ice. Feeling “officious,” Jane bravely offers her help and meets the man who will become her love. It seems that almost every good thing in Jane Eyre occurs outdoors. When Jane and Rochester first reveal their true feelings of love to one another they are in a garden – surrounded by nature. Nature, on the same fateful night, warns Rochester and Jane of the obstacles their love will have to overcome, a chestnut tree in the garden is split by lightning. This omen proves true and Rochester remembers the warning: “I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut tree in Thornfield’s orchard, and what right would that ruin have to bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness” (425; Ch.37)? Jane reassures Rochester: “You are no ruin sir – no lightning- struck tree: you are green and vigorous” (425;Ch.37). When Jane leaves, Rochester becomes distraught. Fittingly, Rochester’s surroundings reflect his feelings. Jane notices on her way to visit Rochester that “There were no flowers, no garden-beds; only a broad gravel walk girdling a grass plot . . . ‘quite a desolate spot’” (412; Ch.37). When Rochester sees Jane again and the two vow to love and live together always, Rochester regains his natural vigor: “The sky is no longer a blank to him – the earth no longer a void” (432; Ch.38). Jane and Rochester, seeming to understand their Edwards 5relationship and dependence with nature, accept it. Jane tells Rochester toward the novel’s end, “we will go home through the wood; that will be the shadiest way” (427; Ch.37). This statement recognizes nature’s importance in their lives and seems to acknowledge that for them the natural way is the most honest, pleasing, and fitting way....
