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Blanche Ingram is a beautiful but mean-spirited socialite who wishes to marry Mr. Rochester for his money. Jane is initially struck by Blanche’s beauty but she soon realizes it is her only redeeming feature. Blanche is cruel to Mr. Rochester’s staff (including Jane), she rejects Adèle’s affections, and she overtly vies for Mr. Rochester’s attention at all times in a manner that Jane finds untoward. Jane’s most scathing critique of Blanche’s character occurs during the charades scene in Chapter 18. Jane observes Blanche for the entire evening and notes that she is “showy” but not “genuine” and appears incapable of expressing an original thought. She continues that Blanche’s beauty cannot fully conceal her “poor” mind or her “barren” heart. Blanche’s name even symbolizes her vapid personality; to “blanch” something is to make it white or pale by extracting color. By naming Jane’s rival “Blanche,” Brontë insinuates that this vain young woman is lacking in any real substance.
Blanche Ingram plays a key role in Jane and Mr. Rochester’s love story. Jane maintains that she is not jealous of Blanche, but her preoccupation with Blanche before she even arrives at Thornfield and the shrewd way that Jane observes her and catalogs her every move points contradicts this sentiment. Jane may be in denial over her one-sided rivalry with Blanche, but Mr. Rochester certainly is not. He even tells Jane that he only pretended to court Blanche in order to gauge whether Jane has feelings for him or not. Jane Eyre is a gothic novel but it is also a love story, and Blanche’s character is archetypical; she is the “other woman” who poses a threat to the main couple’s happiness, and functions as a tool to further the plot and increase suspense. It is no surprise, then, that Blanche is removed from the narrative once Jane and Mr. Rochester establish their mutual feelings.
