# Jane Eyre — Character guide

> Key figures in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

- [Jane Eyre](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/jane_eyre.md): Raised on charity and contempt at Gateshead, then schooled through hardship at Lowood, Jane grows into a governess whose outward quietness hides a hungry, judging, deeply feeling self. Her central struggle is between the
- [Mr. Rochester](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/edward_rochester.md): Rochester is a wealthy, restless gentleman who seems to find in his plain governess the one person he can actually talk to, testing her with riddles, confessions, and sudden tenderness. He is proud, sardonic, and used to
- [St. John Rivers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/st_john_rivers.md): St. John is a young minister of rigid principle and glacial self-control, driven by ambition to do great missionary work and unable to see why anyone should refuse the sacrifice he demands of himself. He offers Jane fami
- [Mrs. Reed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mrs_reed.md): Mrs. Reed presides over Gateshead Hall with a favorite-child's favoritism and a settled dislike of the small, questioning girl left in her care, excluding Jane from the family circle and punishing her for not being lovab
- [Helen Burns](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/helen_burns.md): Helen Burns is a scholarship girl at Lowood, brilliant, untidy, and habitually punished, who meets cruelty with forgiveness and speaks of heaven as if it were a place she already knows. Where Jane burns with grievance an
- [Miss Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/miss_temple.md): Miss Temple runs Lowood with a dignity that survives its harsh conditions, and when Jane is publicly branded a liar, she listens to the child's account and clears her before the school. She offers Jane the first adult ki
- [Bertha Mason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/bertha_mason.md): Bertha Mason lives hidden behind a locked door on Thornfield's third floor, tended by Grace Poole while her husband plays the restless master below. Her strange laugh, her violence, and the servants' frightened whispers 
- [Adèle Varens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/adele_varens.md): Adèle arrives at Thornfield as a child of Paris, the daughter of a dancer Rochester once loved, and she treats Jane as both teacher and friend. Her endless talk and theatrical affection contrast with the house's cold cor
- [Mrs. Fairfax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mrs_fairfax.md): Mrs. Fairfax manages Thornfield with quiet competence and assumes Jane has come to teach, not to befriend her employer. She is warm, a little lonely, and fond of small talk, and she offers Jane the ordinary decency Gates
- [Blanche Ingram](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/blanche_ingram.md): Blanche Ingram arrives with her grand family to be courted by Rochester, and she performs elegance like a profession. She is proud, quick to mock, and openly contemptuous of governesses, which makes her a mirror for ever
- [Diana Rivers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/diana_rivers.md): Diana Rivers lives with her sister Mary and brother St. John in a modest parsonage, reading, teaching, and speaking her mind without apology. She takes Jane in as a stranger and treats her as an equal, offering the intel
- [Mary Rivers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mary_rivers.md): Mary Rivers shares the parsonage with Diana and St. John, less talkative than her sister but no less kind to the half-starved stranger they take in. She keeps the house running, reads, and offers Jane the unshowy accepta
- [John Reed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/john_reed.md): Jane's bullying cousin at Gateshead who later dies by suicide.
- [Georgiana Reed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/georgiana_reed.md): Jane's vain and beautiful cousin at Gateshead.
- [Eliza Reed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/eliza_reed.md): Jane's cold, religious cousin who becomes a nun.
- [Bessie Lee](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/bessie_lee.md): Kind nursemaid at Gateshead who shows Jane affection.
- [Mr. Brocklehurst](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mr_brocklehurst.md): Hypocritical clergyman who runs Lowood School harshly.
- [Grace Poole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/grace_poole.md): Servant who guards Bertha Mason in the attic at Thornfield.
- [Mr. Mason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/richard_mason.md): Bertha's brother who reveals her existence at the wedding.
- [Céline Varens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/celeine_varens.md): French opera singer and Rochester's former mistress, Adèle's mother.
- [Rosamond Oliver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/rosamond_oliver.md): Beautiful heiress whom St. John loves but refuses to marry.
- [Mr. Lloyd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mr_lloyd.md): Apothecary who treats Jane at Gateshead and arranges her schooling.
- [Miss Scatcherd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/miss_scatcherd.md): Harsh teacher at Lowood who punishes Helen Burns.
- [Pilot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/pilot.md): Rochester's loyal dog who accompanies him throughout the story.
- [Abbot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/abbot.md): Servant at Gateshead who assists Mrs. Reed.
- [Mary Ann Wilson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mary_ann_wilson.md): Jane's friend at Lowood School.
- [Frederick Lynn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/frederick_lynn.md): Guest at Thornfield Hall during Rochester's party.
- [Mr. Oliver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/mr_oliver.md): Rosamond's wealthy father who lives near Morton.
- [Hannah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/hannah.md): Servant at the Rivers' house who initially distrusts Jane.
- [Carlo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters/carlo.md): Pilot's companion dog at Thornfield.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jane_eyre_se/characters