Jane Eyre and Rochester's test

Rochester courts Miss Ingram where Jane can see it. He talks to Jane about his coming wedding. He even tells her she will need a new post in Ireland.

This page reads that as a testing pattern. A testing pattern means you set up a test to see if someone loves you. Then you watch how they take the pain, and read their love in it.

Once Jane agrees to marry him, he tells her the truth. The courtship was a show. He wanted her jealous, so her love would come out.

He tested Miss Ingram too. He let a rumor reach her that he was far less rich than people thought. She turned cold, and he had his answer.

The test works, in a way. Jane is hurt enough to speak. She tells him that being poor and plain does not make her heartless.

But Jane is not charmed when she learns it was a trick. She asks if he thought at all about Miss Ingram's feelings.

The bigger cost comes later. The test is one secret in a house full of them. When the largest one comes out, on the wedding day, Jane leaves.

The cost of a love test is often like this. It gets the answer. It teaches the other person not to trust what you show them.

Rochester's doubt is real. He is much older than Jane, and he has chosen badly in love before. He cannot quite believe she would choose him.

That doubt is the place to catch it. The body signal, maybe a tight chest or a sinking stomach, comes before the plan.

Behavioral Interception is the practice of catching an automatic pattern as it begins, intercepting its usual response, and practicing a different action until it becomes more natural.

Here, catching it means noticing the doubt before he builds the stage. The usual response is to hide and watch. A different action is to tell Jane how he feels, and ask her.

In the end he does ask her, in the orchard. He could have started there, and spared them both the weeks between.

Why does Rochester choose a test instead of a question? What does he think a plain question would get him?

Jane asks about Miss Ingram's feelings. What does that tell you about how Jane sees the test?

Find the first moment Rochester could have stopped. Write what he might have said to Jane instead.