Jane Eyre Metaphors and Similes Quotes

“Now for the hitch in Jane’s character,” he said at last, speaking more calmly than from his look I had expected him to speak. “The reel of silk has run smoothly enough so far; but I always knew there would come a knot and a puzzle: here it is. Now for vexation, and exasperation, and endless trouble! By God! I long to exert a fraction of Samson’s strength, and break the entanglement like tow!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane is resisting Rochester’s plea to Jane to leave England with him for the south of France, where they can live as man and wife. The “hitch” in Jane’s character is her moral code, which won’t allow her be Rochester’s mistress as his wife is still alive. The reel of silk he talks of is a metaphor for the smooth and loving relationship they have had until now. The knot in the reel is Jane’s morality and Rochester wishes that he had the strength of Sampson to untie it.

I was for a while troubled with a haunting fear that if I handled the flower freely its bloom would fade – the sweet charm of freshness would leave it. I did not then know that it was no transitory blossom, but rather the radiant resemblance of one, cut in an indestructible gem.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester recalls how he began to love Jane. He compares her metaphorically to a flower, which he feared would fade if he did not handle her carefully. He did not realize then that Jane was no fragile flower, but was an indestructible gem, metaphorically speaking.

I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you. You are my sympathy – my better self – my good angel – I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you – and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. In this passage a very emotional Rochester passionately reaffirms his love for Jane. He is trying to persuade her to stay after the disaster of their abandoned wedding. Rochester uses powerful metaphorical images, comparing Jane to his good angel and saying that they are bound together and fused in one by the strong flame of passion. Some of the most romantic lines in all of literature are to be found in Jane Eyre. This is one of those passages.

I was experiencing an ordeal: a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved; and him who thus loved me I absolutely worshipped: and I must renounce love and idol. One drear word comprised my intolerable duty – “Depart!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. It takes all of Jane’s moral strength to break free from the grasp of Rochester’s charms and the power of their love. A metaphorical “hand of fiery iron” has her in its grasp. But her moral duty commands that she leave Thornfield and turn her back on love and the man she has worshiped like an idol.

Feeling…clamoured wildly. “Oh comply!” it said, “Think of his misery, think of his danger – look at his state when left alone…soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?”
Still indomitable was the reply – “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God, sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad – as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour, stringent are they; inviolate they shall be…They have a worth – so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane – quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane is almost persuaded to give in to love and desire and remain with Rochester. Her mind and heart are in turmoil and conflict over the battle between what is right and wrong. Rochester, who is legally married to Bertha Mason, wants her to stay. Jane feels tested, admitting that her veins are metaphorically “running fire” with passion for Rochester. She also longs for a real family and sense of belonging – “Who in the world cares for you?” she asks herself. But she believes strongly that she would lose her self-respect if she were to agree to be Rochester’s mistress. In the end Jane’s moral principles win the internal debate that is raging in her head. She decides to abide by God’s law and leave Thornfield, even if that means being “solitary,” “friendless” and “unsustained.”

That night I never thought to sleep…I was transported in thought to the scenes of childhood; I dreamt that I lay in the red-room at Gateshead; that the night was dark, and my mind impressed with strange fears. The light that long ago had struck me into syncope, recalled in this vision, seemed glidingly to mount the wall…I lifted my head to look; the roof resolved to clouds…the gleam was such as the moon imparts to vapours she is about to sever. I watched her come…as though some word of doom were to be written on her disk…then, not a moon, but a white human form, shone in the azure, inclining a glorious brow earthward.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. On the night after the day of Jane’s canceled marriage, she is troubled by dark supernatural dreams. She has a vision of being in the red room at Gateshead and she remembers all the fear of being imprisoned there. She looks up at the ceiling and it turns to clouds. Using a nature simile, she describes how there is a gleam like the moon gives to vapors she is about to divide. This foreshadows her parting with Mr. Rochester. The moon appears, it bursts through the cloud and is transformed into a white human form – that of her late mother with a message for Jane.

No reflection was to be allowed now, not one glance was to be cast back; not even one forward. Not one thought was to be given either to the past or the future. The first was a page so heavenly sweet, so deadly sad, that to read one line of it would dissolve my courage and break down my energy. The last was an awful blank, something like the world when the deluge was gone by.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane looks back on the life she has left at Thornfield, full of comfort and love, and contrasts it to the unknown and uncertain one she is going to. She uses a metaphor to compare her past and future to two very different pages.

A sad heart…It trembled for Mr. Rochester and his doom; it bemoaned him with bitter pity; it demanded him with ceaseless longing; and, impotent as a bird with both wings broken, it still quivered its shattered pinions in vain attempts to seek him.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 28. After Jane has fled from Rochester her heart longs for the man she still loves. But because of her moral compass, with Rochester being a legally married man, she cannot act on it. She uses an animal simile to compare her sad heart to a bird with broken wings.

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 29. Jane says this about old servant Hannah, who at first judged her and refused her shelter when she knocked on the door of Moor House. Jane uses a gardening metaphor and simile to compare the heart to soil, where prejudices can grow like weeds if there is no education to fertilize it.

This morning, the village school opened. I had twenty scholars. But three of the number can read: none write or cipher. Several knit, and a few sew a little. They speak with the broadest accent of the district. At present, they and I have a difficulty in understanding each other’s language. Some of them are unmannered, rough, intractable, as well as ignorant; but others are docile, have a wish to learn, and evince a disposition that pleases me. I must not forget that these coarsely-clad little peasants are of flesh and blood as good as the scions of gentlest genealogy; and that the germs of native excellence, refinement, intelligence, kind feeling, are as likely to exist in their hearts as in those of the best-born. My duty will be to develop these germs: surely I shall find some happiness in discharging that office.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. Jane begins her teaching job in Morton. She has twenty students with little education between them. Although they are rough and badly dressed peasants, she believes that they are as good and deserving as the children of the noblest families. She commits to giving them a good education and developing the metaphorical germs of native excellence and intelligence in their hearts.

Which is better? – To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort – no struggle; but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester’s mistress; delirious with his love half my time…But where am I wandering, and what am I saying, and, above all, feeling? Whether it is better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool’s paradise at Marseilles – fevered with delusive bliss one hour – suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next – or to be a village school-mistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England?

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. Jane is speaking metaphorically about her relationship with Rochester and her decision not to stay as his mistress. Describing it as a “silken snare,” she believes that it would have brought her down the path of shame and slavery. It would have been wrong to surrender to temptation and passion, she feels. Better to be a free and honest village school teacher, she tells herself. But Jane isn’t completely happy and doesn’t exactly love her new teaching job.

I saw his solemn eye melt with sudden fire, and flicker with resistless emotion…His chest heaved once, as if his large heart, weary of despotic constriction, had expanded, despite the will, and made a vigorous bound for the attainment of liberty. But he curbed it, I think, as a resolute rider would curb a rearing steed.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. An “earthly angel” in white suddenly appears at the side of St. John Rivers. Jane notices that St. John is in love with Rosamond Oliver, but he supresses his feelings for her. Using simile images Jane describes how his chest heaves as if his heart is trying to break free, but he curbs it like a rider restrains a steed. St. John believes that God has called him to be a missionary to serve the people of India. He is sacrificing his love for Rosamond for his vocation.

“I am cold: no fervour infects me.”
“Whereas I am hot and fire dissolves ice.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 33. This is the first instance of Jane standing up to St. John. Ice and fire are recurring symbols in the novel. He is compared metaphorically to ice, while the rebellious and passionate Jane retorts that she is made of fire. This foreshadows the moment when Jane will confront St. John and his anger, assert her independence and leave him. Jane is not a woman who allows a man dicate the course of her life.

I had found a brother: one I could be proud of, – one I could love; and two sisters whose qualities were such that, when I knew them but as mere strangers, they had inspired me with genuine affection and admiration. The two girls on whom, kneeling down on the wet ground, and looking through the low, latticed window of Moor House kitchen, I had gazed…were my near kinswomen, and the young and stately gentleman who had found me almost dying at his threshold was my blood relation. Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch! This was wealth indeed! – wealth to the heart! – a mine of pure, genial affections. This was a blessing…not like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way, but sobering from its weight.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 33. Jane speaks of her joy of discovering a family and home at last. She has learned that the Rivers family are her blood relatives and cousins. While she has inherited a fortune from her uncle, finding a brother and sisters like St. John, Diana and Mary means more to her than wealth. Using metaphor and simile, Jane speaks of discovering a “mine” of pure affections, not like the “ponderous gift of gold” of her inheritance.

St. John was a good man; but I began to feel he had spoken truth of himself when he said he was hard and cold. The humanities and amenities of life had no attraction for him…he would never rest, nor approve of others resting round him. As I looked at his lofty forehead, still and pale as a white stone – at his fine lineaments fixed in study – I comprehended all at once that he would hardly make a good husband: that it would be a trying thing to be his wife.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. While Jane accepts that St. John is a good man, she believes that he is not good husband material. She speaks of how hard and cold he is, using a a simile to compare his forehead to white stone. For St. John, the pleasures of life have no attraction, she observes. He never rests not does he wish others to rest. Jane’s reflections come after St. John shows a disappointing lack of interest in her improvements to Moor House.

As for me, I daily wished more to please him: but to do so, I felt daily more and more that I must disown half of my nature, stifle half my faculties, wrest my tastes from their original bent, force myself to the adoption of pursuits for which I had no natural vocation. He wanted to train me to an elevation I could never reach; it racked me hourly to aspire to the standard he uplifted. The thing was as impossible as to mould my irregular features to his correct and classic pattern, to give to my changeable green eyes the sea-blue tint and solemn lustre of his own.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. As Jane tries to please St. John, she learns that in order to do so she has to become somebody she is not. Jane has always been her own person, someone of integrity who treasures independence and freedom. The manipulative and controlling St. John continues to force her to change her own nature and adopt pursuits she finds impossible. Using a simile she compares this to trying to mold her irregular face to his correct features, and change her green eyes to the sea blue of his.

“Shall I?” I said briefly; and I looked at his features, beautiful in their harmony, but strangely formidable in their still severity; at his brow, commanding, but not open; at his eyes, bright and deep and searching, but never soft; at his tall imposing figure; and fancied myself in idea his wife. Oh! it would never do! As his curate, his comrade, all would be right: I would cross oceans with him in that capacity; toil under Eastern suns, in Asian deserts with him in that office; admire and emulate his courage and devotion and vigour: accommodate quietly to his masterhood; smile undisturbed at his ineradicable ambition…I should suffer often, no doubt, attached to him only in this capacity: my body would be under a rather stringent yoke, but my heart and mind would be free. I should still have my unblighted self to turn to: my natural unenslaved feelings with which to communicate in moments of loneliness. There would be recesses in my mind which would be only mine, to which he never came; and sentiments growing there, fresh and sheltered, which his austerity could never blight, nor his measured warrior-march trample down: but as his wife – at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked – forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital – this would be unendurable.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. We get a glimpse into Jane’s inner conflict over St. John’s proposal that she should join him as his wife on his missionary trip to India. The proposal briefly tempts her. It would be a rare opportunity to perform good deeds for other people, while fulfilling her own personal needs. Looking at his beautiful, commanding features, she fancies herself “in idea” his wife. But then she realizes the reality of the kind of prison she would live in under St. John’s masculine dominance. She speaks of his “warrior-march” and his “austerity” and the “stringent yoke” she would be tied to under his “masterhood.” Using metaphorical imagery, she decides that the “fire” of her nature and its “imprisoned flame” would not endure being his wife.

I recalled the voice I had heard; again I questioned whence it came, as vainly as before: it seemed in me – not in the external world. I asked, was it a mere nervous impression – a delusion? I could not conceive or believe: it was more like an inspiration. The wondrous shock of feeling had come like the earthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and Silas’s prison: it had opened the doors of the soul’s cell, and loosed its bands – it had wakened it out of its sleep, whence it sprang trembling, listening, aghast; then vibrated thrice a cry on my startled ear, an din my quaking heart, and through my spirit; which neither feared nor shook, but exulted as if in joy over the success of one effort it had been privileged to make, independent of the cumbrous body.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 36. Jane believes that hearing Rochester’s voice calling her is no delusion, but an inspiration. Using a Biblical simile, she compares the moment to the earthquake which shook the apostle Paul and Silas’s prison, freeing them. It has opened the doors of her soul’s cell and freed it from St. John’s restraints. She describes how the joy she feels is like a spiritual experience – “independent of the cumbrous body.”

His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever: his port was still erect, his hair was still raven-black; nor were his features altered or sunk: not in one year’s space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled, or his vigourous prime blighted. But in his countenance, I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding – that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe. The caged eagle, whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished, might look as looked that sightless Samson.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. In the past Rochester has compared Jane to a caged bird. But now their situations are reversed. Jane is free and Rochester is blind and has lost one of his hands. While his physical image is the same, she notices a change in his face following the injuries he received and the devastation of his house. Jane describes him as looking “fettered” and uses a bird metaphor to compare him to a “caged eagle” – still powerful but now weakened. She likens him to the blind Biblical hero Sampson, showing that he is still a strong, attractive man to her.

“Oh, you are indeed there, my skylark! Come to me. You are not gone: not vanished? I heard one of your kind an hour ago, singing high over the wood: but its song had no music for me, any more than the rising sun had rays. All the melody on earth is concentrated in my Jane’s tongue to my ear (I am glad it is not naturally a silent one): all the sunshine I can feel is in her presence.”
The water stood in my eyes to hear this avowal of his dependence; just as if a royal eagle, chained to a perch, should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. In the penultimate chapter Rochester and Jane enter the final stage of their relationship. It is one in which he is dependant on her. A series of animal metaphors convey the joy and intimacy of the moment. Rochester describes Jane as his skylark, while she likens him to a royal eagle chained to a perch, which has to ask a sparrow to be its purveyor. This is a beautiful intimate moment of shared love.

He is good and great, but severe; and, for me, cold as an iceberg. He is not like you, sir: I am not happy at his side, nor near him, nor with him. He has no indulgence for me – no fondness. He sees nothing attractive in me; not even youth – only a few useful mental points.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. When Jane describes what she has been doing for the past ten months, Rochester becomes jealous of St. John Rivers and believes that Jane loves him. But Jane reassures him that St. John has no love for her. She uses a simile to compare him to the coldness of an iceberg.

Oh, you need not be jealous! I wanted to tease you a little to make you less sad: I thought anger would be better than grief. But if you wish me to love you, could you but see how much I do love you, you would be proud and content. All my heart is yours, sir; it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. Jane reassures Rochester that there is no love between her and her cousin St. John, that she was merely teasing him to distract him from his sadness. Declaring her love for Rochester, he using a metaphor to tell him that he forever has her heart.

“I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard,” he remarked ere long. “And what right would that ruin to have bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?”
“You are no ruin sir – no lighting-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. Rochester uses nature metaphors to compare himself to the splintered chestnut tree in the orchard at Thornfield, and Jane to a budding new plant. He feels that he has no right to a fresh young woman like Jane because of his ruined body. However, Jane tells him that his strength makes him green and vigorous and will provide safety for plants that grow around him.

Jane! you think me, I daresay, an irreligious dog: but my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth just now. He sees not as man sees, but far clearer; judges not as man judges, but far more wisely. I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower – breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death…Of late, Jane – only – only of late – I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. Rochester apologizes to Jane for his attempt to marry her in deceit and then trying to make her his mistress. He metaphorically compares Jane to an “innocent flower” that he would have sullied. Now a profoundly changed man, he reveals how he has turned to God and repented the wrong he did Jane. The disasters that he suffered were, he believes, divine justice for his transgression against Jane. He is now grateful to God for returning Jane to him.
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