Jane Eyre Love Quotes

Miss Ingram was a mark beneath jealousy; she was too inferior to excite the feeling…She was very showy, but she was not genuine. She had a fine person, many brilliant attainments; but her mind was poor, her heart barren by nature…She was not good, she was not original…Tenderness and truth were not in her…Other eyes besides mine watched these manifestations of character…Yes, the future bride-groom, Mr. Rochester himself, exercised over his intended a ceaseless surveillance; and it was from this sagacity…this obvious absence of passion in his sentiments toward her, that my ever-torturing pain arose.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 18. Jane has watched Rochester and Blanche Ingram move closer to marriage, with both taking part in a mock-marriage charades game during Blanche’s stay Thornfield. But Jane doesn’t feel any jealousy. She ironically calls Blanche “inferior,” even though Blanche belongs to an aristocratic family and is a social class above Jane. But the real Blanche, as Jane sees her, is poor in mind and character, lacking in heart and full of show. Jane believes that Rochester doesn’t love Blanche, so it hurts her that he is going to marry her.

I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons, because her rank and connections suited him; I felt he had not given her his love, and that her qualifications were ill adapted to win from him that treasure. This was the point – this was where the nerve was touched and teased – this was where the fever was sustained and fed: she could not charm him.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 18. The big question is – who should Rochester marry: Blance Ingram or Jane? A jealous Jane accepts that Rochester has social and family reasons for marrying Blanche, and on those levels they would be compatible. But Jane is convinced that Rochester doesn’t love Blanche and a woman like her kind would never, metaphorically speaking, win such a “treasure.”

Because when she failed, I saw how she might have succeeded. Arrows that continually glanced off from Mr. Rochester’s breast and fell harmless at his feet, might, I knew, if shot by a surer hand, have quivered keen in his proud heart – have called love into his stern eye, and softness into his sardonic face, or better still, without weapons a silent conquest might have been won.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 18. Jane uses the metaphor of arrows being shot to the breast to describe Blanche Ingram’s attempts to flirt with Mr. Rochester. A jealous Jane is relieved that Blanche’s efforts don’t work and her “arrows” simply bounce off Rochester and fall harmlessly away. Rochester obviously doesn’t love Blanche, she observes.

I have not yet said anything condemnatory of Mr. Rochester’s project of marrying for interest and connections. It surprised me when I first discovered that such was his intention; I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife; but the longer I considered the position, education, etc., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram, for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood. All their class held these principles; I supposed, then, they had reasons for holding them such as I could not fathom. It seemed to me that, were I a gentleman like him, I would take to my bosom only such a wife as I could love; but the very obviousness of the advantages to the husband’s own happiness, offered by this plan, convinced me that there must be arguments against its general adoption of which I was quite ignorant: otherwise I felt sure all the world would act as I wished to act.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 18. Jane is considering the possible marriage between Mr. Rochester and Miss Ingram. She concedes that both have grown up in a world where they are expected to follow the rules of their social class. But she finds it difficult to understand why a man like Rochester would be influenced by these rules to marry simply for “interests and connections.” Jane, who is in love with Rochester, is adament that she would have to love the person she marries.

“What tale do you like best to hear?”
“Oh, I have not much choice! They generally run on the same theme – courtship; and promise to end in the same catastrophe – marriage.”
“And do you like that monotonous theme?”
“Positively, I don’t care about it: it is nothing to me.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 19. The old gypsy woman (Rochester in disguise) and Jane discuss courtship and marriage. Rochester is trying to manipulate and draw Jane out and admit that she loves him. Jane is in love with her employer Rochester, but she doesn’t believe there is any future in it.

He must love such a handsome, noble, witty, accomplished lady; and probably she loves him, or, if not his person, at least his purse.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 19. The gypsy fortune teller suggests to Jane that her love rival Blanche Ingram is marrying Rochester for his wealth. The gypsy then reveals that Miss Ingram’s mouth fell and she looked “wondrous grave” when told that Rochester is not as wealthy as he appears. Rochester is aware of Blanche’s plan to marry him for his money, as he is Mother Bunches the gypsy in disguise.

The well-known face was there, stern, relentless, as ever; there was that peculiar eye which nothing could melt, and the somewhat raised, imperious, despotic eyebrow. How often had it lowered on me menace and hate! And how the recollection of childhood’s terrors and sorrows revived as I traced its harsh line now! And yet I stooped down and kissed her; she looked at me…I had once vowed that I would never call her aunt again; I thought it no sin to forget and break that vow now. My fingers fastened on her hand which lay outside the sheet; had she pressed mine kindly, I should at that moment have experienced true pleasure. But unimpressionable natures are not so soon softened, nor are natural antipathies so readily eradicated; Mrs. Reed took her hand away, and turning her face rather from me, she remarked that the night was warm. Again she regarded me, so icily, I felt at once that her opinion of me – her feeling toward me – was unchanged and unchangeable.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 21. Jane looks back on her visit to the despotic Mrs. Reed on her deathbed. Years have gone by since she last met her aunt. Jane is prepared to forgive the childhood terrors and suffering she endured at the hands of the imperious Mrs. Reed. But her aunt remains unchanged. After requesting Jane to come to her, the dying Mrs. Reed shows no love for Jane and is icily cold towards her.

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.

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.

What love have I for Miss Ingram? None: and that you know. What love has she for me? None: as I have taken pains to prove: I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed, and after that I presented myself to see the result; it was coldness both from her and her mother. I would not – I could not – marry Miss Ingram.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Rochester reveals to Jane that there is no love between him and Miss Ingram. He tells her that Miss Ingram simply wanted to marry him for his money. When she learned that he wasn’t as wealthy as she thought, she turned cold.

“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.

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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