The final passage in the work that expresses this comparison, between acting right in the face of restraint and breaking ranks with the proper is when Jane goes back to Thornfield Hall, after having found a rightful place among proper family, she previously did not know existed, and accepting that her fate is back with Rochester. She finds the Hall burned to the ground, at the hands of Bertha, who has thrown herself from the roof and died. Rochester on the other hand was stricken blind in the fire, trying to reach Bertha to save her from the fire.
We saw him approach her; and then, ma'am, she yelled, and gave a spring, and the next minute she lay smashed on the pavement."
Dead?"
Dead? Ay, dead as the stones on which her brains and blood were scattered."
Good God!"
You may well say so, ma'am: it was frightful!"
He shuddered.
And afterwards?" I urged.
Well, ma'am, afterwards the house was burnt to the ground: there are only some bits of walls standing now."
Were any other lives lost?"
No -- perhaps it would have been better if there had."
What do you mean?"
Poor Mr. Edward!" he ejaculated, "I little thought ever to have seen it! Some say it was a just judgment on him for keeping his first marriage secret, and wanting to take another wife while he had one living:...
"Is he in England?"
Ay -- ay -- he's in England; he can't get out of England, I fancy -- he's a fixture now."
What agony was this! And the man seemed resolved to protract it.
He is stone-blind," he said at last. "Yes -- he is stoneblind -- is Mr. Edward." (432)
The message of the turn of events, and the passage within is that Bertha's only choice was to seek freedom through death, while Jane on the other hand is compelled to seek out Rochester and marry him, confining herself to her own restrained fate, to be married to a man who is not a fixture of England, as a result of his blindness. Each woman has chosen the only logical conclusion to her varied reactions to restraint, Bertha through the freedom of death and Jane further restraint and perfect humility in a love match with an old blind man. Each woman has chosen the proper reconciliation for the restrained life they have led, bringing to a rightful conclusion the possible happiness for a man who was also restrained by his legalistic and proper society.
Works Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London J.M. Dent & Sons, 1922.
