Chapters 36 to 38: Ferndean — OCR GCSE English Literature J352
OCR GCSE English Literature · J352
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.
OCR's question on this novel is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the novel elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the novel, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts when it is relevant to the question, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
