This assignment provides additional practice at making conceptual connections between pieces of information that may not be directly or even obviously related and using those connections to enrich our understanding of the novel.

1. Go online and access the Victorian Web. At the overview page of the Victorian Web, click on "Social History," then "Anti-Irish Prejudice." How does this information about English attitudes to the Irish influence our interpretation of the passage in which Rochester informs Jane he will obtain a new job for her:

I consider that when a dependant does her duty as well as you have done yours, she has a sort of claim upon her employer for any little assistance he can conveniently render her; indeed I have already, through my future mother-in-law, heard of a place that I think will suit: it is to undertake the education of the five daughters of Mrs. Dionysius O’Gall of Bitternutt Lodge, Connaught, Ireland. You’ll like Ireland, I think: they’re such warm-hearted people there, they say. (250)

2. Read the paragraph beginning "All this was torture to me" (401), Jane's account of how St. John's treatment of her makes her feel after she rejects his proposal. Explain the various ways in which the language of this paragraph is related to imagery and themes encountered throughout the novel. Then go to the "Hedonism and Asceticism Overview" of Charlotte's Web and read the various essays that have to do with asceticism. Analyze this paragraph in light of the information and arguments made there.

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