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.