Jane Eyre Chestnut Tree Quotes

And when friends are on the eve of separation, they like to spend the little time that remains to them close to each other. Come! we’ll talk over the voyage and the parting quietly half-an-hour or so, while the stars enter into their shining life up in heaven yonder: here is the chestnut tree: here is the bench at its old roots. Come, we will sit there in peace to-night, though we should never more be destined to sit there together.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Mr. Rochester says this to Jane as they walk towards the horse chestnut tree in the orchard at Thornfield. He is telling her that he is to marry Miss Ingram and Jane must leave Thornfield. He has secured employment in Ireland for her and tells her that will never see each other again.

A waft of wind came sweeping down the laurel-walk, and trembled through the boughs of the chestnut: it wandered away – away – to an indefinite distance – it died. The nightingale’s song was then the only voice of the hour: in listening to it, I again wept.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. The wind trembling through the chestnut tree branches and dying off in the distance is a metaphor for Jane’s emotions. Rochester, the man she loves, has just asked her to marry him. But she believes that she must quit Thornfield for a position of governess in Ireland since Rochester is already engaged. The wind and tears foreshadow a troubled relationship ahead that will cause pain.

But what had befallen the night? The moon was not yet set, and we were all in shadow: I could scarcely see my master’s face, near as I was. And what ailed the chestnut tree? it writhed and groaned; while wind roared in the laurel walk, and came sweeping over us.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. After Jane joyfully accepts Mr. Rochester’s marriage proposal, the weather takes a sudden turn for the worse and the chestnut tree writhes and groans in the wind. In this passage we see an example of pathetic fallacy, where nature and the elements combine to foreshadow painful times ahead for the couple’s relationship.

Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adele came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. In the last lines of this chapter we learn that the great chestnut tree, a symbol of Jane and Rochester’s relationship, has been struck by lighting. It was underneath it that Rochester proposed to Jane. The splitting of the tree foreshadows that the couple will also be split by the revelation of the existence of Rochester’s secret wife Bertha. This is a dramatic example of the use of pathetic fallacy.

Descending the laurel walk I faced the wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up, black and riven: the trunk, split down the centre, gasped ghastly. The cloven halves were not broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them unsundered below; though the community of vitality was destroyed – the sap could flow no more: their great boughs on each side were dead, and next winter’s tempests would be sure to fell one or both to earth: as yet, however, they might be said to form one tree – a ruin, but an entire ruin.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 25. On the day of her wedding Jane revisits the chestnut tree, which has been split in two by a lightning storm the night before. The tree is a symbol of her and Mr. Rochester’s relationship, it is a ruin and their relationship will soon be also. Like the tree, they will break apart and endure hardship and rocky times. But just as the tree’s strong base and roots keep the broken halves from being completely sundered, Jane and Rochester’s will eventually bring them back together.

“I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard,” he remarked ere long. “And what right would that ruin to have bid a budding woodbine cover its decay with freshness?”
“You are no ruin sir – no lighting-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. Rochester uses nature metaphors to compare himself to the splintered chestnut tree in the orchard at Thornfield, and Jane to a budding new plant. He feels that he has no right to a fresh young woman like Jane because of his ruined body. However, Jane tells him that his strength makes him green and vigorous and will provide safety for plants that grow around him.
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