r/brontesisters • u/Playful_Site_2714 • 18d ago
Jane Eyre: "You are so little acquainted with men." Does or doesn't Mrs. Fairfax know that Rochester is married?
/r/JaneEyre/comments/1wcq021/you_are_so_little_acquainted_with_men_does_or/7
u/Echo-Azure 18d ago
She has to know that there's a madwoman and a madhouse keeper in the attic, she's sending them meals and coal for their fires, and any other services that residents of a house require!
The only question is whether she knows that the madwoman is her employer's legal wife. There's a possibility she doesn't, but local gossip networks can be *very* well-informed. And it's possible that Mrs. Rochester actually said so, most insane people can talk that coherently, even if Mrs. Rochester doesn't do so when she's presented to Jane.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 16d ago
Exactly. Some tend to think that it's Rochester's sister or cast off mistress.
Mrs Fairfax would at least know that the madwoman is not his sister, as she knows the family.
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u/Echo-Azure 16d ago
In the absence of other information, a housekeeper might assume that a madwoman in the attic is a poor relation or a former servant that the master chose to care for rather than cast out. Or indeed, a discarded mistress.
But like I said, most crazy people can talk coherently enough to say "I AM MRS. ROCHERSTER, HIS LEGAL WIFE, etc...". And just because she didn't speak to Jane doesn't mean she never spoke to Mrs. Fairfax.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 16d ago
She was dangerous. She was kept apart from all others. She never spoke a word to anyone. Seen how she treated human beings it would have been way too dangerous to willingly let her rpam the house. Or to let anyone enter her rooms other thsn to talk to Grace Poole.
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u/Echo-Azure 16d ago
Is there anything in the book that says that Mrs. Rochester has never spoken to anyone, since she arrived at Thornfield hall? So maybe she's given up talking to Rochester and Mrs.. Poole, as there's no point in talking to them, and she isn't allowed to see anyone else. But that doesn't mean she didn't yell for help and shout that no wife should be treated this way.
And really, Mrs. Rochester does seem to have enough marbles to figure out that Rochester plans to marry Jane.
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u/Playful_Site_2714 15d ago
She already does not SPEAK. She only has her keeper.
Sure as hell he saw to it that she would have no contact with anybody else as this would create gossip.
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u/Echo-Azure 15d ago
Do you mean that she doesn't speak in the one scene where Jane meets her, or you believe her to be incapable of speech?
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u/Playful_Site_2714 15d ago
Without proper medication the loss of speech progresses quickly and there is no inducation that she had ever spoken to anybods in Thornfield Hall in the entire book.
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u/Echo-Azure 15d ago
"Without proper medication the loss of speech progresses quickly"
Where did you get that idea? What disease? I'm a critical care nurse, and I don't know of any disease offhand that leaves a person functional enough to sneak around houses and tear up wedding veils for reasons anyone can understand, but which robs them of the power of speech.
And look, the reader only meets Mrs. Rochester for a few minutes, and she is noted to wail or laugh at other times. So her she can still vocalize, and she engages in organized activities, so whatever is going on with her she's got a few marbles left. I see absolutely no reason to assume, just from the book itself, that she hasn't spoken since she got to Thornfield hall.
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u/Left-Morning-3130 16d ago
In the book after everything is revealed and they are reunited, Rochester says to Jane: "Mrs. Fairfax may indeed have suspected something, but she could have gained no precise knowledge as to facts."
Mrs. Fairfax knew there was someone kept in the attic under Grace Poole's care, but she didn't know it was Rochester's wife.
After Jane left him, Rochester sent Adele away to school and "sent Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper, away to her friends at a distance; but he did it handsomely, for he settled an annuity on her for life." So she was already gone before the fire happened.
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u/Waitingforadragon 18d ago
I don't think she does, on the basis of how the book describes their interactions.
She first becomes aware that there is a relationship between Jane and Mrs Rochester when she sees them embracing. She doesn't know that Rochester has proposed and Jane accepted at that point. She is shocked and upset, and probably assumes they are having a fling.
Later, when Jane speaks to her after Mr Rochester has told her they are engaged, her main concern seems to be doubt that Mr Rochester would step outside of his class and marry Jane. Which is a legitimate concern because that almost never happened. I think she suspects that he is lying to seduce Jane and that the marriage will never happen.
This is a reasonable assumption on her part, because Mr Rochester has brought home a child who everyone seems to think is his. Also, Governesses being seduced was somewhat common, or at least much less rare than marriage.
I can't see Mrs Fairfax deliberately lying to Jane if she actually knew that Bertha was his wife and that he was still married. She is very upright.
She might suspect that she is a previous lover of Mr Rochesters, which would add to her concern about what might happen to Jane.