“You seem to doubt me; I don’t doubt myself: I know what my aim is, what my motives are; and at this moment I pass a law, unalterable as that of the Medes and Persians, that both are right.”
“They cannot be, sir, if they require a new statute to legalise them.”
“They are, Miss Eyre, though they absolutely require a new statute: unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules.”
“That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse.”
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. Rochester acknowledges that he has done wrong in the past, but he is determined to be a better person. Here he uses a simile to describe how he will enact an unchangeable law like the Medes and Persians to make sure he becomes good. Jane questions this, saying that power can be abused by humans. Jane may be Rochester’s employee, but they have a special relationship where she can speak to him with openness and frankness.