In her preface to the second edition of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë   wrote: "Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion.... Appearance should not be mistaken for truth." What are some examples of these precepts in Jane Eyre?

Research the treatment of mental illness around the time of Jane Eyre. What ideas did doctors of Charlotte Brontë ' s time have about the causes of mental illness? How did society in general regard people with this kind of disease? How might someone like Bertha Mason be treated today?

As a younger son, Rochester would not have in herited his father's estate; the estate would first have gone to Rochester's older brother. Under English law at the time of Jane Eyre, property passed only to the oldest son; therefore, younger sons were usually left little money and had to make...