Charlotte Bronte Quotes

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last…These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Preface. Author Charlotte Bronte wrote a preface to the novel’s second edition, after the moral outrage that followed its publication. In it she defends her book against reviewers who criticized it for its immorality and anti-Christian and anti-authority tendencies. She rejects claims that questioning conventions and self-righteousness is an attack on morality and religion. The morality of Jane and Rochester’s love was criticized by the book’s critics.

Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. After her fiery tirade against her Aunt Reed’s cruel behavior, hypocrisy and deceitfulness, Jane feels liberated. Having spoken out against the tyranny of Gateshead Hall, the strong-willed and determined Jane exults in her new empowering feeling of freedom.

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. When Jane stands up to her Aunt Reed she feels a sense of triumph and vengeance. But as a child doing battle with an adult, her passionate outburst also leaves her with feelings of remorse and guilt. In one simile she compares the taste to “aromatic wine,” but in another the sensation is “as if I had been poisoned.” After this passage Jane goes on to say: “Willingly would I now have gone and asked Mrs. Reed’s pardon; but I knew, partly from experience and partly from instinct, that was the way to make her repulse me with double scorn, thereby re-exciting every turbulent impulse of my nature.”

Who would think that the Evil One had already found a servant and agent in her?

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. The tyrannical supervisor of Lowood School Mr. Brocklehurst singles Jane out, stands her on a stool, and publicly humiliates her in front of the entire school. He labels the child an agent of the devil. This is the fuller quote from the hypocritical clergyman into whose care the impoverished little girls of Lowood have been entrusted: “You see she is yet young; you observe she possesses the ordinary form of childhood: God has graciously given her the shape that He has given to all of us; no signal of deformity points her out as a marked character. Who would think that the Evil One had already found a servant and agent in her? Yet such, I grieve to say, is the case.”

Such is the imperfect nature of man! such spots are there on the disc of the clearest planet; and eyes like Miss Scatcherd’s can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. Jane makes this observation after Helen Burns is flogged by her teacher Miss Scatcherd for something very minor. Using metaphrorical imagery she makes the point that some people can only see the tiny flaws in others, while blind to the full brightness of the person. Some you can just never satisfy – like Miss Scatcherd!

If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen Burns offers this advice to Jane, who is feeling alone and sorry for herself because she has been called a liar before the whole school by Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane has suffered with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy and isolation throughout her young life. Helen tries to convince her that people in the school don’t despise her or believe she is a liar, but instead pity her. She urges Jane to follow her conscience and not the crowd and she will find that she has friends.

Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Jane describes the arrival of spring at Lowood, where she and the other girls have suffered under the school’s harsh regime and deprivations. The coming of the pleasant spring weather lifts her spirits and reflects a new hope and inner strength felt by Jane. This is an example of pathatic fallacy, where nature imagery is used to comment on human nature. Here is the fuller quote: “But the privations, or rather the hardships, of Lowood lessened. Spring drew on: she was indeed already come; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated. My wretched feet, flayed and swollen to lameness by the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside under the gentler breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grewover those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”

I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane is at a crossroads in her life. Living in Lowood School for eight years, she realizes that she has been cut off from the real world. She sees a wide world out there of life knowledge to be learned and sensations to be experienced for those with the courage to venture forth. She speaks metaphorically of the “field of hopes and fears” that await such people.

It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. The conflicting excited and nervous emotions a person feels when about to embark on a new job are masterfully described here by Bronte. Feeling alone and adrift, inexperienced, fearful, but glowing with pride and driven by a sense of adventure, Jane is about to begin her new career as governess at Thornfield.

That sky expanded before me, – a blue sea absolved from taint of cloud; the moon ascending it in solemn march; her orb seeming to look up as she left the hill-tops, from behind which she had come, far and farther below her, and aspired to the zenith, midnight dark in its fathomless depth and measureless distance; and for those trembling stars that followed her course; they made my heart tremble, my veins glow when I viewed them.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. On her way back from posting the letter in Hay, Jane lingers at the gates of Thornfield, gazes up at the sky and contemplates the ascending moon and the trembling stars that follow its course. She finds the experience liberating. This world to Jane appears “fathomless” and measureless” as she continues her search for freedom and identity and independence. There is also a sense that something momentous has happened – she soon discovers that the man she met and helped on the way back to Thornfield was her employer.

I should never mistake informality for insolence: one I rather like, the other nothing free-born would submit to, even for a salary.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. Jane flatly tells her Rochester that no free person like herself would tolerate insolence, even if they are being paid. The two are having a conversation about masters and servants, during Jane refers to herself as his “paid subordinate.” Rochester then replies with a suggestion: “I had forgotten the salary! Well then, on that mercenary ground, will you agree to let me hector a little?” But there are some things “free-born” Jane is unwilling to tolerate, even from the “master” who pays her salary. So she tells him where to go with his suggestion, to which Rochester angrily replies: “Humbug! Most things free-born will submit to anything for a salary; therefore, keep to yourself and don’t venture on generalities of which you are intensely ignorant.”

I am paving hell with energy…I am laying down good intentions which I believe durable as flint.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. The passionate Rochester says this to Jane during their discussion on sin and redemption. Jane has been telling him that if he wants to reform and correct his imperfections he will. Rochester is alluding to the saying “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” meaning that the best of intentions can become corrupted and turn to bad. Good use of metaphor is made by Bronte here with the “Paving hell” image.

You are afraid of me, because I talk like a Sphinx.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. Rochester tells Jane that she is afraid of him because he talks in riddles. Using a simile, he compares himself to a sphinx. However, Jane assures him that while she is confused by his puzzling language she is unafraid: “Your language is enigmatical, sir: but though I am bewildered, I am certainly not afraid.” The sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a woman and body of a lion. She killed those who could not answer her riddle.

And was Mr. Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader: gratitude, and many associations, all pleasurable and genial, made his face the object I best liked to see; his presence in a room was more cheering than the brightest fire.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 15. Jane is beginning to fall in love with Rochester. The face of the man she thought earlier as not handsome and sometimes stern is now transformed into something beautiful to her. It is the thing she likes best in Thornfield. The image of a bright, cheery fire is used to describe how Rochester’s presence in a room makes Jane feel.

It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior who does not intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatuus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 16. Jane is talking to herself about her feelings for Rochester and the situation she finds herself in. She concludes that a woman falling in love with her employer, someone who does not intend to marry her, is a really bad idea. It only leads to danger and heartache. She is embarrassed at allowing herself fall for the flattering attentions of Rochester.

The eagerness of a listener quickens the tongue of a narrator.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 19. Jane makes this acidic comment to the old gypsy woman fortune teller. The gypsy has been trying to probe Jane about her feelings on Rochester, marriage and Blanche Ingram’s interest in him. Jane makes clear that she has no interest in gossip or having her fortune told by the gypsy (who happens to be Rochester disguised). In the rest of this passage, we learn that Jane feels like she is wrapped in a dream: “I said this rather to myself than to the gipsy, whose strange talk, voice, manner, had by this time wrapped me in a kind of dream. One unexpected sentence came from her lips after another, till I got involved in a web of mystification; and wondered what unseen spirit had been sitting for weeks by my heart watching its workings and taking record of every pulse.”
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