27 Jane Eyre Read And Abridged By Stephanie Poppins

Jane Eyre is a woman with a difficult past. Her childhood was at Gateshead Hall, where she was emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins. Her education was at Lowood School, where she gained few friends and role models and suffered privations and oppression. Then she arrives at Thornfield and meets the inimitable Mr Rochester...

In this episode, Jane loves Rochester, and so finds it easy to forgive him. Yet she knows that love is not everything and that becoming Rochester's mistress would ruin her in the eyes of the law and God. She insists a mistress can never be the equal of her lover, so she refuses to go with him.

Transcript

This is SDHudsonMagic Jane Eyre Chapter 27 Sometime in the afternoon I raise my head and looking round and seeing the western sun gilding the sign of its decline on the wall I ask What is this?

What is this?

What is this?

The sign of its decline on the wall I asked What am I to do?

But the answer in my head gave Leave Thornfield at once It was so prompt so dread I stopped my ears I could not bear such words now That I am not Edward Rochester's bride is the least part of my woe I alleged that I have wakened out of most glorious dreams and found them void and vain is a horror I could bear and master but that I must leave him decidedly instantly entirely is intolerable I cannot do it But then a voice within me averred I could do it and foretold I should do it I wrestled with my own resolution I wanted to be weak that I might avoid the conscience turned tyrant held passion by the throat told her tauntingly she had yet but dipped her dainty foot in the slough and swore that with that arm of iron he would thrust her down to unsounded depths of agony Let me be torn away then I cried let another help me No,

You shall tear yourself away none shall help you you shall yourself cut out your right eye yourself cut off your right hand your heart shall be the victim and you the priest to transfix it I rose up suddenly terror struck at the solitude which so ruthless a judge haunted at the silence which so awful a voice filled my head swam as I stood erect I perceived I was sickening from excitement neither meat nor drink had passed my lips that day for I had taken no breakfast and with a strange pang I reflected that long as I had been shut up here no message had been sent to ask how I was or to invite me to come down not even little Adele had tapped at the door not even Mrs.

Fairfax had sought me friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes I murmured as I undrew the bolt and passed out I stumbled over an obstacle my head was still dizzy my sight was still dim and my limbs were feeble I could not soon recover myself I fell but not onto the ground an outstretched arm caught me I looked up it was Mr.

Rochester who sat in a chair across my chamber threshold you come out at last he said well I've been waiting for you long and listening yet not one movement have I heard not one sob five minutes more of that death-like hush and I should have forced lock like a burglar so you shun me you shut yourself up and grieve alone I would rather you had come and unbraided me with vehemence you are passionate I expected a scene of some kind I was prepared for the hot rain of tears only I wanted them to be shed on my breast now a senseless fall has received them or your drenched handkerchief but I err you have not wept at all I see a white cheek and a faded eye but no trace of tears I suppose then your heart has been weeping blood well Jane not a word of reproach nothing bitter,

Nothing poignant nothing to cut a feeling or sting a passion you sit quietly where I have placed you and regard me with a weary passive look Jane I never meant to wound you thus if the man who had but one little ewe lamb that was dear to it as a daughter ate of his bread and drank of his cup and lay in his bosom had by some mistake slaughtered it at the shambles he would not have ruled his bloody blunder more than I now rule mine will you ever forgive me weeder I forgave him that moment and on the spot there was such deep remorse in his eye,

Such true pity in his tone such manly energy in his manner and besides there was such unchanged love in his whole look and me and I forgave him all yet not in words,

Not outwardly only at my heart's call you know I'm a scoundrel Jane e'er long he inquired wistfully,

Wondering I suppose of my continued silence and tameness the result rather of weakness than of will yes sir then tell me so roundly and sharply don't spare me I cannot I'm tired and sick I want some water he heaved a sort of shuddering sigh and taking me in his arms carried me down the stairs at first I did not know to what room he'd borne me,

Or was cloudy to my glazed sight presently I felt the reviving warmth of a fire for summer as it was I'd become cold in my chamber he put wine to my lips,

I tasted it and revived,

Then I ate something he offered me and was soon myself I was in the library sitting in his chair he was quite near if I could go out of life now without too sharp a pang,

It would be well for me,

I thought then I should not have to make the effort of cracking my heartstrings in rending them from Mr Rochester's I must leave him it appears,

I do not want to leave him,

I cannot leave him how are you now Jane much better sir I shall be well soon taste the wine I obeyed him and he put the glass on the table he stood before me and looked at me attentively suddenly he turned away with an inarticulate exclamation full of passionate emotion of some kind he walked fast through the room and came back,

He stooped towards me as if to kiss me but I remembered caresses were now forbidden,

I turned my face away and put his aside what,

How is this he exclaimed hastily oh I know,

You won't kiss the husband of Bertha Mason you consider my arms filled and my embrace is appropriated at any rate,

There is neither room nor claim for me sir why Jane,

I will spare you the trouble of much talking I will answer for you because I have a wife already,

You would reply I guess rightly yes if you think so you must have a strange opinion of me you must regard me as a plotting profligate a base and low rake who's been simulating disinterested love in order to draw you into a snare deliberately laid and strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect what do you say to that I see you can say nothing in the first place you are faint still and have enough to do to draw your breath in the second place you cannot yet accustom yourself to accuse and revile me and besides the floodgates of tears are opened and they would rush out if you spoke much and you have no desire to expostulate,

To unbraid to make a scene you are thinking how to act talking you consider is of no use I know you I am on my guard sir I do not wish to act against you I said and my unsteady voice warned me to curtail my sentence not in your sense of the word but in mine you are scheming to destroy me you have as good as said I am a married man and as a married man you will shun me and leave out of my way just now you refused to kiss me you intend to make yourself a complete stranger to live under this roof only as Adel's governess if ever I say a friendly word to you if ever a friendly feeling inclines you again to me you will say that man had nearly made me his mistress I must be ice and rock to him and ice and rock you will become I cleared and steadied my voice to reply all is changed about me sir I must change too there is no doubt of that and to avoid fluctuations of feeling and continual combats with recollections and associations there is only one way Adel must have a new governess sir oh Adel will go to school I've settled that already nor do I mean to torment you with the hideous associations and recollections of Thornfield Hall this accursive place Jane you shall not stay here nor will I I was wrong ever to bring you to Thornfield Hall knowing as I did how it was haunted I charged them to conceal from you before I ever saw you all knowledge of the curse of the place merely because I feared Adel would never have a governess to stay if she knew with what inmate she was housed and my plans would not permit me to remove the maniac elsewhere though I possess an old house even more retired and hidden than this where I could have lodged her safely enough had not a scruple about the unhealthiness of the situation in the heart of a wood made my conscience recoil from the arrangement probably those damp walls would soon have eased me of her charge but to each villain his own vice and mine is not a tendency to indirect assassination even of what I most hate concealing the mad woman's neighbourhood from you however was something like covering up a child with a cloak and laying it down near a Yupus tree that demon's vicinage is poisoned it always was but I'll shut up Thornfield Hall I'll nail up the front door and board the lower windows I'll give Mrs Paul 200 a year to live with my wife as you term that fearful hag Grace will do much for money and she shall have her son the keeper at Grimsby Retreat to bear her company and be at hand to give her aid in the paroxysms when my wife is prompted by her familiar to burn people in their beds at night to stab them and bite their flesh from their bones and so on Sir I interrupted him you are inexorable for that unfortunate lady you speak of her with hate with vindictive antipathy it is cruel she cannot help being mad Jane my little darling so I will call you for so you are you don't know what you're talking about you misjudge me again it is not because she's mad I hate her if you were mad do you think I should hate you I do indeed sir then you are mistaken and you know nothing about me and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own in pain and sickness it would still be dear your mind is my treasure and if it were broken it would be my treasure still if you raved my arms should confine you and not a straight waistcoat your grasp even in fury would have a charm for me if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did this morning I should receive you in an embrace at least as fond as it would be restrictive I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness though you gave me no smile in return and never weary of gazing into your eyes though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me but why do I follow that train of ideas I was talking of removing you from Thornfield all you know is prepared for a prompt departure tomorrow you shall go I only ask you to endure one more night under this roof Jane and then farewell to its miseries and terrors forever I have a place to repair to which shall be a secure sanctuary from hateful reminiscences from unwelcome intrusion even from falsehood and slander and take Adele with you sir I interrupted she will be a companion for you what do you mean Jane I told you I would send Adele to school and what do I want with a child for a companion and not my own child a French dancer's bastard why do you importune me about her I say why do you assign Adele to me for a companion you spoke of retirement sir and retirement and solitude are dull too dull for you solitude he reiterated with irritation I see I must come to an explanation I don't know what sphinx like expression is forming in your countenance you are to share my solitude do you understand I shook I shook my head it required a degree of courage excited as he was becoming even to risk that mute sight of descent he had been walking fast about the room and he stopped as if suddenly rooted to one spot he looked at me long and hard I turned my eyes from him fixed them on the fire and tried to assume and maintain a quiet collected aspect now for the hitch in Jane's character he said at last speaking more calmly from this look than I had expected him to speak the reel of silk has run smoothly enough so far but I always knew there would come a knot and a puzzle and here it is now for vexation and exasperation and endless trouble by God I long to exert a fraction of Samson's strength and break the entanglement like toe he recommenced his walk but soon again he stopped and this time before me Jane will you hear reason because if you won't I'll try violence his lips were close to my ear his voice was hoarse his look that of a man who is just about to burst an insufferable bond and plunge headlong into wild license I saw that in another moment and with one impetus of frenzy more I should be able to do nothing with him the present the passing second of time was all I had in wish to control and restrain him a movement of repulsion flight fear would have sealed my doom and his but I was not afraid not in the least I felt an inward power a sense of influence which supported me the crisis was perilous but not without its charm such as the Indian perhaps feels when he slips over the rapid in his canoe I took hold of his clenched hand,

Loosened the contorted fingers and said to him soothingly sit down I'll talk to you as long as you like and hear all you have to say whether reasonable or unreasonable

Reviews

Oh Jane. What a deep soul… I hope she can flout society and run away with him!🙏🏼❤️ thank you Steph!!❤️🙏🏼