Pointed Lace

I think Jane did socialize more with the Rivers than she did at Thornfield because the Rivers might seem more her “type”. However, Rochester was her "type" too in terms of intellect and emotional balance. Jane is unique because we cannot assign her a single specific niche or identity. In this sense, she is isolated. She is different from everyone else, and through the course of the book, we see her in different settings that highlights her individuality and distinguishe her from everyone else. Even by the end of the book, we can’t assign her to a particular class. In the first chapter, we know that Jane is poised between different “worlds”, or different ways of life because she is sitting on the windowsill facing the world outside while behind her is Gateshead’s torment. She is in two places at once, symbolically. Though Lowood's strict religious rules oppressed her, she refused to yield to them, and maintained her sense of imagination and independence of mind. In Thornfield, although she is a governess, a class which is next to being that of a slave, her intellectual potential and accomplishments place her in a much higher class, even that above people such as the Ingrams. Rochester is drawn to her precisely because she is that much different from anyone else, an eclectic mix of sorts that defies classification. In Moor House, although she makes friends with and grows to love the Rivers sisters, their religious beliefs don't exactly mesh with her own. She is much more passionate than any of them. Reading that segment, even I could sense the fire in Jane’s nature that contrasts with the placid calm of the Rivers sisters. So basically, she is isolated because is in a class of her own.

I somehow did not get the impression that they socialized much in Thornfield. I mean besides that visit by the Ingrams, we don’t really know how much they socialized or if they socialized much at all. Rochester was used to doing so before he moved to Thornfied after the arrival of Jane, but it is not evident if he socialized much afterwards. Being a member of the gentry, it is possible that he could have attended neighborhood balls. However, it was nearly impossible for Jane to socialize much because of her position as governess. She would not have fitted in either the lower class or the upper class. Jane could be herself, i.e. Jane Eyre, in a place that is like her, in other words, a place that is isolated.

When I read the whole Thornfield episode in the book, I always got the impression that the place was isolated, and the absence of mention of neighbors or balls (in contrast to Austen’s novels), just gave me the sense that Jane (if not Rochester) felt isolated there. I also think that feeling "isolated" is also a part of Jane's nature. If you look at Chapter 12, from the paragraph that starts with the quote “Anyone may blame me who likes when I add further……”, and the next paragraph that starts with the quote “Who blames me? Many no doubt; and I shall be called to …” and the rest of that page talks about how Jane felt so restless in Thornfield, she wanted more “action” and less “tranquility”.

To me, tranquility is synonymous with the isolated nature of Thornfield and Jane’s position as governess. She yearned for more. So did Rochester, he wanted more than what women in his class possessed. He found his equal in Jane. This is why I would say that because of Thornfield’s physically isolated postion, and also the absence (by Bronte) of mention of much socialization, that Jane and Rochester’s isolation in Thornfield drew them together. Even if you say that people came in and out of Thornfield, both Rochester and Jane must have felt “isolated”, i.e. alone, because they were both characters who could not really be classified into “one” type, more so in the case of Jane.