Jane Eyre Freedom Quotes

I scarcely knew what school was; Bessie sometimes spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore backboards, and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise; John Reed hated his school, and abused his master: but John Reed’s tastes were no rule for mine, and if Bessie’s accounts of school-discipline (gathered from the young ladies of a family where she had lived before coming to Gateshead) were somewhat appalling, her details of certain accomplishments attained by these same ladies were, I thought, equally attractive. She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could play, of purses they could net, of French books they could translate; till my spirit was moved to emulation as I listened. Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life.
“I should indeed like to go to school,” was the audible conclusion of my musings.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 3. When apothecary Mr. Lloyd asks Jane if she would like to go to school, she embraces it as an opportunity to escape from the tyranny of Gateshead and begin a new life. She knows little about school, but while John Reed hates it and abuses his teacher, Jane refuses to be ruled by his bad tastes. Instead she learns her understanding of girls’ education from servant Bessie. Bessie’s account of the accomplishments attained by young ladies in school – in painting, singing and studying French books – inspires Jane. Jane sees education as her gateway to freedom from the oppression of the Reeds.

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.

I tired of the routine of eight years in one afternoon. I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication; for change, stimulus: that petition, too, seemed swept off into vague space: “Then,” I cried, half desperate, “grant me at least a new servitude!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane has spent six years as a student at Lowood and two years a teacher, and her mentor Miss Temple has married and moved away to a distant country. The routine of Lowood is no longer enough for Jane and she believes that is time for a change in her life. She feels that her liberty is being metaphorically scattered on the wind. She prays to God to grant her freedom, or at least a “new servitude.”

“A new servitude! There is something in that,” I soliloquised (mentally, be it understood; I did not talk aloud). “I know there is, because it does not sound too sweet; it is not like such words as Liberty, Excitement, Enjoyment: delightful sounds truly; but no more than sounds for me; and so hollow and fleeting that it is mere waste of time to listen to them. But Servitude! That must be matter of fact. Any one may serve: I have served here eight years; now all I want is to serve elsewhere.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane yearns for freedom and a change after serving at Lowood for eight years. But realistically she knows that what faces her outside the school is a continuation of her life of service – “a new servitude.”

I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along dim sky-line – that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen: that I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach. I valued what was good in Mrs. Fairfax, and what was good in Adele; but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold. Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. Jane climbs to the highest point in Thornfield Hall, still feeling the restlessness that drove her to leave her teaching job Lowood School for the position of governess and tutor to Adele. Jane very much values her new life in Thornfield and the goodness of housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax and young pupil Adele. But she is fascinated by the great wide world out there and desires more for herself. She aches for something beyond and above her role of governess, which her social class and gender have condemned her to. Jane continues to struggle towards her goal of complete freedom and independence as a woman.

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. As she embarks on her her new life at Thornfield, Jane contemplates her position in society and that of marginalized and oppressed women like herself. Unhappy with their lot, she says that millions of women like her are in silent revolt – although the rebellious Jane is not one to suffer in silence. In this chapter, Bronte criticizes through the character of Jane the oppressive nature of Victorian society for women, especially those from the lower social classes.

Women are supposed to be very calm generally; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. Jane expresses these feelings as she looks out over the rooftop of Thornfield Hall. She speaks out strongly against the sexist treatment of women and the restrictions her gender faces in Victorian society. She rails against expectations that women remain calm and submissive and confine themselves to baking, knitting, playing piano and embroidery. She demands freedom from “restraint” and “stagnation” and equality with men, saying that women have the same feelings as men. Jane’s rebellion against the limitations and confinements of her lot is a powerful example of early feminism, making this the first major feminist novel. Jane’s revolt against social injustice is not just a story for Victorian England. It is one that is still very relevant to today’s society.

I did not like re-entering Thornfield. To pass its threshold was to return to stagnation; to cross the silent hall, to ascend the darksome staircase, to seek my own lonely little room, and then to meet tranquil Mrs. Fairfax, and spend the long winter evening with her, and her only, was to quell wholly the faint excitement wakened by my walk, – to slip again over my faculties the viewless fetters of an uniform and too still existence; of an existence whose very privileges of security and ease I was becoming incapable of appreciating.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. Jane is restless and feels imprisoned in Thornfield, where she speaks of a life of “stagnation” and the “lonely little room” she lives in. The passage paints a picture of Jane feeling trapped in a life of uniformity and yearning to break free from her fetters to experience freedom and opportunity.

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 see, you laugh rarely; but you can laugh very merrily; believe me, you are not naturally austere, any more than I am naturally vicious. The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your features, muffling your voice, and restricting your limbs; and you fear in the presence of a man and a brother – or father, or master, or what you will – to smile too gayly, speak too freely, or move too quickly; but in time, I think you will learn to be natural with me, as I find it impossible to be conventional with you; and then your looks and movements will have more vivacity and variety than they dare offer now. I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 14. As Rochester gets to know Jane he believes there is more to her behind her outward reserve. Her time in Lowood has held her back and stifled her as a person, he feel. As a result she is afraid to laugh, speak freely or move too fast. He is confident that she will loosen up and be more natural around him. Using an extended metaphor he compares her to a caged bird that will soar when set free.

“Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild, frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.”
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. Mr. Rochester does not want Jane to leave him after she declares that she is because he is “as good as a married man.” He uses a nature simile to compare her to a desperate wild bird tearing its own feathers. However, the strong-willed and determined Jane rejects this imagery. She exerts her independence as a woman by declaring that she is no caged bird and is leaving to go to Ireland. Jane is very much a free woman and a revolutionary ahead of her time. She rejects the patriarchy of a Victorian society that treats women as subservient to men.

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 told him in a new series of whispers, that he might as well buy me a gold gown with a silver bonnet at once: I should certainly never venture to wear his choice…the more he bought me, the more my cheek burned with a sense of annoyance and degradation…if I had ever so small independecy; I never can bear being dressed like a doll by Mr Rochester, or sitting like a second Danae with the golden shower falling daily round me…He smiled; and I thought his smile was such as a sultan might … bestow on a slave his gold and gems had enriched.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 24. After agreeing to marry Rochester, Jane is uncomfortable during a shopping trip with him as he insists on showering her with luxurious gifts and clothes. She has no wish to be Rochester’s decorated possession and a trophy wife. She uses apt simile images to describe her displeasure – “dressed like a doll” and “sitting like a second Danae.” Jane wants to be free and independent, not a bejeweled slave and second Danae. In Greek mythology Danae was an Argive princess locked in a bronze chamber by her father. He only freed her after Zeus disguised himself as a shower of gold, cascaded through the roof of her prison and impregnated her.

Which is better? – To have surrendered to temptation; listened to passion; made no painful effort – no struggle; but to have sunk down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it; wakened in a southern clime, amongst the luxuries of a pleasure villa: to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester’s mistress; delirious with his love half my time…But where am I wandering, and what am I saying, and, above all, feeling? Whether it is better, I ask, to be a slave in a fool’s paradise at Marseilles – fevered with delusive bliss one hour – suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse and shame the next – or to be a village school-mistress, free and honest, in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England?

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. Jane is speaking metaphorically about her relationship with Rochester and her decision not to stay as his mistress. Describing it as a “silken snare,” she believes that it would have brought her down the path of shame and slavery. It would have been wrong to surrender to temptation and passion, she feels. Better to be a free and honest village school teacher, she tells herself. But Jane isn’t completely happy and doesn’t exactly love her new teaching job.

I looked at the blank wall: it seemed a sky thick with ascending stars; – every one lighted me to a purpose or delight. Those who had saved my life, whom, till this hour, I had loved barrenly, I could now benefit. They were under a yoke; – I could free them: they were scattered; – I could reunite them: the independence, the affluence, which was mine, might be theirs too…Now the wealth did not weigh on me: now it was not a mere bequest of coin, – it was a legacy of life, hope, enjoyment.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 33. A big-hearted woman, Jane is extraordinarily generous and quite unique for a wealthy woman of her era. She decides to share her “ponderous gift of gold” – her inheritance – with her new-found family. Her cousins St. John, Diana, and Mary Rivers had cared for her and shown her love, saving her life. She could now help free the Rivers from their “yoke,” having herself known what it is to struggle in life. She hopes that money will make them financially independent, allowing them to live together without working.

I found him a very patient, very forbearing, and yet an exacting master; he expected me to do a great deal, and when I fulfilled his expectations he, in his own way, fully testified his approbation. By degrees, he acquired a certain influence over me that took away my liberty of mind…I could no longer talk or laugh freely when he was by…When he said “go,” I went! “come,” I came; “do this,” I did it. But I did not love my servitude: I wished, many a time, he had continued to neglect me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. St. John insists that Jane become his student and learn the Hindostenee language. While she concedes that he is patient, she finds him extremely demanding. Jane goes on to describe a form of mental imprisonment imposed on her. It is done by a man who clearly likes to exert a domineering and controlling influence over a woman. Jane doesn’t like her “servitude” one bit. Her cousin St. John behaves as her “master,” takes away her mental freedom and prevents her from being able to talk or laugh freely. St. John doesn’t see Jane as an independent person with free will and her own personal inclinations.

As for me, I daily wished more to please him: but to do so, I felt daily more and more that I must disown half of my nature, stifle half my faculties, wrest my tastes from their original bent, force myself to the adoption of pursuits for which I had no natural vocation. He wanted to train me to an elevation I could never reach; it racked me hourly to aspire to the standard he uplifted. The thing was as impossible as to mould my irregular features to his correct and classic pattern, to give to my changeable green eyes the sea-blue tint and solemn lustre of his own.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. As Jane tries to please St. John, she learns that in order to do so she has to become somebody she is not. Jane has always been her own person, someone of integrity who treasures independence and freedom. The manipulative and controlling St. John continues to force her to change her own nature and adopt pursuits she finds impossible. Using a simile she compares this to trying to mold her irregular face to his correct features, and change her green eyes to the sea blue of his.

He prizes me as a soldier would a good weapon; and that is all. Unmarried to him, this would never grieve me; but can I let him complete his calculations – coolly put into practice his plans – go through the wedding ceremony? Can I receive from him the bridal ring, endure all the forms of love (which I doubt he would not scrupulously observe) and know that the spirit was quite absent? Can I bear the consciousness that every endearment he bestows is a sacrifice made on principle? No: such a martyrdom would be monstrous. I will never undergo it. As his sister, I might accompany him – not as his wife: I will tell him so.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. Jane says this to herself after St. John Rivers asks her to marry him and accompany him on his missionary work to India. But Jane knows that he will never love her. St. John “has no more of a husband’s heart for me than that frowning giant of a rock, down which the stream is foaming in yonder gorge.” Jane decides to make clear that if she goes, it will be as his equal and they go as brother and sister, not husband and wife. “I am ready to go to India, if I may go free,” she tells him after the above passage.

“Shall I?” I said briefly; and I looked at his features, beautiful in their harmony, but strangely formidable in their still severity; at his brow, commanding, but not open; at his eyes, bright and deep and searching, but never soft; at his tall imposing figure; and fancied myself in idea his wife. Oh! it would never do! As his curate, his comrade, all would be right: I would cross oceans with him in that capacity; toil under Eastern suns, in Asian deserts with him in that office; admire and emulate his courage and devotion and vigour: accommodate quietly to his masterhood; smile undisturbed at his ineradicable ambition…I should suffer often, no doubt, attached to him only in this capacity: my body would be under a rather stringent yoke, but my heart and mind would be free. I should still have my unblighted self to turn to: my natural unenslaved feelings with which to communicate in moments of loneliness. There would be recesses in my mind which would be only mine, to which he never came; and sentiments growing there, fresh and sheltered, which his austerity could never blight, nor his measured warrior-march trample down: but as his wife – at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked – forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital – this would be unendurable.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 34. We get a glimpse into Jane’s inner conflict over St. John’s proposal that she should join him as his wife on his missionary trip to India. The proposal briefly tempts her. It would be a rare opportunity to perform good deeds for other people, while fulfilling her own personal needs. Looking at his beautiful, commanding features, she fancies herself “in idea” his wife. But then she realizes the reality of the kind of prison she would live in under St. John’s masculine dominance. She speaks of his “warrior-march” and his “austerity” and the “stringent yoke” she would be tied to under his “masterhood.” Using metaphorical imagery, she decides that the “fire” of her nature and its “imprisoned flame” would not endure being his wife.

I believe I must say yes – and yet I shudder. Alas! If I join St. John, I abandon half myself: if I go to India, I go to premature death.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 35. We get a glimpse into Jane’s conflicted inner thoughts as she reconsiders St. John’s proposal of marriage, having at first refused him. But she realizes that if she goes with him to India, she will be entering a kind of servitude and abandoning her freedom. The passage above is part of this fuller quote: “I must seek another interest in life to replace the one lost: is not the occupation he now offers me truly the most glorious man can adopt or God assign? Is it not, by its noble cares and sublime results, the one best calculated to fill the void file by uptorn affections and demolished hopes? I believe I must say, Yes – and yet I shudder. Alas! If I join St. John, I abandon half myself: if I go to India, I go to premature death.”

I broke from St. John, who had followed, and would have detained me. It was my turn to assume ascendency. My powers were in play and in force. I told him to forbear question or remark; I desired him to leave me; I must, and would be alone. He obeyed at once. Where there is energy to command well enough, obedience never fails. I mounted to my chamber, locked myself in, fell on my knees, and prayed in my way – a different way to St. John’s – but effective in its own fashion. I seemed to penetrate very near a Mighty Spirit, and my soul rushed out in gratitude at His feet. I rose from the thanksgiving – took a resolve – and lay down, unscared, enlightened – eager but for the daylight.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 35. Immediately after hearing Rochester’s voice calling her, Jane feels empowered to break away from St. John. Asserting herself against St. John’s religious strength, she commands him to go away and leave her alone. This is a powerful act of self-assertion in which she takes her power back from St. John. Then she goes to her bedroom and offers a thanksgiving prayer to God – for her rescue from the despotic clergyman. Having experienced St. John’s unloving and controlling ways, Jane knows that she loves Rochester.

I recalled the voice I had heard; again I questioned whence it came, as vainly as before: it seemed in me – not in the external world. I asked, was it a mere nervous impression – a delusion? I could not conceive or believe: it was more like an inspiration. The wondrous shock of feeling had come like the earthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and Silas’s prison: it had opened the doors of the soul’s cell, and loosed its bands – it had wakened it out of its sleep, whence it sprang trembling, listening, aghast; then vibrated thrice a cry on my startled ear, an din my quaking heart, and through my spirit; which neither feared nor shook, but exulted as if in joy over the success of one effort it had been privileged to make, independent of the cumbrous body.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 36. Jane believes that hearing Rochester’s voice calling her is no delusion, but an inspiration. Using a Biblical simile, she compares the moment to the earthquake which shook the apostle Paul and Silas’s prison, freeing them. It has opened the doors of her soul’s cell and freed it from St. John’s restraints. She describes how the joy she feels is like a spiritual experience – “independent of the cumbrous body.”

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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