marry Rochester. After leaving that place, Jane has to suffer a lot. She is hungry but doesn't have anything to eat so she has to beg. She has no home so she sleeps anywhere she finds space. After suffering a great deal for three days, she finally reaches a place where a clergyman named St. John Rivers lives with his two sisters, Mary and Diana. They allow her to stay with them. St. John also gets her a job in a rural school as a teacher. After spending some time living there, Jane and the three siblings discover that they are actually cousins. The three siblings would want to Jane's long forgotten uncle. This way, they are Jane's cousins. It's a happy reunion. And this is not all, there is something more interesting. Jane learns that the same uncle of hers, the three siblings father had left 20,000 pounds for her before dying. Whoa, it's a lot of money right? But Jane has a big heart. She decides to share this money with her new found sisters, Mary and Diana and her brother St. John Rivers. Now there's another interesting twist in the tale. John likes the pretty and young Jane from the day he sees her. He somehow wants to stay close to her. One day, he tells Jane that he's planning to travel to India. He asks Jane if she wants to go with him. He says to Jane, marry me and come with me as my wife. We will travel India together and have a good time. Jane finds it weird. How can she marry her own cousin? Secondly, she doesn't love him. She hasn't forgotten her first love, Rochester. Jane obviously turns down John's marriage proposal. She tells him, if you really want me to come with you, make me your sister instead of your wife. John, of course, doesn't like the idea. He has been dreaming to marry her. He makes a lot of efforts to pursue her. Jane too tries hard to accept the idea of marrying her cousin. But she remains in a dilemma. One day, when she prepares her mind to marry John, something strange happens. Jane suddenly has this intuition that Mr. Rochester needs her. Something within her tells that Rochester is calling her. She immediately rushes to Thornfield. When she reaches there, she's shocked to see that Thornfield has been ruined due to a huge fire. She gets to know that Rochester's wife, Bertha, has burnt down the house. People tell her that after setting the house on fire, Bertha jumped from the roof and died. Rochester, on the other hand, in his attempt to save Bertha and his servants from the fire, loses his one hand. He also loses his eyesight. Now, Mr. Rochester lives at this place called Fondine, along with two of his servants. Jane arrives at the Fondine to see Mr. Rochester. She meets him, says sorry for leaving him alone. She then promises to take care of Rochester forever. The boats get married. They also bring back their daughter Adele, who has been in the boarding school all these years. After marriage, they have one more son and gradually one eye of Mr. Rochester gets healed completely. And this brings us to the happy ending of the novel. Before I end this video, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce my readers to two important books connected to Jane Eyre. There's this work written by Jean Rils, known as White Segura C, which is now looked as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre. It is a story of Bertha Mason from her time of her youth in the Caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England. The reason why Jean Rils focused so much on the character of Bertha Mason was that despite being so important to the plot of the story, interestingly in the entire novel, Jane Eyre, we don't find that Bertha Mason was given a single dialogue. Over the course of the decade where Jean speaks of her life with Rochester, not once does Bertha speak. And therefore, Jean Rils thought that it is a good opportunity to write a novel which would be written from the point of view of Bertha Mason and which will talk about her suffering and her life. Another important work that was published by two American academics, Sandra Gilbert and Suzanne Gubar, was known as Mad Woman in the Ethic. This is a groundbreaking volume of feminist literary history where these writers talk about how Bertha Rochester comes to symbolize the more general sense in which female voice was often silenced or muffled in the 19th century, both in society and in literature. It is seen as an uncomfortable, disturbing voice reminding people, especially men, of truths they did not wish to acknowledge. So with that note, I would like to take your leave. I hope this video proved beneficial in your study journey. Till the time we meet next, happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to arpitakarwa.com