17-26

Chapter summery:
17) Mr. Rochester is away, and Jane begins to realise she feels a bit lost without him. He returns for a while, bringing many guests including Blanche Ingram. Jane tries to leave the party, Rochester stops her insisting she stay for a while almost hinting at his feelings for her.
18) Jane watches Mr. Rochester and Blanche whilst they were playing charades. She gets it into her head that they are going to marry. Later a Gypsy turns up to read the guest’s fortunes, blanche is first and returns disappointed.
19) Jane goes to the library to have her fortune read. The gypsy tells her what she said to Blanche, and Jane realises why she was upset. As she begins to read Jane’s fortune, Jane realises that it is actually Mr. Rochester in disguise! Mr. Mason arrives which troubles Mr. Rochester.
20) That night Jane is woken by a cry for help. Mr. Rochester comes to see her and asks her to help, he takes her to the 3rd story and Mr. Mason is there having been stabbed. After this Jane and Mr.Rochester walk in the orchard, and Mr. Rochester asks Jane for her opinion on a hypothetical story.
21) Jane has heard that it is a bad omen to dream of children, and she dreams about them over many nights. She then gets news of her cousin John Reed committing suicide and that Mrs. Reed is nearing death. Jane travels to Gateshead, where she is reunited with Bessie, and her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Mrs. Reed dies.
22) Jane remains for another month at Gateshead, Then travels back to Thornfield
23) Jane encounters Mr. Rochester in the gardens and they go for a walk. Rochester confides in Jane that he has decided to marry and that he has found a governess position for her in Ireland. Jane is distressed by this and Rochester now proposes to her! And Jane accepts!
24) Jane and Mr. Rochester’s wedding does not run smoothly. Jane begins to get more and more nervous about the wedding, and other people’s doubts are not helping her. She begins to doubt that the wedding will go ahead.
25) Jane is beginning to have disturbing dreams about children that are worrying her. She then awakes to find a ‘savage looking’ women destroying her wedding dress. Mr. Rochester dismisses her to be Grace Poole. Mr. Rochester says he will explain after they have been married a year.
26) Everything is in place for the wedding. It seems all is going to go smoothly until one man stands up and says that they cannot be married as Mr. Rochester already has a wife. ‘Bertha Mason’ . Mr. Rochester protests and invites the congregation back to Thornfiled to see Bertha and that she is mad and that he should be allowed to marry again. They meet ‘the mad woman in the attic’ and Jane ends up locking herself in her room, distressed by the entire situation.

Characters:
Bertha Mason - Bertha Mason is a formerly beautiful and wealthy Creole woman who has become insane and violent. She lives locked inside a secret room on the 3rd floor of Thornfield. She is Mr. Rochester’s wife.
Mr.Rochester- Seems to becoming a more disturbing and confusing character. He seems to be hiding many things from Jane, and with the revelation of his secret wife at their wedding, what else has he got to hide from her? Also he seems to be very emotionally insecure as he will not act upon his emotions until he knows that they are reciprocal ( reference to his ‘love’ for Jane). Also he seems to consistently be deceitful towards her, for example where he tricks her by pretending to be a Gypsy, or that rather confusing proposal.
Mrs. Fairfax- Turns out to be a rather lovely character, and we beging to see that her own intentions are that Jane is happy.
Jane- Jane is a bit of a hard character to analysis in so much text. All I can say is that what I have said before about her, though she is still growing emotionally, and learning of the hurt love brings she is still naïve and very trusting. For example Mr.Rochester has hurt and deceived her many tomes about her intentions towards her, yet she still goes running back to him. Maybe this is as she has developed a strong sense of need to be and feel loved. Also we see the kind caring side of Jane when she goes back to visit the Reeds. She shows them a lot of kindness even though they never showed her any compassion. Especially in the case of Mrs. Reed.

Themes:
I’d say again that the themes are carried through from section to section, you still have the fact that when ever anything good happens in Jane’s life it never lasts long. There will always be something just around the corner, to make her unhappy again. Which just adds to the boredom the book creates. I for one cannot stand listening to Jane moan constantly throughout the book. Another motif I suppose is all the description, and again it ranges at either one extreme or the other. She is either really happy about something and describes it that way.. Or is rather melancholy about the whole thing.. Which just bores me if I am honest.
There are also other themes such as Jane’s need for love and the often slight theme of religion.