Volume 2, Chapter 10 / 25

Synopsis of Volume 2, Chapter 10 / 25

Bertha rips up Jane's veilPreparations for the wedding continue. On the night before the marriage, Rochester is very late returning from a business trip and Jane goes out in a high wind to meet him on the road. As agreed, she and Rochester sit up together, and Jane recounts waking from a dream and believing that there was a strange woman in her bedroom, looking at her wedding dress, who stands over Jane with a candle and rips her wedding veil in two. Rochester tells her that the woman must have been Grace Poole, but that Jane, only partly awake from her dream must have imagined her hideous appearance and her violent actions.

Commentary on Volume 2, Chapter 10 / 25

I dreamt another dream, sir Narrative techniques: realism and the supernatural.

the foul German spectre – the vampire See Characterisation: Bertha Rochester: 'the madwoman in the attic'.

when we have been married a year and a day, I will tell you This length of time often appears in folk tales, and is also used in legal agreements.

Investigating Volume 2, Chapter 10 / 25
  • Make a chart outlining the role played in the novel by the various dreams and visions experienced by characters.
  • When you first read this chapter, did you believe that Jane and Rochester would be married the next day?
    • What were the reasons for your belief?
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