Jane Eyre (Harper Collins) - Charlotte Bronte [249]
St. John is unmarried: he never will marry now. Himself has hitherto sufficed to the toil, and the toil draws near its close: his glorious sun hastens to its setting. The last letter I received from him drew from my eyes human tears, and yet filled my heart with divine joy: he anticipated his sure reward, his incorruptible crown. I know that a stranger’s hand will write to me next, to say that the good and faithful servant has been called at length into the joy of his Lord. And why weep for this? No fear of death will darken St. John’s last hour: his mind will be unclouded, his heart will be undaunted, his hope will be sure, his faith steadfast. His own words are a pledge of this—
“My Master,” he says, “has forewarned me. Daily He announces more distinctly,—‘Surely I come quickly!’ and hourly I more eagerly respond,—‘Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!’”
EXTRAS
Jane Eyre
10 Things You Didn’t Know
About Charlotte Brontë
1. Charlotte was only five years old when her mother died. Her death left Charlotte’s introverted father alone to raise six small children: Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne.
2. Charlotte and her sisters were treated cruelly at their boarding school; malnourished and weak, her two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, caught ill in their first year. After their deaths, Mr. Brontë removed the rest of his daughters from the school and educated them himself.
3. Charlotte and her sisters and brother entertained themselves in their lonely house by creating characters and stories about their rivaling imaginary kingdoms, “Angria” and “Gondal.” Gondal was a land of wild moors, like Charlotte’s home.
4. Charlotte’s discovery of her sisters’ writing led to Charlotte, Emily, and Anne’s first-ever publication, a collaborative collection of poetry under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
5. Charlotte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, all went on to become famous writers; most notably, Emily Brontë is the author of the novel Wuthering Heights.
6. After publishing the poetry anthology with her sisters, Charlotte continued to publish her writing under the pseudonym Currer Bell—interesting because Currer could be either a girl’s name or a boy’s name. Her sisters kept the assumed names Ellis and Acton Bell for their own publications. The genderless names protected the sisters from discrimination. Charlotte’s publisher didn’t know that the three sisters were the authors of their novels and poetry, and eventually Charlotte and Anne visited him to refute the rumor that all three of their novels were written by one person—a man. Emily didn’t accompany them; she preferred to remain anonymous. Charlotte, the boldest of the sisters, let Emily’s identity slip to the publisher, which made Emily furious.
7. Many of the events in Jane Eyre mirror those that took place in Charlotte Brontë’s life. The boarding school conditions that lead to her older sisters’ deaths inspired Charlotte’s depiction of the Lowood School. Charlotte served as an assistant teacher and as a governess, much like her character Jane. And when Charlotte moved to Brussels, Belgium, to teach and improve her language skills, she’s said to have fallen in love with her employer, Constantin Heger, an older, married man who was her teacher and the owner of a boarding school. While Charlotte’s love for Constantin was allegedly unrequited, Charlotte’s fictional counterpart, Jane, had more success with Edward Rochester.
8. Charlotte’s brother, Branwell, took to drinking and using opium after an unsuccessful attempt at a career in painting and writing. Once, while drunk, he knocked over a candle and set his bed alight. It was Charlotte’s sister, Emily, who came and put out the fire with a jug of water. Branwell ultimately died as a result of complications of his addictions at the age of thirty-one.
9. None of the famous Brontë sisters lived past the age of forty years old; Emily died when she was thirty-one and Anne died when she was twenty-nine. Both succumbed to what at the time was called consumption,