Vol II, Ch 7 is the chapter covering when Jane has returned to Thornfield after discovering that Rochester was already married to Bertha. In this chapter, Rochester tries to convince Jane to stay. I’ve been thinking, nearly every time I read this, that it might be good to do a breakdown of the various ways and methods Rochester attempts to dissuade Jane from her course of action. This acts as a guide to how temptation works in our lives. Sometimes others perform the part of the tempter, as does Rochester here; and sometimes we do it ourselves with our inner dialogues- also known as rationalizations or justifications.

This first thing Jane does is asks herself: What am I to do? 

Her mind immediately answers: Leave Thornfield at once. 

Her passion says: I can’t do it. Or… I don’t want to do it.

Temptation is a desire to do something wrong or unwise. There is no temptation unless you really want to do something, but you know it’s wrong. Jane loves Rochester and loves the situation she has at Thornfield. She is respected and loved and treated as an equal. Essentially, she has found a place. The dilemma is that while she wants to stay, she knows she can’t stay with him as a lover, when he is already married.

The initial consideration occurred by herself in her room. She thought it over, but decided she need to leave.

Rochester enters the scene, and he will attempt to counter her reason, and get her to decide based on her passion.

Rochester, upon entering says he had expected a tirade but didn’t get it.

I’m not sure what to call this, but it’s a way of deflecting a reaction. It’s saying: oh, cool, I thought you were going to come at me with a frying pan, but I see you’re calmer.

He asks Jane’s forgiveness, and she grants it on the spot.

Seeking forgiveness by being appropriately repentant is of course, the first thing we ought to do when we are in the wrong.

Rochester tries to kiss Jane and she refuses. Rochester questions her and asks if she has decided to reject him because he is married, she says ‘yes’.

Rochester seeking a kiss was a first step to smooth things over. But forgiveness isn’t the same thing as just carrying on as if it never happened in the first place. Some things can be overcome like this easily enough. But Rochester’s situation- being already married, is not the sort of thing that can be overcome with some kisses. In fact, as Jane understands, a kiss in this situation is an attempt to ignore what can’t be ignored. The essential problem hasn’t been removed. It can’t be ignored.

Rochester says Jane is scheming to destroy him.

Rochester attempts to make Jane feel bad by transferring the problem to her: SHE is scheming to destroy HIM. Rather than acknowledge the real problem: she can’t stay around someone she loves, who is already married.

He badmouths Bertha. Jane says he is cruel since she can’t help her madness. He says that’s not the issue, he would not hate Jane if she became mad.

Rochester accuses her of misunderstanding why he is saying these things about Bertha. Perhaps if he can convince her that her own reasoning is faulty, then her objections can be overcome.

He promises to take Jane away from Thornfield.

Rochester still isn’t acknowledging Jane’s position: she can’t stay in the relationship with a man she loves, when he is already married. Instead, he offers to simply remove themselves from the situation so they can pretend it doesn’t exist.

He tells her to listen to reason or he might have to try violence. Jane replies that she will hear him out, reasonable or unreasonable.

Rochester’s attempt to scare her into submission is crappy. But Jane’s willingness to at least hear him out is admirable.

Finally, Jane breaks down and cries. Rochester softens his attitude, and leads with: So you don’t love me then? Jane is cut by this, and confesses she does, more than ever, but this must be the last time she expresses it.

Rochester attempts to guilt her into changing her mind by equating her need to leave as “you don’t love me”. This cuts Jane. She knows it’s not true, but it clearly carried some weight with her

Rochester asks if she can live there daily and still be distant. Jane admits she cannot, and THAT’s why she must leave. Rochester agrees she must leave, but promises to live with her in a different spot as man and wife.

This one is tricky. Rochester turns this around on Jane by agreeing with her: oh, you’re right, of course you must leave…. Then adds that he had no intention of staying here. They would go someplace else. This is a reiteration of what he had already said earlier, when he promised to take her away from Thornfield.

Jane counters that she would be nothing more than a mistress in reality.

Rochester begs for pity, which distresses Jane.

I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures: Rochester ditches pride and hopes to overcome Jane’s refusal by begging.

Next, Rochester tries to convince Jane why he not really married. He must only explain himself, and then Jane will see it like he does. He explains he was pushed, and duped, into a marriage with a lunatic, by greedy, manipulative family. In this situation then, he reasons it would not be correct to see him as married, as one might normally be considered married. Sure, he went through the ceremony, but there was so much deception involved, that the contract can be essentially considered null and void.

Rochester mentions that after this, he wandered Europe hoping to find a wife. He says he sought a wife among all kinds of women from Russia, Italy, France, Germany, but found none. Nor was he looking for rank or fortune, he simply sought a woman who would suit him. He then tried dissipation, but found no enjoyment in it. Then he tried mistresses, but that didn’t turn out well.

Rochester uses this to set the stage for his discovery of Jane. She can feel special because he went through such lengths to find happiness after the disappointment of the first union.

Rochester then recounts his own feelings about Jane: she had stayed with a perseverance, and spoken with at kind of authority. He noted Jane’s pleasure in her tasks, her smile and her hope. While she spoke to him, she was mindful to not commit any blunders, but she was also keen, daring, and had a glowing eye; she had penetration and power in her glances and ready answers. She quickly adapted to Rochester and felt the sympathy between them, he recognized how her manner improved him. Without going into every detail, Rochester noted Jane’s excellent qualities and how they improved him.

Rochester then focuses his attention on Jane, and her excellent qualities, particularly how they are of such that they have the power to raise him up too.

Jane begs him not to dwell anymore on this past. He counters that she is correct, they should look to the present and future. Jane is troubled that he is trying to overcome what she knows to be right.

Rochester her tries again to take what she is saying, and use it to dovetail into what he wants. She of course doesn’t want him to dwell on the past, since she knows she will have to leave him, and she doesn’t want to have to wrestle with it since it would only muddle the clear path she knows she must take. He attempts to say, of course we should dwell on it anymore since, you know, this great love we have holds so much for the future.

Rochester pleads with her to understand where he is coming from: he had been tricked and essentially denied love, and now he has found it- they are one and should be together. He apologizes for not revealing the truth earlier, but knew she would be too strict. But he then asks her to forgive it and come with him.

Jane acknowledges the ordeal: She could not hope to be loved more. She absolutely worshipped him. And yet she also knew she had to go.

Rochester promises to be hers.

Jane replies she will not be his.

He questions this, and adds a kiss to soften her, but she still stands firm.

Rochester then accuses her of wickedness; “It would not be wicked to love me”.

She responds that it would be wicked to obey him in this.

Rochester then says he will have no hope.

Jane tells him to do as she does and find his hope in God.

He tells her that she will not yield, she is condemning him to live wretched and accursed.

She counters that he should live sinless and tranquil.

Rochester tells her that having snatched love and innocence from him, she is flinging him back on lust, passion, and vice.

Jane counters that she does no such thing. We are born to strive and endure, he as well as her, so do it.

Rochester says he calls her a liar because he said he shouldn’t change and she is telling him he should. Then he claims that her ideas are perverse when they drive him to despair merely to avoid transgressing some human law, when no one is injured by it, since she has no living relatives to be offended by her living with him.

Jane admits to herself that her reason began to betray her. Her feelings were clamoring for her to change her tune: just cave in and bring the man some comfort because who cares for you? Who will be injured by what you do?

Then she reasons: I care for myself. She promises to live by her principles and leave the rest up to God. “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this.”

Rochester reacts physically… stomping across the room, then grabbing her and holding her… but he sees she is unbreakable. He pleads with her more, but Jane, recognizing there is nothing left to be said, moves towards the door.

Here he breaks down sobbing. Jane returns to him, strokes his hair, and addresses him for his kindness before she leaves.