Jane Eyre revolves around the theme of truth and how elusive it is, but how in the end, it always comes forth. We see this in Jane's early life in Gateshead hall, with Mrs. Reed refusing to believe Jane's side of the story calling her a liar. Mostly, we see how evasive and complicated truth is in Jane's love life revolving around two men, both with their own secrets.
The book starts off when Jane is younger, and she lives with her aunt in Gateshead Hall as an orphan. Jane is treated like she is worthless and garbage making her long to be free as her aunt can't see the truth about how she is treated. One day, Jane gets into a fight with her cousin, John Reed, because she was just reading a book. John demands she give him the book, and then makes her stand by the door when he "[lifts]... the book and [stands] in act to hurl it" (Bronte 12). Jane yells but isn't fast enough to escape the projectile, and it hits her making her blow up in a fit of rage. But instead of physically attacking him, she verbally wrecks him provoking him into grabbing her in a headlock, so she in turn, screams "Rat! Rat!", when Mrs. Reed walks in and without even doubting her children, orders jane to be sent to the "red-room"(Bronte 12-13).
Fast-forward years later, Jane is a grown woman fresh out of school, when she decides to take a job as the tutor to a young girl named Adela Varens in a place called Thornfield. Jane quickly realizes that Thornfield isn't how she imagines, with her employer really just being a servant for the Rochesters, the guardians of her pupil. Upon her arrival at Thornsfield, she hears a laugh that she describes later, in more detail, as "demonic" (Bronte 225). One night, through Mr. Rochester's door, she smells smoke, and decides to investigate. Startled by the sight of "Mr. Rochester [laying]... motionless, in [a] deep sleep", Jane rushes in, puts the fire out and saves him. This leads down a roller-coaster to the point of them falling in love, involving Mr. Rochester flirting with other women to make jane jealous. Jane leaves to visit her family and, upon her return, Mr. Rochester proposes. Suddenly, after the whirlwind of love, jealousy, and in the midst of their marriage ceremony, a clergyman says that "The marriage cannot go on: [and he] [declares] the existence of an impediment." (Bronte 440). That "impediment" turns out to be the existence of another Mrs. Rochester, one living in Thornsfield to Jane's surprise.
These events prompt Jane to leave Thornsfield, where she meets the Rivers family, and becomes a schoolteacher. She finds out that the Rivers are actually her cousins, and when her uncle dies, they all receive a part of the inheritance. St. John Rivers, one of her cousins, aspires to be a missionary to India, and wants to take jane with him. The problem is, he wants to marry her, but she has absolutely no romantic interest in him. As she puts it, "the intimacy which had arisen so naturally and rapidly between me and his sisters did not extend to him" which as she eventually finds out, is for her own good. Staying true to the theme, St. John has his own secrets, which Jane unearths, discovering that he actually loves a different girl, he just assumes that she wouldn't do as a missionaries wife.
In this book, we see many examples of how the truth always comes out. In her visit to a dying Mrs. Reed, Jane forgives Mrs. Reed, as in a rant of delirium, Jane finally discovers the truth of why Mrs. Reed hated her. We see Jane discovering Mr. Rochester's wife, but eventually the whole truth of how it was a wedding for money and how Mrs. Rochester had set the fires in the first place came to light. The truth about St. John's love interest also became apparent and in the end, Jane decides to marry Mr. Rochester after his wife died in her own fire, leaving him without a hand and an eye, and blind in his other eye. Jane nurses him back to health as he regains his sight thus concluding the story, with every mystery uncovered, the truth becoming apparent. Jane Eyre is all about how even in the midst of the confusion and lies, the truth will always come out in the end.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “Jane Eyre.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/jane-eyre/.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Planet EBook, Planet eBook, www.planetebook.com/jane-eyre/.