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.