Thornfield Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre makes the tough decision to leave the only man that has ever loved her in Emily Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Her lover, as well as master, Edward Rochester has embarked on a journey of love with Jane, but as the truth rolls out, she makes the severe decision to leave him at Thornfield. Their wedding day ends in Rochester’s beastly wife, whom Jane knew nothing of, with her hands around Rochester’s throat. This alone is enough to drive Jane out of the relationship, but it’s his explanation is what really makes her go running.
Jane’s desire to leave Rochester as well as Thornfield is sparked when she learns of his dark past with Bertha Rochester, his wife that she had no knowledge of. Prior to learning the truth behind the throne of lies Rochester

lays upon, Jane was deeply in love with him. Her feelings towards him changed almost immediately after learning the awful reality of his past. Throughout the book, Jane slowly begins to appreciate Rochester’s more unusual qualities, for example his eyes. We can keep track of Jane’s feelings for Rochester by observing her perception of him. On first encounter Jane described Mr. Rochester as grim, or forbidding, with “dark, irate, and piercing” eyes (142). As Jane gets to know Rochester a little better she begins to have feelings for him, and perceive him in different ways. She begins to notice “his eyes sparkled”, showing us she’s taking into account that there's more to his dark, cruel eyes (153). His eyes revert back to black when she learns of his pre-existing wife, with a “bloody light in its gloom” (335).
Jane comes to the decision that she must leave Thornfield, and leave Rochester behind with it.

After denying a proposal to live with Rochester in France, he decides to tell Jane the stories of his past with Bertha. He explains he thought he had found a lovely woman, but after marrying, he soon learned that she was mad. He explains her “violent and unreasonable temper” and the affairs she had, though he himself admits to have had mistresses, though they were merely in search of someone to love (353). He tells her that lockering her away in the attic was the only way to keep himself and everyone else safe. Jane believes she will always be nothing more than a mistress to Rochester as long as Bertha is alive, and feels inadequate to her. The fact that Rochester lied to Jane for such a long time also influences her decision to leave, for she lost trust and faith in him. Jane is not entirely wrong in comparing herself to Bertha, as she too has felt the isolation of being confined in a small room. While Jane was living with the Reeds at Gateshead, she was punished by being locked in the Red Room, similar to Bertha being locked in the attic at Thornfield. In these small jails, both women are referred to as animals in the way they behave. Jane is called a rat, as well as a “mad cat”, implying she is a wild, irrational girl with the characteristics of a wild animal (15). Bertha is often mistaken for an animal, seen when Jane observes “whether beast or human being, one could not, at

first sight, tell[.]” and also with her “hair as a mane” (338).
Jane feels torn between thrusting Rochester into a deeper world of pain, and liberating her own freedom from him. “Think of his misery” she says to herself, following with “ho in the world cares for you”, trying to convince herself to stay with him (365). Her decision to leave or not is a very tough one for her to make, as she would be dropping everything and never seeing the man she loves again. She quickly decides she must leave him after she experiences a dream in which her mother tells her “My daughter, flee temptation.” and she does (367). This being the only interaction Jane has ever had with her mother, she takes her advice very seriously and leaves as soon as she awakes. His lies, her self-respect, and the instructions of her mother all influencing her to leave Thornfield.
Many things push Jane Eyre away from Rochester at Thornfield, and one of the most influential things was the truth of his past. Jane learns on her wedding day that Rochester is guilty of attempting bigamy, and has another living wife. Jane is shocked by this and knows that she is now nothing but a mistress. She is hurt and she decides she must leave him and turn her back on Thornfield. With only a few small items, Jane sets out into the world and for the first time, has nowhere to go.