Jane Eyre Character Quotes

On a dark, misty, raw morning in January, I had left a hostile roof with a desperate and embittered heart – a sense of outlawry and almost of reprobation – to seek the chilly harbourage of Lowood: that bourne so far away and unexplored. The same hostile roof now again rose before me: my prospects were doubtful yet; and I had yet an aching heart. I still felt as a wanderer on the face of the earth; but I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers, and less withering dread of oppression. The gaping wound of my wrongs, too, was now quite healed; and the flame of resentment extinguished.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 21. Jane feels no sense of returning home when she visits her Aunt Reed’s residence at Gateshead. She recalls leaving that hostile roof years before and now that unfriendly roof looms again before her. She no longer feels resentment towards the Reeds for the wrongs they did her and has greater confidence in herself. But she still feels alone and adrift in the world with no sense of belonging – “a wanderer on the face of the earth.”

“Love me, then, or hate me, as you will,” I said at last, “you have my full and free forgiveness: ask now for God’s and be at peace.”
Poor, suffering woman! It is too late for her to make now the effort to change her habitual frame of mind; living, she had ever hated me – dying, she must hate me still.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 21. Even as Mrs. Reed remains vengeful on her deathbed, confessing that she kept the truth about Jane’s uncle and relatives from her, Jane forgives her. She urges her to seek God’s forgiveness and find peace. Mrs. Reed’s vindictiveness and hatred of Jane has brought more suffering to herself than to Jane. Jane’s essentially good nature allows her to rise above such destructive emotions and feelings.

How people feel when they are returning home from an absence, long or short, I did not know: I had never experienced the sensation. I had known what it was to come back to Gateshead when a child, after a long walk – to be scolded for looking cold or gloomy; and later, what it was to come back from church to Lowood – to long for a plenteous meal and a good fire, and to be unable to get either. Neither of these returnings were very pleasant or desirable: no magnet drew me to a given point, increasing in its strength of attraction the nearer I came. The return to Thornfield was yet to be tried…1 felt glad as the road shortened before me: so glad that I stopped once to ask myself what that joy meant; and to remind reason that it was not to my home I was going, or to a permanent resting-place, or to a place where fond friends looked out for me and waited my arrival.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane has yearned all her life to have a place she can call home. She didn’t find this at either Gateshead or Lowood. Having left Thornfield for a brief spell to honor the wish of her dying aunt, she is now happy to be returning. Yet she reminds herself that Thornfield is not her home, or a permanent resting-place where loving friends will greet her on arrival. But she clearly would like it to be.

Well, he is not a ghost; yet every nerve I have is unstrung: for a moment I am beyond my own mastery. What does that mean? I did not think I should tremble in this way when I saw him – or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence. I will go back as soon as I can stir: I need not make an absolute fool of myself. I know another way to the house. It does not signify if I knew twenty ways; for he has seen me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane speaks of how she trembles, loses composure and feels nervous on seeing Rochester as she walks towards Thornfield. She didn’t think that she would react this way after her brief absense. What does it all mean, she asks herself? It clearly means that she is in love with Rochester.

“I have been with my aunt, sir, who is dead.”
“A true Janian reply! Good angels be my guard! She comes from the other world – from the abode of people who are dead; and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the gloaming! If I dared, I’d touch you, to see if you are substance or shadow, you elf! – but I’d as soon offer to take hold of a blue ignis fatuus light in a marsh.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane meets up with Rochester after an absense of a month. During that time she was helping her cousins Georgiana and Eliza sort out affairs after their mother’s death. Rochester greets her cheerfully and teasingly, comparing to an other-worldly creature. Jane has indeed inhabited three very different worlds, Gateshead, Lowood and Thornfield. Ignis fatuus is a will-o-the-wisp, or a phosphorescent light that sometimes hovers over marshy ground.

I knew there would be pleasure in meeting my master again, even though broken by the fear that he was so soon to cease to be my master, and by the knowledge that I was nothing to him; but there was ever in Mr. Rochester (so, at least, I thought) such a wealth of the power of communicating happiness, that to taste but of the crumbs he scattered to stray and stranger birds like me, was to feast genially. His last words were balm. They seemed to imply that it imported something to him whether I forget him or not. And he had spoken of Thornfield as my home – would that it were my home!

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. On returning to Thornfield after a month’s absense in Gateshead Hall, Jane is greeted by Rochester. She is full of the joy of meeting him again. But she still calls him “master,” emphasizing their social class differences. To Jane, the love that she feels for Rochester is seemingly impossible and unrequited. She is happy with the metaphorical “crumbs” of friendship that he scatters to “stranger birds” like her. Yet while there is talk of marriage between him and Blanche Ingram, Jane notes that Rochester has referred to Thornfield as “your home.” This reveals Rochester’s desire that Jane should stay.

Mr. Rochester had sometimes read my unspoken thoughts with an acumen to me incomprehensible: in the present instance he took no notice of my abrupt vocal response; but he smiled at me with a certain smile he had of his own, and which he used but on rare occasions. He seemed to think too good for common purpose: it was the real sunshine of feeling – he shed it over me now.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane’s thoughts about Rochester as they meet at the stile – she has just returned from visiting her dying aunt, and he from a trip to buy a new carriage. There is brief banter between them and Jane describes how Rochester gives her a smile he reserves for people he considers special. She likens it metaphorically to shedding sunshine over her. This is an incredibly romantic passage indicating the love bond that has grown between Rochester and Jane.

Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home – my only home.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Here Jane puts her feelings for Mr. Rochester on full display. She says this to him on her return to Thornfield after being at her aunt’s deathbed in Gateshead, her oppressive childhood home with so many unhappy memories. Jane is happy to be back in Thornfield, it has become like home to her. But home is not always a place and can sometimes be a person. Jane tells Rochester that he is that person to her.

There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane is very happy to be back in the loving bosum of Thornfield. After her month’s absense in Gateshead, she is warmly greeted by Mr. Rochester, Adele, Mrs. Fairfax and the other servants. The affection she experiences in Thornfield is a world away from the nightmare of a loveless childhood she experienced growing up in Gateshead.

I began to cherish hopes I had no right to conceive: that the match was broken off; that rumour had been mistaken; that one or both parties had changed their minds. I used to look at my master’s face to see if it were sad or fierce; but I could not remember the time when it had been so uniformly clear of clouds or evil feelings…Never had he called me more frequently to his presence – never been kinder to me when there – and, alas! never had I loved him so well.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. As Rochester continues to show a lot of attention to Jane, she wishes that he was not marrying Blanche Ingram. She entertains hopes that the wedding has been called off. Jane’s love for Rochester is at its strongest at this point.

It was now the sweetest hour of the twenty-four…Where the sun had gone down in simple state – pure of the pomp of clouds – spread a solemn purple, burning with the light of red jewel and furnace flame at one point, on one hill-peak, and extending high and wide, soft and still softer, over half heaven.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Right through this chapter nature symbolically mimics the feelings aroused within Jane by Rochester. The passions ignited between them are reflected in the imagery used to describe the skies on this midsummer’s evening. They are “burning with the light of red jewel and furnace flame.”

“I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you – especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you – you’d forget me.”
“That I never should, sir: you know” – impossible to proceed.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Rochester speaks of the deep physical connection he has to Jane. He uses a striking simile with the image of a cord binding them together to convey the intensity of bond which unites them. He expresses the fear that if Jane travels hundreds of miles away to a job in Ireland, that cord will snap and she will forget him. Jane’s immediate response to that is – never! Rochester, who has told Jane that he is to marry Miss Ingram, is actually trying to determine Jane’s true feelings for him. This passage about the physical bond between them is foreshadowing of a supernatural occurance in Chapter 35, when Jane has left Rochester and is in Moor House – she hears the voice of Rochester calling her and she returns.

I grieve to leave Thornfield: I love Thornfield – I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life, – momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic, and high. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in, – with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. A sobbing Jane opens up to Rochester on her thoughts of losing her new home in Thornfield. There she led a happy and full life and felt a sense of belonging. She is particularly upset at being separated from Rochester, a man she clearly loves. Jane uses a stark simile to describe how having to quit Thornfield is like a death to her. But she makes clear that it is impossible for her to stay as she believes Rochester is to marry Miss Ingram. Rochester has been goading Jane with the news that he is soon to marry Miss Ingram. This is particularly cruel of him. His motive is be to make Jane jealous and discover how deeply she really feels about him.

“I tell you I must go!” I retorted, roused to something like passion. “Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? – a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; – it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, – as we are!”
“As we are!” repeated Mr. Rochester – “so,” he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: “so, Jane!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Jane makes a passionate speech to Rochester, proclaiming her self-worth and equality, despite being of a poorer class than him. Her emotional outpouring comes after Rochester pretends to be engaged to beautiful socialite Miss Ingram, yet insists that Jane must stay. Despite her love for Rochester, Jane is adament that she will leave, asserting herself as an independent woman equal to Rochester. Using metaphors of food – “morsel of bread” and “drop of living water” – Jane reveals the depth of her passion for him. Had she been gifted with Miss Ingram’s beauty and wealth, he would find it hard to leave her, she boldly tells Rochester. After Jane lays bare her feelings for Rochester, he embraces and kisses her as an equal.

“Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild, frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.”
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Mr. Rochester does not want Jane to leave him after she declares that she is because he is “as good as a married man.” He uses a nature simile to compare her to a desperate wild bird tearing its own feathers. However, the strong-willed and determined Jane rejects this imagery. She exerts her independence as a woman by declaring that she is no caged bird and is leaving to go to Ireland. Jane is very much a free woman and a revolutionary ahead of her time. She rejects the patriarchy of a Victorian society that treats women as subservient to men.

“Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one another.”
“I will never again come to your side: I am torn away now, and cannot return.”
“But, Jane, I summon you as my wife: it is you only I intend to marry.”
I was silent: I thought he mocked me.
“Come, Jane – come hither.”
“Your bride stands between us.”
He rose, and with a stride reached me.
“My bride is here,” he said, again drawing me to him, “because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. When Mr. Rochester proposes to Jane, she is full of doubt that a man of his social stature and wealth would want to marry a poor governess like her. She also thinks that Rochester is engaged to Miss Ingram. Rochester assures Jane of his feelings for her, saying that she is his equal and the one he wants for a bride. While Rochester loves Jane, his love is imperfect. For he doesn’t have the courage to tell Jane that he already has a wife – the mad Bertha Mason. So there is unintentional irony when Jane declares that “your bride stands between us,” mistakingly believing this to be Miss Ingram.

“Jane, accept me quickly. Say, Edward – give me my name – Edward – I will marry you.”
“Are you in earnest? – Do you truly love me? Do you sincerely wish me to be your wife?”
“I do; and if an oath is necessary to satisfy you, I swear it.”
“Then, sir, I will marry you.”
“Edward – my little wife!”
“Dear Edward!”
“Come to me – come to me entirely now,” said he: and added, in his deepest tone, speaking in my ear as his cheek was laid on mine, “Make my happiness – I will make yours.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Jane accepts the marriage proposal of the fiery, passionate and emotional Rochester. This passage, along with others in this very important chapter, shows why Jane Eyre is considered one of the greatest love stories.

And if I had loved him less I should have thought his accent and look of exultation savage; but, sitting by him, roused from the nightmare of parting – called to the paradise of union – I thought only of the bliss given me to drink in so abundant a flow. Again and again he said, “Are you happy, Jane?” And again and again I answered, “Yes.” After which he murmured, “It will atone – it will atone. Have I not found her friendless, and cold, and comfortless? Will I not guard, and cherish, and solace her? Is there not love in my heart, and constancy in my resolves? It will expiate at God’s tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world’s judgment – I wash my hands thereof. For man’s opinion – I defy it.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Jane recalls her joyful reaction to Mr. Rochester’s marriage proposal and his declaration of his love for her. Rochester believes that his genuine love for the friendless and needy Jane will find approval from God. “It will atone,” he says, and “expiate at God’s tribunal.” This foreshadows the dark secret that Rochester is hiding from Jane and will later be revealed to her. He is already wed to mad woman Bertha Mason, so taking another wife amounts to bigamy.

While arranging my hair, I looked at my face in the glass, and felt it was no longer plain; there was hope in its aspect and life in its colour; and my eyes seemed as if they had beheld the fount of fruition, and borrowed beams from the lustrous ripple. I had often been unwilling to look at my master, because I feared he could not be pleased at my look, but I was sure I might lift my face to his now and not cool his affection by its expression. I took a plain but clean and light summer dress from my drawer and put it on; it seemed no attire had ever so well become me, because none had I ever worn in so blissful a mood.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. Having always considered herself plain, Jane now looks at herself in the mirror and finds herself transformed. Seeing herself through the prism of Rochester’s love and desire to marry her, she believes that she is no longer plain-looking and feels a new woman. It is amazing what a marriage proposal does to your appearance and how you view yourself.

“This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his keeping, – heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be yours that I would accord a peer’s daughter, if about to marry her.”
“Oh, sir! – never rain jewels! I don’t like to hear them spoken of. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not have them.”
“I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on your forehead, – which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings.”
“No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in another strain. Don’t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess.”
“You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my heart, – delicate and aërial.”
“Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir, – or you are sneering. For God’s sake don’t be ironical!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. After proposing to Jane, Rochester wants to drape her in the family jewels and finery for their wedding, as befits her new social position. He wants the world to pay attention to Jane, as she is a beauty in his eyes. But the modest Jane doesn’t want any of this, it doesn’t feel natural or comfortable to her. She protests that she doesn’t see herself as a beauty, but is “your plain, Quakerish governess.” And she admonishes Rochester not to be ironical by calling her a beauty.

And then you won’t know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin’s jacket – a jay in borrowed plumes.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. A horrified Jane responds thus to Rochester after he tells her: “I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will cover the head I love best with a priceless veil.” Jane has just accepted Rochester’s marriage proposal and he wants the world to acknowledge her beauty by showering her with jewelry and fine clothes. But Jane resists this, refusing to change her outward appearance to suit her new social position. She uses two apt animal metaphors to emphasize how unnatural this is to plain Jane. She would be “an ape in a harlequin’s jacket” or “a jay in borrowed plumes.” Jane doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of the wealthy Victorian man’s wife who dresses to demonstrate her high station. She values too much her spirit of independence and freedom and the desire to be her natural self. This spirit is one of the reasons Rochester is so drawn to Jane.

I laughed at him as he said this. “I am not an angel,” I asserted; “and I will not be one till I die; I will be myself, Mr. Rochester; you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me, for you will not get it any more than I shall get it of you, which I do not at all anticipate.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. After Rochester describes Jane as “a very angel” she laughs at him and dismisses the very idea. Jane is an untypical independent woman in Victorian England, determined to retain her autonomous spirit in a marriage with Rochester. Her own woman, Jane is nobody’s angel. Rochester has been trying unsuccessfully to lavish her with jewels and fine clothes, which she has refused. She makes clear that she will continue to be true to who she is after they marry.

To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts – when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and, perhaps, imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper; but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break – at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent I am ever tender and true…I never met your likeness, Jane; you please me, and you master me – you seem to submit, and I like the sense of pliancy you impart…I am influenced – conquered; and the influence is sweeter than I can express; and the conquest I undergo has a witchery beyond any triumph I can win.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. Rochester is responding to Jane’s expressions of concern that his love will not last – “I suppose your love will effervesce in six months, or less.” In this speech he tells her how he admires an independent and strong-minded woman who has a voice of her own. He assures Jane that he has found this in her and promises to be always tender and true. He spells out the characteristics that caused him to be “conquered” by Jane – “eloquent tongue,” “soul made of fire,” etc. – and says that he has never met her likeness.
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