What does the ending of

Jane Eyre mean?

For many readers, “the blackened ruin” which

Jane finds when she returns to Thornfield, and the

blinded, scorched and charred Rochester she

seeks out at Ferndean, represent the vanquishing

of the novel’s sexual energies. “Mr Rochester’s sex

passion is not ‘respectable’,” said D.H. Lawrence,

“till Mr Rochester is burned, blinded, disfigured

and reduced to helpless dependence.