vocabulary - Impediment

"The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of an impediment"(293).

Jane is about to marry Rochester, and the man who marries them asks if anyone has any reason why they should not be married. As they were about to continue on with the ceremony a voice in the distant states the quote above.  Impediment is an obstacle in the way of doing something. So in this case the man that cried out that the marriage cannot go on found an obstacle that he felt should be announced before Jane and Rochester wed. In some cases impediment could be an barrier and prevent the occasion from going on, as it did in the story. The impediment, or obstacle, in the story is when the man educates Jane that Rochester has another wife that he keeps locked away in a attic because he believes her to be crazy. This in turn takes the novel for a twist.


example:
There was an impediment in the way of getting everything that needed to be done, to get done.