Refuse to be my wife, and you limit yourself forever to a track of selfish ease and barren obscurity.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. St. John uses bullying and manipulative language to make Jane feel guilty for declining his proposal to be his missionary wife. His cold, unkind and tyrannical nature is very much in evidence as Jane stands her ground against her despotic suitor. Unable to accept Jane’s refusal to be his wife, he virtually threatens her. Immediately after the above pass, he suggests that rejecting his proposal means rejecting God: “Tremble lest in that case you should be numbered with those who have denied the faith, and are worse than infidels!” These certainly aren’t the words a woman wants to hear from the man who is asking her to marry him. This is the marriage proposal from hell!