Plot Summary
Chapter XXXII of Jane Eyre finds Jane settling into her role as village schoolmistress at Morton. Initially overwhelmed by her seemingly dull, untaught pupils, she soon discovers their individuality and intelligence. Several farmers' daughters become her particular favorites, and she earns the warm regard of the entire neighborhood. Despite this outward contentment, Jane is tormented nightly by vivid dreams of Mr. Rochester—dreams charged with passion, adventure, and the anguish of lost love. Each morning, she composes herself and returns dutifully to her school.
Rosamond Oliver begins visiting the school regularly, often arriving during St. John Rivers’s catechism lessons. Jane observes St. John’s unmistakable physical reaction to Rosamond’s presence—his flushed cheeks and trembling hands—though he refuses to act on his feelings. Jane also befriends Rosamond, who discovers Jane’s hidden talents in art and languages and commissions a portrait. Mr. Oliver, Rosamond’s wealthy father, warmly receives Jane and expresses admiration for St. John, hinting that he would welcome a match between the clergyman and his daughter.
Character Development
Jane’s duality is on full display: she is the competent, disciplined teacher by day and the passion-torn dreamer by night. Her willingness to confront St. John directly about Rosamond shows her characteristic boldness and emotional honesty. St. John, meanwhile, reveals the rigid self-denial that defines him. He allows himself exactly fifteen minutes of romantic fantasy before reasserting his missionary calling, declaring Rosamond unsuitable for a life of sacrifice. His admission that he is “a cold, hard, ambitious man” guided by reason rather than feeling establishes the fundamental contrast between his character and Jane’s.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter explores the tension between duty and desire. Both Jane and St. John suppress powerful longings—Jane for Rochester, St. John for Rosamond—but for fundamentally different reasons. Jane’s repression is circumstantial, while St. John’s is ideological. The motif of art as emotional expression appears through Jane’s portrait of Rosamond, which becomes a catalyst for St. John’s rare emotional vulnerability. The theme of religious vocation versus earthly love is embodied in St. John’s refusal to abandon his missionary plans for domestic happiness.
Literary Devices
Brontë employs dramatic irony as Jane advocates for a marriage she herself cannot have. St. John’s extended metaphor of love as a “nectarous flood” drowning his “seeds of good intentions” powerfully conveys his inner conflict. The chapter ends with foreshadowing: St. John mysteriously tears a strip from Jane’s drawing paper, hinting at a revelation to come. Brontë also uses a metafictional aside about the state of modern literature while Jane reads Marmion by Sir Walter Scott, briefly stepping outside the narrative to champion the enduring power of poetry and genius.