Jane Eyre Ch. 20: The Mystery of the Third Floor

Charlotte Brontë

The Mystery of the Third Floor

0:00

0:00 / 0:00

0:00

Summary

Jane wakes to moonlight and is jolted by a savage scream from the third floor, followed by struggle and a voice crying for Rochester. The house erupts. Rochester appears from above with a candle and tells the panicked guests it is a mere rehearsal of Much Ado about Nothing: an excitable servant had a nightmare. He sends everyone back to bed. Jane does not believe him. She dresses and waits by her window until the house falls silent. Rochester taps at her door, leads her quietly to the third storey, and asks whether she can bear the sight of blood. Behind a concealed door Grace Poole laughs; Rochester speaks to her briefly, then shows Jane Mason sitting pale in a chair, his arm and clothing soaked in blood. Rochester tends him, then leaves Jane alone with Mason for one or two hours with strict orders: sponge the blood, use the salts if he faints, and speak to him on no pretext. Mason must not speak to her either. Jane spends the night locked in that room, a murderess separated from her only by a door, watching the wounded man and the apostles on the tapestry while listening for Grace Poole.

At dawn Rochester returns with the surgeon Carter. Mason murmurs that she has done for him. Carter finds the shoulder torn by teeth, not knife. Mason says she bit and worried him like a tigress when Rochester got the knife from her; she sucked the blood and said she would drain his heart. Rochester shudders and forbids him to repeat her words. He sends Jane on errands for shirt, cloak, and cordial, then has Mason dressed and helped into a waiting post-chaise before the household wakes. Mason weeps and begs Rochester to let her be treated tenderly. Rochester bars the gates and calls Jane into the orchard.

He calls Thornfield a dungeon and the garden real. He offers her a rose, asks whether she was afraid when left with Mason, and says she was safe because he had the key. Jane asks whether Grace Poole will stay and whether his life is secure. He says he lives on a crater-crust that may crack any day; Mason might unintentionally destroy his happiness with one careless word. He cannot warn Mason because Mason must remain ignorant that harm is possible. He calls Jane his little friend and says she has power over him too, yet he dare not show where he is vulnerable. In the arbour he puts a hypothetical case: a repentant man who has committed a capital error abroad seeks reformation through a gentle stranger and asks whether custom may be overleaped. Jane answers that reformation must not depend on a fellow-creature; the sinner must look higher than his equals. Rochester begins to say he has found the instrument for his cure in, then breaks off. His tone turns harsh: she has noticed his tender penchant for Miss Ingram; would marriage to her regenerate him? He sends Jane in by the shrubbery as guests appear, and calls out cheerfully that Mason got the start of them all and was gone before sunrise.

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Trusting a Night You Do Not Understand

Being asked to guard harm you cannot name is a test of judgment, not loyalty alone. Jane sits through the night with the wounded Mason while Grace Poole laughs behind the door, hears Mason say she bit him, and later walks the orchard where Rochester nearly confesses then sends her in with a false story for the guests.

Comply carefully when you lack full information and to note every detail for the reckoning that follows.

Coming Up in Chapter 21

Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key. I never laughed at presentiments in my l.

PreviousPrevious Chapter NextNext Chapter

Original text

5,757 wordscomplete

Chapter 20

The Mystery of the Third Floor

I had forgotten to draw my curtain, which I usually did, and also to let down my window-blind. The consequence was, that when the moon, which was full and bright (for the night was fine), came in her course to that space in the sky opposite my casement, and looked in at me through the unveiled panes, her glorious gaze roused me. Awaking in the dead of night, I opened my eyes on her disk—silver-white and crystal clear. It was beautiful, but too solemn: I half rose, and stretched my arm to draw the curtain. Good God! What a cry!…

Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.

Critical Thinking Exercise

Analyse the power dynamics in this chapter. Consider how Rochester uses his authority to control the narrative, how the guests' social position affects their response, and how Jane's lower status paradoxically gives her clearer insight into the truth.

Master this chapter. Complete your experience

Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature

Buy at

Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats

Villette

Charlotte Brontë

Also by Charlotte Brontë

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

Explores identity & self

Far from the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy

Explores identity & self

Northanger Abbey

Jane Austen

Explores identity & self

Identity & Self-Discovery

Lessons from Jane Eyre

Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.

Deep diving the literary elements.

The Mystery of the Third Floor

Summary