Quotation:
When Jane seeks Mr. Rochester out at Ferndean Manor, knowing he is blind, she tells Mary “When you go in [to Mr. Rochester’s parlor], […] tell your master that a person wishes to speak to him: but do not give my name” (533). Mary does as Jane requests and returns to her relaying that Mr. Rochester wants to know “your name and your business.” Jane doesn’t submit to this request, but she notices Mary preparing a tray of candles and water for Mr. Rochester and says “Give the tray to me: I will carry it in.” Jane proceeds to pretend she is Mary until Mr. Rochester, hearing commotion upon Jane entering the parlor asks “This is you, Mary, is it not?” to which Jane replies “Mary is in the kitchen” (534).
Comment:
I thought this scene was interesting because it has some similarities to when Mr. Rochester tricked Jane by dressing up as a fortune teller. The most obvious similarity is that they each pretended to be someone they weren’t in order to gauge the other’s reaction. When Mr. Rochester acted as a fortune teller, he was trying to get Jane to reveal if she had feelings for him because he wouldn’t have reliably been able to do so as her master. Similarly, Jane acted as Mary which was to get her close enough to Mr. Rochester to find out if he still cared for her. I think it’s important to note that both events shifted the power dynamic within the duo: Mr. Rochester made himself a figure that Jane would have no problem revealing her secrets to, giving him more power in the relationship then, while Jane got the upper hand in this scene by catching Mr. Rochester off guard by relying on his blindness to avoid immediate detection.
Question:
Jane becomes much stronger and more independent after she leaves Thornfield, so I wonder if Mr. Rochester hadn’t been blinded, would Jane have held as much of the power in their relationship when she eventually returned to him?
