John Eyre

John Eyre, Jane Eyre's paternal uncle, is a figure whose existence is barely known to her for most of her childhood, yet whose actions—both attempted and thwarted—decisively shape the course of her life. A wine merchant based in Madeira, he represents the only branch of Jane's family that might have offered her a home and belonging, but his efforts are intercepted by the malice of Mrs. Reed, and his eventual death leaves Jane a fortune that secures her independence and reunites her with her newly discovered cousins.

Identity and Background

John Eyre is the brother of Jane's father, a poor clergyman who died of typhus fever after marrying against the wishes of his wife's family. Jane learns of his existence only indirectly: when she asks Mrs. Reed about her father's relatives, she is told she "might have some poor, low relations called Eyre, but she knew nothing about them." Years later, Bessie Leaven reveals that a Mr. Eyre—"quite a gentleman" and believed to be Jane's father's brother—came to Gateshead Hall nearly seven years earlier, hoping to see Jane, but was told she was at school fifty miles away. He was on his way to a foreign country, and the ship was to sail from London in a day or two; the butler mentioned the destination as an island where they make wine, which Jane correctly guesses to be Madeira. Mrs. Reed dismissed him afterward as a "sneaking tradesman," and Bessie's husband believed he was a wine-merchant.

The Thwarted Adoption

The most consequential act of John Eyre's life concerning Jane is a letter he wrote to Mrs. Reed three years before Jane discovers it. In it, he states that Providence has blessed his endeavours to secure a competency, and being unmarried and childless, he wishes to adopt Jane during his life and bequeath her whatever he may have at his death. He requests Mrs. Reed to send him Jane's address and tell him how she is. Mrs. Reed, however, never delivers this letter to Jane. On her deathbed, she confesses that she could not forget Jane's childhood defiance—the fury with which Jane once turned on her—and took her revenge by writing back to John Eyre that Jane was dead, having died of typhus fever at Lowood. This deception, Mrs. Reed admits, was a deed that racked her last hour with recollection.

The Legacy

John Eyre dies, and his will leaves his entire fortune—twenty thousand pounds—to his brother's orphan daughter, Jane Eyre. The news reaches Jane through Mr. Briggs, the solicitor, who communicates with St. John Rivers after advertisements for Jane appear in the papers. St. John, who has taken Jane in under the alias Jane Elliott, discovers her true identity when he finds a slip of paper bearing the name "Jane Eyre" in her own handwriting. The inheritance transforms Jane from a destitute village schoolmistress into an independent woman. True to her character, she insists on dividing the twenty thousand pounds equally among herself, St. John, Diana, and Mary Rivers, discovering in the process that they are her cousins—John Eyre being the brother of their mother as well as of Jane's father.

Significance

John Eyre's legacy does more than provide Jane with financial security; it gives her the family she has never had. The wealth allows her to return to the now-blind and crippled Mr. Rochester as an equal, not a dependent, and to marry him on her own terms. The discovery of her kinship with the Rivers siblings fills the void of isolation that has haunted her since childhood. John Eyre himself never appears in the novel's action, but his attempted kindness, Mrs. Reed's cruel suppression of it, and his posthumous generosity form a crucial arc in Jane's journey from orphaned poverty to self-possessed independence.