Chapters 36 to 38: Ferndean — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Chapters 36 to 38: Ferndean
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Thornfield in ruins, the news of Bertha's death and Rochester's injuries, the reunion at Ferndean, the marriage, and Jane's account of the ten years since.
Key quotations: 'Thornfield Hall is quite a ruin', 'a blackened ruin', 'he is stone-blind', 'Am I hideous, Jane?', 'Quite rich, sir', 'I asked of God, at once in anguish and humility', 'Reader, I married him', 'My Edward and I, then, are happy'.
Structure: the ending's echoes of Thornfield, from the chestnut tree split by lightning to a second proposal, and the novel's last words given to St John.
How the marriage is now one of equals: Jane independent and rich, Rochester humbled and dependent on her.
Edexcel's novel question has two parts, and neither marks context: part (a) on the printed extract marks language, form and structure (AO2); part (b) on the novel elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1), not language analysis. Use context only where it explains a reading, and say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
