Jane Eyre Home Quotes

“And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.”
“What we tell you is for your good,” added Bessie, in no harsh voice, “you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 2. Miss Abbot and Bessie scold Jane and lecture her that she must not consider herself as an equal to the other children while living with the Reed family. They are rich and she is poor, she is told. Jane experiences no sense of belonging in the upper class home and is made feel a burden to Mrs. Reed, who will send her away if she doesn’t behave, she is warned.

To this crib I always took my doll. Human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scare-crow. It puzzles me now to remember with what absurd sincerity I doted on this little toy; half-fancying it alive and capable of sensation, I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it happy likewise.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. The doll Jane clung to as a child is symbolic of the sense of home and feeling of being loved that she never had during her dark days with the Reeds. “Human beings must love something,” she says. So she cared for a doll the same way that a child loves a brother, sister or parent. It was her way of coping when she lived with a family that showed her no affection. Using a simile, she compares the shabbiness of her beloved doll to a scarecrow.

Probably, if I had lately left a good home and kind parents, this would have been the hour when I should most keenly have regretted the separation: that wind would then have saddened my heart; this obscure chaos would have disturbed my peace: as it was I derived from both a strange excitement, and reckless and feverish, I wished the wind to howl more wildly, the gloom to deepen to darkness, and the confusion to rise to clamour.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. Had Jane left a happy home to go to Lowood, she believes that she would have regretted her move to the boarding school. But because she spent an unhappy childhood at Gateshead, she is instead excited by her situation at Lowood. This is symbolized by the howling wind and chaos outside her window, an example of pathetic fallacy.

I hold another creed: which no one ever taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and to which I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes Eternity a rest – a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last: with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live in calm, looking to the end.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. The pious and stoical Helen Burns explains her religious faith to the passionate and rebellious Jane. Continuously victimized by her teachers at Lowood, Helen accepts her punishments without protest, confusing the more feisty Jane. But Helen is able to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, believes in forgiveness and looks forward to Heaven as a welcoming place and her true home. So Helen is not affected by the mistreatment of teachers and the harsh conditions at Lowood. Instead she lives this life “in calm, looking to the end” – here she is referring to the Christian goal of getting to Heaven, as well as foreshadowing her own death.

Well has Solomon said – “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.”
I would not now have exchanged Lowood with all its privations, for Gateshead and its daily luxuries.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. Having found love and friendship in Lowood, Jane prefers her school home with its meagre food rations to the loveless luxury of her Aunt Reed’s home at Gateshead. Here she quotes one of Solomon’s proverbs, which advises that it is better to be poor and eat badly than to dine well in a luxurious environment full of hatred.

During these eight years my life was uniform, but not unhappy, because it was not inactive…Miss Temple, through all changes, had thus far continued superintendent of the seminary; to her instruction I owed the best art of my acquirements; her friendship and society had been my continual solace; she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and latterly, companion…From the day she left I was no longer the same; with her was gone every settled feeling, every association that had made Lowood in some degree a home to me.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane reflects on the eight years she spends at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher. During that time she is sustained by the friendship and guidence of Miss Temple, who is like a mother to her. While Miss Temple is there, Lowood is like home to Jane. But from the day Miss Temple leaves, Jane no longer experiences that sense of belonging at the school.

On a dark, misty, raw morning in January, I had left a hostile roof with a desperate and embittered heart – a sense of outlawry and almost of reprobation – to seek the chilly harbourage of Lowood: that bourne so far away and unexplored. The same hostile roof now again rose before me: my prospects were doubtful yet; and I had yet an aching heart. I still felt as a wanderer on the face of the earth; but I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers, and less withering dread of oppression. The gaping wound of my wrongs, too, was now quite healed; and the flame of resentment extinguished.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 21. Jane feels no sense of returning home when she visits her Aunt Reed’s residence at Gateshead. She recalls leaving that hostile roof years before and now that unfriendly roof looms again before her. She no longer feels resentment towards the Reeds for the wrongs they did her and has greater confidence in herself. But she still feels alone and adrift in the world with no sense of belonging – “a wanderer on the face of the earth.”

How people feel when they are returning home from an absence, long or short, I did not know: I had never experienced the sensation. I had known what it was to come back to Gateshead when a child, after a long walk – to be scolded for looking cold or gloomy; and later, what it was to come back from church to Lowood – to long for a plenteous meal and a good fire, and to be unable to get either. Neither of these returnings were very pleasant or desirable: no magnet drew me to a given point, increasing in its strength of attraction the nearer I came. The return to Thornfield was yet to be tried…1 felt glad as the road shortened before me: so glad that I stopped once to ask myself what that joy meant; and to remind reason that it was not to my home I was going, or to a permanent resting-place, or to a place where fond friends looked out for me and waited my arrival.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Jane has yearned all her life to have a place she can call home. She didn’t find this at either Gateshead or Lowood. Having left Thornfield for a brief spell to honor the wish of her dying aunt, she is now happy to be returning. Yet she reminds herself that Thornfield is not her home, or a permanent resting-place where loving friends will greet her on arrival. But she clearly would like it to be.

I knew there would be pleasure in meeting my master again, even though broken by the fear that he was so soon to cease to be my master, and by the knowledge that I was nothing to him; but there was ever in Mr. Rochester (so, at least, I thought) such a wealth of the power of communicating happiness, that to taste but of the crumbs he scattered to stray and stranger birds like me, was to feast genially. His last words were balm. They seemed to imply that it imported something to him whether I forget him or not. And he had spoken of Thornfield as my home – would that it were my home!

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. On returning to Thornfield after a month’s absense in Gateshead Hall, Jane is greeted by Rochester. She is full of the joy of meeting him again. But she still calls him “master,” emphasizing their social class differences. To Jane, the love that she feels for Rochester is seemingly impossible and unrequited. She is happy with the metaphorical “crumbs” of friendship that he scatters to “stranger birds” like her. Yet while there is talk of marriage between him and Blanche Ingram, Jane notes that Rochester has referred to Thornfield as “your home.” This reveals Rochester’s desire that Jane should stay.

Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home – my only home.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 22. Here Jane puts her feelings for Mr. Rochester on full display. She says this to him on her return to Thornfield after being at her aunt’s deathbed in Gateshead, her oppressive childhood home with so many unhappy memories. Jane is happy to be back in Thornfield, it has become like home to her. But home is not always a place and can sometimes be a person. Jane tells Rochester that he is that person to her.

I grieve to leave Thornfield: I love Thornfield – I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life, – momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic, and high. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in, – with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 23. A sobbing Jane opens up to Rochester on her thoughts of losing her new home in Thornfield. There she led a happy and full life and felt a sense of belonging. She is particularly upset at being separated from Rochester, a man she clearly loves. Jane uses a stark simile to describe how having to quit Thornfield is like a death to her. But she makes clear that it is impossible for her to stay as she believes Rochester is to marry Miss Ingram. Rochester has been goading Jane with the news that he is soon to marry Miss Ingram. This is particularly cruel of him. His motive is be to make Jane jealous and discover how deeply she really feels about him.

I skirted fields, and hedges, and lanes till after sunrise. I believe it was a lovely summer morning: I know my shoes, which I had put on when I left the house, were soon wet with dew. But I looked neither to rising sun, nor smiling sky, nor wakening nature. He who is taken out to pass through a fair scene to the scaffold, thinks not of the flowers that smile on his road, but of the block and axe-edge; of the disseverment of bone and vein; of the grave gaping at the end: and I thought of drear flight and homeless wandering – and oh! with agony I thought of what I left.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane describes her feelings on the morning she quit Thornfield, the home she found for herself with Rochester. Now homeless, she wanders past fields and lanes and hedges. In the midst of nature, with its sunrise and smiling flowers, she finds no comfort. She compares having to leave Thornfield and Rochester to the agony of traveling to her own execution.

I touched the heath: it was dry, and yet warm with the heat of the summer day. I looked at the sky; it was pure: a kindly star twinkled just above the chasm ridge. The dew fell, but with propitious softness; no breeze whispered. Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness. To-night, at least, I would be her guest, as I was her child: my mother would lodge me without money and without price.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane’s relationship with the natural world is explored here. After her flight from Thornfield, Jane finds herself on the heath at nightfall and finds nature kind and nurturing. Even when alone and at her most desolate, Jane relies on nature to take care of her and make her feel loved – it is now her home and family.

“And what business have you here?” she continued. “It is not your place. Mary and I sit in the kitchen sometimes, because at home we like to be free, even to license – but you are a visitor, and must go into the parlour.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 29. Jane is in the kitchen at Moor House, but Diana Rivers tells her to go to the parlor because she is a visitor. Diana is implying that Jane doesn’t belong with them in the kitchen, that she is not completely welcome in their home. It is a reminder to Jane of her homeless situation.

“I mean now to open a second school, for girls. I have hired a building for the purpose, with a cottage of two rooms attached to it for the mistress’ house…Will you be this mistress?”…In truth it was humble – but then it was sheltered, and I wanted a safe asylum; it was plodding – but then, compared with that of a governess in a rich house, it was independent; and the fear of servitude with strangers entered my soul like iron; it was not ignoble – not unworthy – not mentally degrading. I made my decision.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 30. When St. John Rivers arranges a school teacher’s position for Jane, she has a home of her own for the first time in her life.

My home, then, when I at last find a home, – is a cottage; a little room with whitewashed walls and a sanded floor, containing four painted chairs and a table, a clock, a cupboard, with two or three plates and dishes, and a set of tea-things in delf. Above, a chamber of the same dimensions as the kitchen, with a deal bedstead and chest of drawers; small, yet too large to be filled with my scanty wardrobe: though the kindness of my gentle and generous friends has increased that, by a modest stock of such things as are necessary.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. Jane has moved to her new home, the schoolroom cottage at the town of Morton. Having accepted the position of running a charity school for poor girls at Morton, the cottage comes with the job. Having been a homeless beggar just weeks earlier, Jane is happy with her new home.

My cottage is clean and weather-proof; my furniture sufficient and commodious. All I see has made me thankful, not despondent. I am not absolutely such a fool and sensualist as to regret the absence of a carpet, a sofa, and silver plate; besides, five weeks ago I had nothing – I was an outcast, a beggar, a vagrant; now I have acquaintance, a home, a business. I wonder at the goodness of God; the generosity of my friends; the bounty of my lot. I do not repine.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 31. After a long series of ups and downs, including being homeless and reduced to beggary, Jane is happy with her new home at Morton. God has been good to her, he believes. Home is a very important theme in Jane Eyre. It isn’t just a place to rest your head at night, but somewhere you can feel safe and comfortable and in a loving relationship with other people. That has been Jane’s lifelong quest. In this passage she is speaking to St. John Rivers.

I had found a brother: one I could be proud of, – one I could love; and two sisters whose qualities were such that, when I knew them but as mere strangers, they had inspired me with genuine affection and admiration. The two girls on whom, kneeling down on the wet ground, and looking through the low, latticed window of Moor House kitchen, I had gazed…were my near kinswomen, and the young and stately gentleman who had found me almost dying at his threshold was my blood relation. Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch! This was wealth indeed! – wealth to the heart! – a mine of pure, genial affections. This was a blessing…not like the ponderous gift of gold: rich and welcome enough in its way, but sobering from its weight.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 33. Jane speaks of her joy of discovering a family and home at last. She has learned that the Rivers family are her blood relatives and cousins. While she has inherited a fortune from her uncle, finding a brother and sisters like St. John, Diana and Mary means more to her than wealth. Using metaphor and simile, Jane speaks of discovering a “mine” of pure affections, not like the “ponderous gift of gold” of her inheritance.

“And you,” I interrupted, “cannot at all imagine the craving I have for fraternal and sisterly love. I never had a home, I never had brothers or sisters; I must and will have them now: you are not reluctant to admit me and own me, are you?”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 33. This passage emphasizes the importance of a sense of home and family to Jane, who as a child did not have the benefit of a loving family. She is speaking here to St. John about her joy in finding a family with him and his sisters Diana and Mary. She desires to share her twenty thousand pounds legacy with the family that saved her and live with them at Moor House.
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