Chapters XX-XXII

In these chapters, the reader sees quite the change in Jane, and how she has grown up throughout the novel. When she is called back to Gateshead at the request of the dying Mrs. Reed, Jane readily returns to the place that had previously given her so many hardships. The last time we saw Jane at Gateshead, she was fiery and angry at every injustice. For example, when provoked by John, Jane shrieks “‘Wicked and cruel boy!’ I said. ‘You are like a murderer – you are like a slave-driver – you are like the Roman emperors!’” (Bronte 13).  When John was being nasty, Jane tended to revolt and sink to his level. This is in stark contrast to how Jane acts upon her return to Gateshead. Though her cousins still treat Jane with disrespect, especially when she first arrives, Janes notes “[Their] sneer, however, whether covert or open, had now no longer that power over me it once possessed…” (264). Even though her cousins have not grown out of their malevolent attitude, Jane does not feel any bitterness towards them and even realizes she simply does not care that they do not like her. Long gone is the spiteful girl who left Gateshead at age ten–Jane returns as a changed, forgiving young woman. Jane has matured immensely throughout the novel, but nowhere is it clearer than in these chapters.