The title of this blog entry is a small excerpt taken from a poem, "Continuities," by the great poet and journalist, Walt Whitman. The verse read:
"The body, sluggish, aged, cold-- the embers left from earlier fires;
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again."
I must give Mr. Whitman his due. I love his poems, and I felt this particular title was appropriate, given the decision we readers know Miss Jane Moore must now make, as this book reaches its climax. Will the abiding love she feels for Mr. Rathburn win the day, and will she return to Thornfield Park in an attempt to renew her relationship with him? Or, will logic and reason rule the day, and will she stay with River St. Johns, doing humanitarian and philanthropic work for the remainder of her days?
These final two chapters begin by Jane describing that essentially River attempts to use guilt as a tactic for enticing Jane to come to Haiti with him. He keeps providing her with more and more books about the lives, conditions, and work that is waiting there for them to do in order to save these poor people. Jane relays how each book is slightly more heart-wrenching and horrifically sad than the previous. Eventually, she gives in, despite Diana's counsel and desperate pleas for Jane not to go with River on this journey. Jane is left feeling as though she needs a change, and that, further, it would serve her well to make a significant difference in the lives of others. She decides it would be purposeful to go with River. I think what Jane loses sight of is that many of the lives that could use changing are right within her line of sight. I think that is true of many of us. We seem to have blinders on, looking right past people we could help within our sphere of influence, gazing past them onto what we deem to be greater works or deeds of kindness. Sometimes you need to look at what is right in front of your eyes. I believe that, at this time, the people who need Jane's love and influence in their lives are those closest to her, both in her heart and nearby to her, locally. These would be people such as Diana, Maria, and, yes, also Nico Rathburn. She has changed their lives already, creating love, comfort and joy where previously those things were lacking in some way. She has, in this moment, allowed River to put proverbial "horse blinders" on her, convincing her that she will only be able to live a meaningful life if she joins him on this humanitarian trip to Haiti.
When Jane informs River one evening that she has made the decision to go to, he hugs her and then kisses her. Previously, Jane was feeling that this was something she wanted to happen, but now, as it happens, she realizes that this is not what she wants. It does not feel right to her, and she almost immediately feels very uncomfortable with River, especially in this type of relationship. She openly tells him that she knows he does not love her, and, further, she does not love him. River does not even remotely try to object to those statements. Instead, he tells her that overtime they might begin to feel love, because they will have no one but one another in Haiti to turn to. Wow! Major romance going on there! (Sarcasm written all over that). She leaves, and tells River she needs time to go think about what she is feeling and whether she can go with him or not. While away, Jane tries to convince herself that this is still the right thing for her and that she is just being foolish, wanting love from him. Then, suddenly, a song comes on the radio, and, of course, it is one of Nico's. It is a new song that he has written. The song is about Jane! He sings about her "being his hands and his vision." This is obviously another subtle reference to "Jane Eyre." In that novel, Mr. Edward Rochester loses his hand and his sight after a terrible fire occurs at his mansion, started by his crazy wife. After the song ends, Jane hears about a premier of his movie happening at the movie theater not too far from her. She asks a taxi driver to take her there. While on the ride, the taxi driver begins to discuss Nico Rathburn with her. He tells her that he feels bad for Nico, and Jane begins to become very worried. She abruptly asks if he is dead. The driver responds that Nico is not dead, and, hearing these words, relief suddenly washes over her and she forgets to listen to much of anything else the cab driver tells her.
Jane gets out of the cab at the cinema, goes in to watch the movie, and sees that it is a documentary. Naturally, she sees her own story playing out on the screen. The quick engagement, the crazy wife, the fleeing, the search party for her, etc. She begins to feel bad and realizes what she truly did to Nico Rathburn and how very much she hurt him. Towards the end of the movie, Jane discovers another tragedy has occurred. Thornfield Park has burned down, in the same manner as it did in the classic novel, "Jane Eyre." Nico's ex-wife, Bibi, is now dead, and Nico Rathburn crushed his hand in the process of trying to save her. Jane leaves the cinema feeling overwrought with sadness, realizing that she must return immediately to see Nico. This was the sign she was awaiting!
Jane returns home to tell River she cannot go with him to Haiti, and he pleads with Jane not to go back to Nico. She tells him she must. River is incredulous and terribly disappointed in her, but Jane follows her heart. The "embers from earlier fires" have indeed ignited again! She packs her bags and gets on the train. At first she has no idea how she is going to find Nico now, but, by the end of the train ride, she has decided to go to the police station. When she arrives, she states that she has a lead on a missing person's report that Nico filed about her some time past. At first, they do not know if she is actually Jane Moore, considering she looks so disheveled, but she shows them her ID and they begin to reminisce on the case and rejoice in her being found. She goes to freshen up, and then a police officer brings her to Nico Rathburn's new house. The cop tells her that they were given a lead on her when she worked in a soup kitchen, but the source was unreliable, so they did not follow it. That was terribly negligent on their part, in my opinion. Why wouldn't the police follow every lead? It would not have fit well into this story if they had. Our author would not have been able to analogously follow the classic storyline of "Jane Eyre." If the police had followed the lead and quickly located her, Jane never would have met River and his sisters, nor lived away from Thornfield Park for so long. So, it is.
As Jane arrives at Nico's new residence, she goes to the door and a security guard answers. After stating who she is, the guard allows Jane to come inside. Jane meets a nurse (Louisa) who allows her to fix Nico a cup of coffee and bring it to him, informing Jane that " he will be so glad to see you" and that "he keeps a picture of you at his bed." Jane brings the coffee into Nico. He does not get up to check who has come in, and he assumes it is Louisa. However, he smells Jane's scent from her soap when she gets close to him, and he begins to question who is actually there. Jane speaks, and he turns around and comes to her. They embrace one another, and it is a real point of love reuniting. They spend a great deal of time catching up. Jane teases him about River, but when she sees it makes him gravely depressed, she stops and becomes very serious, reassuring him that she does not have feelings for River in the least way.
Nico then asks Jane what brought her back to him. Had she heard his new song? Had she heard about the accident? Had she heard from someone about Bibi's death and knew he would now be a free man, able to truly be with her? Jane told him that it was all of those things. However, she added, it was because she realized that she loved him and needed to be with him more than anything else in the world. He had also longed for this day.
Jane feels alive again, as she hadn't felt in so long. Nico Rathburn feels the same. As the story comes to its end, we are not told if they marry, or whether that is even in the plans as they move forward together. What we know is that they are blissfully happy together, at peace with where life is and excited about what the future holds. Life is complete for Jane Moore, being again, finally, with the love of her life, Mr. Nico Rathburn.
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