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60 free Jane Eyre trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Jane Eyre trivia quiz walks through all five stages of Charlotte Brontë's novel: the red room at Gateshead, the cold dormitories of Lowood, the governess years at Thornfield Hall, the near-starvation on the moors and the return to a blinded Rochester. Plot questions cover the horse on the ice, the fire in the bedroom, the torn veil, the interrupted wedding, the inheritance from an uncle in the West Indies and the voice calling across the miles. Beyond the story there are questions on how the book was made and received: the Currer Bell pseudonym, the publisher who took it after The Professor was rejected, the dedication to Thackeray, the reviewer who called it anti-Christian, the real school where two of Charlotte's sisters caught the illness that killed them, and the Derbyshire house behind Thornfield. Later questions reach Wide Sargasso Sea, The Madwoman in the Attic, Orson Welles, Timothy Dalton and the 2011 film. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the novel, its author, its characters and its adaptations, and each explanation adds one detail worth remembering. It suits book clubs, English literature students and anyone who has ever muttered 'Reader, I married him.'
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Under what pen name was Jane Eyre first published in 1847?
Currer Bell
The three Brontë sisters kept their initials: Charlotte was Currer, Emily was Ellis and Anne was Acton.
Q 02In which year was Jane Eyre first published?
1847
Charlotte's first novel had been rejected; she sent this second manuscript to a different publisher in August 1847 and it appeared within two months.
Q 03Which London firm published the first edition?
Smith, Elder & Co.
Charlotte later corresponded so warmly with the firm's young head that historians have wondered whether she was in love with him.
Q 04What subtitle did the novel carry on its original title page?
An Autobiography
The framing let readers take the first-person narrator at her word, and several early reviewers were sure the author was a man.
Q 05How old is Jane when the novel opens?
10
She is nineteen or twenty at the end of the main story, and about thirty when the final chapter is written, ten years into her marriage.
Q 06What is the name of the house where Jane spends her unhappy childhood with her aunt and cousins?
Gateshead Hall
She lives there only because of her dying uncle's wish; his widow treats her as a burden.
Q 07What is the surname of the aunt and cousins Jane lives with as a child?
Reed
The bullying son John later ruins himself with drink and gambling, a decline modelled on Charlotte's brother Branwell.
Q 08Jane's parents died of which disease?
Typhus
Charlotte probably imagined Manchester Cathedral churchyard as their burial place, having begun the novel in that city.
Q 09As punishment for fighting back against the bullying John, where is Jane locked?
The red room
Her uncle died in that room, and she faints in terror believing she has seen his ghost.
Q 10Which kindly apothecary suggests that Jane should be sent away to school?
Mr Lloyd
He later writes to the school's superintendent confirming Jane's account of her childhood, which clears her of the charge of lying.
Q 11What is the name of the charity school for girls that Jane is sent to?
Lowood
Fees were fifteen pounds a year, which was not enough for board and teaching, so the pupils counted as 'charity children'.
Q 12Who is the harsh clergyman who runs Jane's school and brands her a liar in front of the pupils?
Mr Brocklehurst
He is based on the Rev. William Carus Wilson, the Evangelical minister who ran the real school Charlotte attended as a child.
Q 13Which older girl becomes Jane's best friend at school and teaches her not to bear grudges?
Helen Burns
Elizabeth Gaskell wrote that the character was 'an exact transcript' of Charlotte's sister Maria, who died aged 11.
Q 21How does Jane first meet Mr Rochester?
His horse slips on ice and throws him
He teases her afterwards, accusing her of having bewitched his horse.
Q 22What is Mr Rochester's first name?
Edward
Critics treat him as the archetypal Byronic hero: brooding, secretive and quick to spar with Jane.
Q 23Jane saves Rochester's life one night by doing what?
Throwing water on his burning bed
Charlotte had already drafted a scene of a wife setting fire to bed curtains in a homemade magazine in 1830, when she was 14.
Q 14Jane's school friend dies in her arms of which illness?
Consumption
An epidemic sweeps the school at the same time, and the resulting scandal finally exposes the director's maltreatment of the pupils.
Q 15Who is the caring superintendent of the school who publicly clears Jane's name?
Miss Temple
She eventually marries a clergyman and leaves, which is part of what prompts Jane to seek a post as a governess.
Q 16How many pupils are at the school when Jane arrives?
80
They endure cold rooms, poor meals and thin clothing until benefactors erect a new building and install a management committee.
Q 17Counting her years as both pupil and teacher, how long does Jane spend at the school in total?
Eight
Six as a pupil and two as a teacher, after which she advertises for a governess post in a newspaper.
Q 18What is the name of the young French girl Jane is hired to teach?
Adèle Varens
Emma Tennant later wrote a whole novel reimagining her back story and asked whether she really was Rochester's child.
Q 19What was the profession of Jane's pupil's absent mother?
Dancer
Rochester says she abandoned the child and 'ran away to Italy with a musician or singer'; he doubts the girl is his.
Q 20Who is the elderly housekeeper who answers Jane's advertisement and runs Rochester's household?
Mrs Fairfax
She is a distant relation of the Rochesters; Rochester later sends her into retirement after Jane flees.
Q 24Which servant does Rochester blame for the strange laughter and other odd happenings in the house?
Grace Poole
She is really a well-paid nurse guarding his hidden wife, and her drinking is what lets the prisoner escape.
Q 25Which beautiful, snobbish socialite does Rochester pretend to court to make Jane jealous?
Blanche Ingram
He exposes her family's mercenary motives by spreading a rumour that he is far less wealthy than they imagine.
Q 26While guests are staying, Rochester disguises himself as what in order to question Jane alone?
A gypsy fortune-teller
He is also said to have a 'mellow, powerful bass' singing voice, which he shows off at his own parties.
Q 27What does a strange woman rip in two in Jane's room shortly before the ceremony?
Her wedding veil
It is the last of the ominous signs; on the wedding day itself a lawyer and a visitor stop the ceremony.
Q 28What is the name of Rochester's first wife, hidden on the third floor of his house?
Bertha
She is kept on the third floor for ten years, and Rochester says three generations of her family succumbed to madness.
Q 29Where did Rochester marry his first wife?
Jamaica
Her family lived in Spanish Town; Rochester says his father pushed him into the match for her money and never mentioned the madness in her family.
Q 30Which house-guest is attacked and bitten one night, and later steps forward to halt Jane's wedding?
Richard Mason
He is the hidden wife's brother; he learned of the wedding through Jane's own uncle, a family friend, after Jane wrote to share her happy news.