Jane Eyre Turning Point

The most important scene in “Jane Eyre” is in chapter 26, where her seemingly perfect marriage with Mr. Rochester was prevented by the presence of his living wife. While serving as the turning point of the novel, this chapter conveyed the maturation Jane had gone through and included the emerging Gothic writing style during the nineteenth century. In chapter 26, Briggs showed up during the marriage ceremony to confront the near-newlyweds that “an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists” (p. 15). Despite having “a wife now living,” Mr. Rochester attempted to marry Jane (chapter 26, p. 15). Jane thought she had found the love she yearned for, and showed up to the ceremony, only to be disappointed by Mr. Rochester’s existing marriage.
This scene convinced readers that the later scenes, where Jane reacted to the auditory apparition of Mr. Rochester calling for her, were somewhat understandable. After Mr. Rochester had admitted that he was in fact married, Briggs, Mason, and Wood visited the third story of Mr. Rochester’s home where the “lunatic [was] kept there under watch and ward” (chapter 26, p. 16). Bertha Mason is Mr. Rochester’s wife who was once “a charming partner,” but had gone mad and often “snatched and growled like some strange wild animal” (chapter 26, p. 16). The sudden introduction of a beast-like human revealed elements of fiction and horror, both of which are defining characteristics of Gothic literature. Readers might have criticized how abruptly the reality of the story had diminished; however, this scene would play a crucial role later in chapter 35. Without this introduction of Bertha, it would have been completely out of the blue to have heard Mr. Rochester’s voice, since the notion of fiction would be missing. By presenting Bertha as a monster, the story’s fictional mood ironically created a reality in chapter 35 in an otherwise nonsensical