Jane Eyre
Scene #5 · Chapter 15
Jane awakens in the night to hear a demonic laugh outside her door and discovers smoke filling the hallway. She rushes into Rochester's bedroom to find the bed curtains on fire and Rochester unconscious, stupefied by smoke. Jane frantically douses the flames with water from basins and her own water jug, soaking Rochester and the bed completely. When Rochester awakens confused and drenched, Jane explains what happened, and he investigates the third story before returning to confirm his suspicions about Grace Poole. As Jane prepares to leave, Rochester takes her hand and refuses to let her go easily, calling her his 'cherished preserver' and expressing that he knew she would do him good from the moment he first saw her.
This dramatic rescue creates an intense bond between Jane and Rochester, shifting their relationship from employer-employee to something far more intimate and emotionally charged. Rochester's reluctance to release Jane's hand and his passionate gratitude reveal his growing feelings for her, while Jane's sleepless night afterward, tossed between 'billows of trouble' and 'surges of joy,' confirms her own awakening romantic feelings. The mysterious fire and Rochester's protection of Grace Poole deepens the Gothic mystery surrounding Thornfield's secrets.
You have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt. I cannot say more. Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of creditor for such an obligation: but you: it is different;—I feel your benefits no burden, Jane.
Chapter 15 · Edward Rochester
Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.
Chapter 15 · Narrator
This was a demoniac laugh—low, suppressed, and deep—uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber door.
Chapter 15 · Narrator
"Wake! wake!" I cried. I shook him, but he only murmured and turned: the smoke had stupefied him.
Chapter 15 · Narrator