Jane Eyre Beauty and Appearances Quotes

“Poor Miss Jane is to be pitied, too, Abbot.”
“Yes,” reponded Abbot, “if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that.
“Not a great deal, to be sure,” agreed Bessie: “at any rate, a beauty like Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the same condition.”
“Yes, I doat on Miss Georgiana!” cried the fervent Abbot. “Little darling! – with her long curls and her blue eyes, and such a sweet colour as she has; just as if she were painted!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 3. While Jane is locked in the frightful red room for punishment, Mrs. Reed’s servants Bessie and Abbot discuss her physical appearance and lack of beauty. To them plain Jane is an ugly girl who is not pretty like her cousin Georgiana and so doesn’t deserve any compassion. They find it hard to have sympathy for the unfortunate Jane because she doesn’t have cute curls and pretty blue eyes like her cousin.

Mrs. Reed might be at that time, some six or seven and thirty; she was a woman of robust frame, square-shouldered and strong-limbed, not tall, and, though stout, not obese. She had a somewhat large face, the under-jaw being much developed and very solid; her brow was low, her chin large and prominent, mouth and nose sufficiently regular; under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of truth; her skin was dark and opaque, her hair nearly flaxen; her constitution was sound as a bell; illness never came near her; she was an exact, clever manager; her household and tenantry were thoroughly under her control; she was an exact, clever manager; her household and tenantry were thoroughly under her control; her children only at times defied her authority and laughed it to scorn; she dressed well, and had a presence and port calculated to set off handsome attire.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Jane describes her aunt’s appearance and character while watching her sew. Mrs. Reed is about 36 or 37 at this time. Her false character and poor relationship with the truth is emphasized when Jane tells us that she has “an eye devoid of truth.” She is also portrayed at controlling.

Julia Severn, ma’am! And why has she, or any other, curled hair? Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly – here in an evangelical, charitable establishment – as to wear her hair one mass of curls?…I wish these girls to be the children of Grace: and why that abundance? I have again and again intimated that I desire the hair to be arranged closely, modestly, plainly. Miss Temple, that girl’s hair must be cut off entirely; I will send a barber to-morrow.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. Lowood supervisor Mr. Brocklehurst objects to the girls in the school having curly hair, implying that it is ungodly to wear anything other than straight hair. Singling out one girl who has naturally curly red hair, he orders that it should all be cut off in the interests of modesty.

“I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is not of this world; my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts of the flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shame-facedness and sobriety – not with braided hair and costly apparel and each of the young persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits which vanity itself might have woven; these, I repeat, must be cut off; think of the time wasted, of – ”
Mr. Brocklehurst was here interrupted: three other visitors, ladies, now entered the room. They ought to have come a little sooner, to have heard his lecture on dress, for they were splendidly attired in velvet, silk, and furs. The two younger of the trio (fine girls of sixteen and seventeen) had grey beaver hats, then in fashion, shaded with ostrich plumes, and from under the brim of this graceful head-dress fell a profusion of light tresses, elaborately curled; the elder lady was enveloped in a costly velvet shawl, trimmed with ermine, and she wore a false front of French curls.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 7. Mr. Brockehurst lectures the Lowood pupils and their teacher Miss Temple on the importance of wearing plain clothes and straight hair with no curls. He believes that he is on a mission from God to save them from the “lusts of the flesh.” But the barefaced religious hypocrisy and irony of what he preaches are exposed when his wife and two daughters enter the room. They are adorned in luxurious clothing, covered in expensive silk and velvet and animal furs, and are displaying elaborate curls! While he and his family permit themselves to live extravagantly, the poor orphaned girls of Lowood must live plain lives.

As to Helen Burns, I was struck with wonder. The refreshing meal, the brilliant fire, the presence and kindness of her beloved instructress, or perhaps more than all these, something in her own unique mind, had roused her powers within her. They woke, they kindled; first, they glowed in the bright tint of her cheek, which till this hour I had never seen but pale and bloodless; then they shone in the liquid lustre of her eyes, which had suddenly acquired a beauty more singular than that of Miss Temple’s – a beauty neither of fine colour, nor long eyelash, nor penciled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance. Then her soul sat on her lips, and language flowed…Such was the characteristic of Helen’s discourse on that, to me, memorable evening; her spirit seemed hastening to live within a very brief span as much as many live during a protracted existence.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Helen’s inner beauty and spirituality shine forth to Jane during a wonderful night they spend together with Miss Temple at Lowood. Jane is wonder-struck by Helen and sees her as unique and angel-like. To Jane she becomes a kind of heavenly spirit with a radiance about her and a mystical power and strength, “her soul sat on her lips” as she speaks.

“You are genteel enough; you look like a lady, and it is as much as ever I expected of you: you were no beauty as a child…I dare say you are clever, though,” continued Bessie, by way of solace. “What can you do? Can you play on the piano?”
“A little.”
There was one in the room; Bessie went and opened it, and then asked me to sit down and give her a tune: I played a waltz or two and she was charmed.
“The Miss Reeds could not play as well!” she said exultingly. “I always said you would surpass them in learning.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Now a teacher at Lowood and aged eighteen, Jane has an unexpected visit from Bessie Lee. The Reeds’ nursemaid is impressed by Jane’s ladylike appearance and her musical accomplishments.

I rose; I dressed myself with care: obliged to be plain – for I had no article of attire that was not made with extreme simplicity – I was still by nature solicitous to be neat. It was not my habit to be disregardful of appearance, or careless of the impression I made: on the contrary, I ever wished to look as well as I could, and to please as much as my want of beauty would permit. I sometimes regretted that I was not handsomer: I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall, stately and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked. And why had I these aspirations and these regrets? It would be difficult to say: I could not then distinctly say it to myself; yet I had a reason, and a logical, natural reason too.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. On her first morning at Thornfield in her new role of governess, Jane takes care to look her best and be neatly dressed. It saddens her that she is not physically attractive. She laments about her plainness and wishes that she was more beautiful – with rosy cheeks, cherry mouth and a well developed figure.

Two wax candles stood lighted on the table, and two on the mantel-piece; basking in the light and heat of a superb fire lay Pilot; Adele knelt near him. Half reclined on a couch appeared Mr. Rochester, his foot supported by the cushion; he was looking at Adele and the dog; the fire shone full on his face. I knew my traveller, with his broad and jetty eyebrows, his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair. I recognised his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty, his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw – yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake…I suppose it was a good figure in the athletic sense of the term, broad-chested and thin-flanked, though neither tall nor graceful.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 13. Jane meets with Mr. Rochester inside Thornfield for the first time. She recognizing that he was the traveler she met on the road the night before. His facial looks have more character about them than beauty. In her physical description of him Jane uses words like “decisive” and “grim,” suggesting that he was like that in character also.

“You examine me, Miss Eyre,” said he. “Do you think me handsome?”
I should have deliberated, have replied to this question by something conventionally vague and polite; but the answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I was aware: “No, sir.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. Mr. Rochester gets flirtatious with Jane here, asking if she thinks him handsome. When Jane defiantly and cheekily says “no,” she is speaking the truth as Rochester is not classically handsome. But she is also showing that she is a woman with an independent mind who speaks honestly and refuses to flatter him.

I am sure most people would have thought him an ugly man; yet there was so much unconscious pride in his port; so much case in his demeanour; such a look of complete indifference to his own external appearance; so haughty a reliance on the power of other qualities, intrinsic or adventitious, to atone for the lack of mere personal attractiveness, that in looking at him, one inevitably shared the indifference; and even in a blind, imperfect sense, put faith in the confidence.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. Jane doesn’t find Mr. Rochester a handsome looking man in the conventional sense. But she is able to go beyond surface looks and sees that there is an attractiveness in his manner and bearing and his personality.

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.

Tall, fine bust, sloping shoulders; long, graceful neck: olive complexion, dark and clear; noble features; eyes rather like Mr. Rochester’s: large and black, and as brilliant as her jewels. And then she had such a fine head of hair; ravenblack.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 16. Mrs. Fairfax describes to Jane the beautiful Blanche Ingram, said to be greatly admired for her musical accomplishments. Mrs. Fairfax tells how she heard Blanche and Rochester sing a duet together. An apt simile is used to compare the brillance of the wealthy socialite’s eyes to her jewels.

Listen, then, Jane Eyre, to your sentence: to-morrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faithfully, without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity; write under it, “Portrait of a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain.”
Afterwards, take a piece of smooth ivory – you have one prepared in your drawing-box: take your palette, mix your freshest, finest, clearest tints; choose your most delicate camel-hair pencils; delineate carefully the loveliest face you can imagine; paint it in your softest shades and sweetest lines, according to the description given by Mrs. Fairfax of Blanche Ingram; remember the raven ringlets, the oriental eye; – What! you revert to Mr. Rochester as a model! Order! No snivel! – no sentiment! – no regret! I will endure only sense and resolution. Recall the august yet harmonious lineaments, the Grecian neck and bust; let the round and dazzling arm be visible, and the delicate hand; omit neither diamond ring nor gold bracelet; portray faithfully the attire, aërial lace and glistening satin, graceful scarf and golden rose; call it “Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 16. Jane realizes that she is falling in love with Rochester, so she gives herself a reality check. She compares herself to the attractive and high-class Blanche Ingram, whom Rochester is due to meet at a party of aristocrats. In the contest for Rochester’s love, Jane decides that Blanche is the clear winner. She goes on to paint imaginary portraits of herself and Miss Ingram. In her self-portrait in chalk, she depicts herself as “plain” Jane the governess, omitting none of her defects. But Blanche’s portrait, on the other hand, is in color and on ivory and depicts her as a beautiful and accomplished woman of rank.

And did I now think Miss Ingram such a choice as Mr. Rochester would be likely to make? I could not tell – I did not know his taste in female beauty. If he liked the majestic, she was the very type of majesty; then she was so accomplished, sprightly. Most gentlemen would admire her, I thought; and that he DID admire her, I already seemed to have obtained proof; to remove the last shade of doubt, it remained but to see them together.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 17. After Rochester arrives back to the house with his guests, including Blanche Ingram, Jane talks here about her impressions of Blanche. She tries to figure out Rochester’s taste in female beauty. Most men would admire such a majestic and accomplished beauty as Blanche, she says. Jane believes that Rochester is attracted to her.

I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 17. Jane expresses her love for Rochester unreservedly and unashamedly. After his two-week absense, she can finally admit her love for him, having before now tried to talk herself out of it. It is also clear that what attracts her to him is not any physical beauty he possesses, which he doesn’t have, but what lies on the inside. Here is the fuller quote: “Most true is it that ‘beauty is in the eye of the gazer.’ My master’s colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth, – all energy, decision, will, – were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me, – that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.”

I liked his physiognomy even less than before: it struck me as being at the same time unsettled and inanimate. His eye wandered, and had no meaning in its wandering: this gave him an odd look, such as I never remembered to have seen. For a handsome and not an unamiable-looking man, he repelled me exceedingly: there was no power in that smooth-skinned face of a full oval shape: no firmness in that aquiline nose and small cherry mouth; there was no thought on the low, even forehead; no command in that blank, brown eye.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 18. Jane is describing Richard Mason, who is visiting Thornfield to speak with Rochester. Mason, brother to Bertha Mason, is a significant minor character in the story. It is clear Jane doesn’t like his appearance and this is foreshadowing of the trouble he brings with him to Thornfield.

Where was I? Did I wake or sleep? Had I been dreaming? Did I dream still? The old woman’s voice had changed: her accent, her gesture, and all were familiar to me as my own face in a glass – as the speech of my own tongue…I looked…The flame illuminated her hand stretched out: roused now, and on the alert for discoveries, I at once noticed that hand. It was no more the withered limb of eld than my own; it was a rounded supple member, with smooth fingers…a broad ring flashed on the little finger, and stooping forward, I looked at it, and saw a gem I had seen a hundred times before. Again, I looked at the face; which was no longer turned from me…
“Well, Jane, do you know me?” asked the familiar voice…
And Mr. Rochester stepped out of his disguise.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 19. As she listens to the gypsy fortune teller, Jane is a dream-like state. But then the voice changes and Jane observes the gypsy’s hand stretched out and illuminated by the flame of the fire. She recognizes a ring on the old hag’s finger that she has seen countless times before. The true identity is revealed. The hag turns out to be no hag, but Mr. Rochester.

“I tell you I must go!” I retorted, roused to something like passion. “Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton? – a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; – it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, – as we are!”
“As we are!” repeated Mr. Rochester – “so,” he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: “so, Jane!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Jane makes a passionate speech to Rochester, proclaiming her self-worth and equality, despite being of a poorer class than him. Her emotional outpouring comes after Rochester pretends to be engaged to beautiful socialite Miss Ingram, yet insists that Jane must stay. Despite her love for Rochester, Jane is adament that she will leave, asserting herself as an independent woman equal to Rochester. Using metaphors of food – “morsel of bread” and “drop of living water” – Jane reveals the depth of her passion for him. Had she been gifted with Miss Ingram’s beauty and wealth, he would find it hard to leave her, she boldly tells Rochester. After Jane lays bare her feelings for Rochester, he embraces and kisses her as an equal.

While arranging my hair, I looked at my face in the glass, and felt it was no longer plain; there was hope in its aspect and life in its colour; and my eyes seemed as if they had beheld the fount of fruition, and borrowed beams from the lustrous ripple. I had often been unwilling to look at my master, because I feared he could not be pleased at my look, but I was sure I might lift my face to his now and not cool his affection by its expression. I took a plain but clean and light summer dress from my drawer and put it on; it seemed no attire had ever so well become me, because none had I ever worn in so blissful a mood.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. Having always considered herself plain, Jane now looks at herself in the mirror and finds herself transformed. Seeing herself through the prism of Rochester’s love and desire to marry her, she believes that she is no longer plain-looking and feels a new woman. It is amazing what a marriage proposal does to your appearance and how you view yourself.

“This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send me certain jewels he has in his keeping, – heirlooms for the ladies of Thornfield. In a day or two I hope to pour them into your lap: for every privilege, every attention shall be yours that I would accord a peer’s daughter, if about to marry her.”
“Oh, sir! – never rain jewels! I don’t like to hear them spoken of. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange: I would rather not have them.”
“I will myself put the diamond chain round your neck, and the circlet on your forehead, – which it will become: for nature, at least, has stamped her patent of nobility on this brow, Jane; and I will clasp the bracelets on these fine wrists, and load these fairy-like fingers with rings.”
“No, no, sir! think of other subjects, and speak of other things, and in another strain. Don’t address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain, Quakerish governess.”
“You are a beauty in my eyes, and a beauty just after the desire of my heart, – delicate and aërial.”
“Puny and insignificant, you mean. You are dreaming, sir, – or you are sneering. For God’s sake don’t be ironical!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. After proposing to Jane, Rochester wants to drape her in the family jewels and finery for their wedding, as befits her new social position. He wants the world to pay attention to Jane, as she is a beauty in his eyes. But the modest Jane doesn’t want any of this, it doesn’t feel natural or comfortable to her. She protests that she doesn’t see herself as a beauty, but is “your plain, Quakerish governess.” And she admonishes Rochester not to be ironical by calling her a beauty.

And then you won’t know me, sir; and I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer, but an ape in a harlequin’s jacket – a jay in borrowed plumes.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. A horrified Jane responds thus to Rochester after he tells her: “I will attire my Jane in satin and lace, and she shall have roses in her hair; and I will cover the head I love best with a priceless veil.” Jane has just accepted Rochester’s marriage proposal and he wants the world to acknowledge her beauty by showering her with jewelry and fine clothes. But Jane resists this, refusing to change her outward appearance to suit her new social position. She uses two apt animal metaphors to emphasize how unnatural this is to plain Jane. She would be “an ape in a harlequin’s jacket” or “a jay in borrowed plumes.” Jane doesn’t fit the stereotypical image of the wealthy Victorian man’s wife who dresses to demonstrate her high station. She values too much her spirit of independence and freedom and the desire to be her natural self. This spirit is one of the reasons Rochester is so drawn to Jane.

I was sent out to Jamaica, to espouse a bride already courted for me. My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram: tall, dark, and majestic. Her family wished to secure me because I was of a good race; and so did she. They showed her to me in parties, splendidly dressed. I seldom saw her alone, and had very little private conversation with her. She flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me. I was dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester tells Jane the story of his wife Bertha, a woman of Creole descent. He was shipped to Jamaica to wed her in a marriage arranged by his “avaricious, grasping” father. His father had left his estate to Rochester’s older brother, so the father arranged for Rochester to marry a wealthy woman. Bertha was supposted to receive a fortune of thirty thousand pounds from her father. Bertha was a beautiful woman and Rochester was dazzled by her and thought he loved her.

He was young – perhaps from twenty-eight to thirty – tall, slender; his face riveted the eye; it was like a Greek face, very pure in outline; quite a straight, classic nose; quite an Athenian mouth and chin…He might well be a little shocked at the irregularity of my lineaments, his own being so harmonious. His eyes were large and blue, with brown lashes; his high forehead, colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless locks of fair hair.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 29. Jane describes the physical features of St. John Rivers, who came to Jane’s rescue when he found her in a desperate state on his doorstep. Words like “pure” and “straight” hint at the personality of the young man of high principles who wants to become a missionary. In facial looks, St. John is about as opposite to Rochester as you can get. One is fair and handsome, the other dark and stern.

His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever: his port was still erect, his hair was still raven-black; nor were his features altered or sunk: not in one year’s space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled, or his vigourous prime blighted. But in his countenance, I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding – that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe. The caged eagle, whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished, might look as looked that sightless Samson.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. In the past Rochester has compared Jane to a caged bird. But now their situations are reversed. Jane is free and Rochester is blind and has lost one of his hands. While his physical image is the same, she notices a change in his face following the injuries he received and the devastation of his house. Jane describes him as looking “fettered” and uses a bird metaphor to compare him to a “caged eagle” – still powerful but now weakened. She likens him to the blind Biblical hero Sampson, showing that he is still a strong, attractive man to her.
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