Jane Eyre Blog #11

In the final chapters of Jane Eyre we meet some more characters: Bertha Mason, St. John Rivers, Diana and Mary Rivers, and Rosamond Oliver. Bertha Mason was Mr. Rochester's first wife who had been ultimately labeled as insane in chapter thirty-six when she set fire to Jane's old bed, and committed suicide. St. John Rivers is a clergyman who takes Jane in after she flees from Thornfield and collapses from exhaustion and malnutrition on his doorstep. He describes Jane, "White as clay or death. She will fall-let her sit.," (pg:391 p:4). Diana and Mary Rivers are St. John Rivers' sisters and they immediately like Jane. St. John Rivers and his sisters help nurse Jane to health and St. John Rivers even agrees to help Jane find a job which he succeeds in doing. He gets Jane a job as a teacher at Mr. Oliver's schoolhouse. Now, Mr. Oliver has a daughter, Rosamond. Rosamond really likes St. John and St. John feels the same way, but, sadly, nothing happens between the two of them. As we reach the end of the book, we find out that Jane, St. John Rivers, Diana and Mary are all cousins. St. John explains that, "You are not perhaps, aware that I am your namesake?-that I was christened St. John Eyre Rivers?" (pg:445 p:4).