Dreams and Love in Jane Eyre

Dreams are a major theme in chapter twenty-five of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.  Throughout the novel Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester's relationship has been complex, to say the least.  Tensions rise until Jane finally confesses her love to Mr. Rochester who surprisingly proposes marriage to her soon after her confession.  Chapter twenty-five begins on the night before the wedding.  Jane awaits Mr. Rochester's return to Thornfield Hall and once he finally arrives she expresses her worry and explains her ultimate worry that Mr. Rochester himself was a dream.  He calms her down though and assures her that he is not a dream by asking her to touch him although she says, "...though I touch it, it is a dream."

Jane goes on to reveal to him strange things that had recently happened to her.

The First Dream
Jane describes a dream that she experienced where she carried a crying child in her arms while following a winding road in the rain.  In the distance, she thought she could see Rochester, but she could not get his attention and as a result, he moved farther and farther away.

This dream obviously reflects Jane's fear that Rochester's marriage proposal was not real.  Prior to sleeping, Jane had received her wedding dress and along with it her husband-to-be included a delicate veil as a gift.  Upon seeing this veil, Jane grew worrisome that she was not fit to wear such a beautiful piece of clothing and that she would never be enough for Mr. Rochester.  Additionally, I believe that the child she carries represents her own childhood and the crying indicates the struggles she has had to endure.  The winding road acts as her path of her life and what she desires, Mr. Rochester, is at the end of that road.  In this case, however, Jane's fears take over when Mr. Rochester slowly fades away.

The Second Dream
Jane continues to tell Mr. Rochester about another dream in which Thornfield Hall sat in ruin and Jane wandered through the enclosure with an unknown child still in her arms, clinging to her neck.  At the sound of hooves, she climbed a wall to get a last look at Mr. Rochester.  While attempting to climb, however, Jane loses her balance and the child falls from her arms.

Jane was so disturbed by this dream that she woke.  Upon waking, Jane is in a hypnopompic state.  Her blurred vision saw that candlelight still lit up the room and she heard rustling from the closet where she had placed her wedding dress.  Jane called out only to see the tall figure of a mysterious woman with long hair emerge.  The figure put Jane's veil atop her head and later proceeded to destroy the delicate wedding veil.  Before exiting through the door, the figure held up the candlelight to Jane's face and then blew it out, causing Jane to lose consciousness.

Jane believes the vision she perceived to be real.  Mr. Rochester, however, disagrees and compares her visions to her previous nightmares.  He questions her hypnopompic state until Jane states that the remnants of the veil remained as evidence of the terrifying experience.  Upon hearing that, Mr. Rochester agrees that someone must have occupied the room but blames the whole thing on Grace Poole, a mysterious house servant.

When I first read this novel, I agreed with Mr. Rochester.  I thought Jane was too caught up in her fears surrounding her relationship with Mr. Rochester and their marriage that she must be imagining things.  The fact that she had just woken up from a strange nightmare seemed to be the perfect explanation - she must be in the hypnopompic state confusing her dreams for reality.  At the mention of the veil, however, I grew skeptical and wanted to know more.

Mr. Rochester's odd, doubtful reaction is later explained when it is revealed that the dark figure in Jane's room was actually his mentally unstable wife, Bertha Mason, whom he was hiding.  Her dream scene functioned not only as a terrifying ghost story, but also as a foreshadowing detail.  Bertha destroyed the veil because it reminded her of her own wedding to Mr. Rochester, a vow which he refused to acknowledge.  She also examined Jane's face by candlelight most likely to compare his new love interest to herself.  The fact that the figure appeared after Jane's strange nightmares indicates that her subconscious was not far off because Mr. Rochester was no longer part of her life once she discovered that he was a married man.  The hypnopompic state that Jane experienced was confusing at first, but actually indicated a transfer of Jane's dreams from her imagination into the real world.  Jane's previous fears turned out to be real. being married to Mr. Rochester was too good to be true.  He remained a dream to her, but not because of anything she could have ever expected or imagined.