Diana and Mary Rivers

Outer characterization

Diana and Mary Rivers are Jane’s cousins in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. They are St John’s sisters and live together with him at Moor House, where they are training to be governesses. After Jane shares her inheritance with them, the two sisters return home from their governess positions. Years later, Diana marries a navy officer, while Mary marries a clergyman.

Jane describes them as delicate and cultivated women: 

Both were fair complexioned and slenderly made; both possessed faces full of distinction and intelligence. One, to be sure, had hair a shade darker than the other, and there was a difference in their style of wearing it; Mary’s pale brown locks were parted and braided smooth: Diana’s duskier tresses covered her neck wi...