Jane Eyre 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.

As I instantly turned against him, roused by the same sentiment of deep ire and desperate revolt which had stirred my corruption before, he thought it better to desist, and ran from me tittering execrations, and vowing I had burst his nose.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. No longer willing to be pushed around, Jane is determined to resist further abuse in the Reed home, especially from John. When he begins to chastise her, she turns on him, and she scurries off complaining that she burst his nose.

“They are not fit to associate with me.”
Mrs. Reed was rather a stout woman; but, on hearing this strange and audacious declaration, she ran nimbly up the stair, swept me like a whirlwind into the nursery, and crushing me down on the edge of my crib, dared me in an emphatic voice to rise from that place, or utter one syllable during the remainder of the day.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. When the rebellious Jane hits John Reed on the nose for attempting to abuse her and declares that the Reed children are not fit to associate with her, Mrs. Reed attacks her. A simile describes Mrs. Reed sweeping Jane “like a whirlwind” into the nursery, where Jane is confined and told to shut up by Mrs. Reed, who boxes her ears.

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.

I looked up at – a black pillar! – such, at least, appeared to me, at first sight, the straight, narrow, sable-clad shape standing erect on the rug: the grim face at the top was like a carved mask, placed above the shaft by way of capital.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Mr. Brocklehurst appears as an intimidating figure when Jane first encounters him on his visit to the Reed home. The supervisor of Lowood School is not even described as a man, but rather a grim statue. A metaphor compares him to a black pillar and a simile likens his face to a carved mask.

“No sight so sad as that of a naughty child,” he began, “especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?”
“They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer.
“And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”
“A pit full of fire.”
“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”
“No, sir.”
“What must you do to avoid it?”
I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: “I must keep in good health, and not die.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. the clergyman and supervisor of Lowood Mr. Brocklehurst questions young Jane about hell, where the wicked are said to be sent after death. Jane’s instinctive answer about how to avoid hell is interesting – stay in good health and don’t die! It tells us quite a lot about the survival and rebellious instincts of the child Jane which will serve well throughout her life.

“Psalms are not interesting,” I remarked.
“That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God to change it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Jane is summoned to the Reeds’ breakfast room, where she is questioned by Mr. Brocklehurst on hell, sin and the Bible. She instinctively rebels and dismisses the psalms as not interesting. He retorts by accusing her of having a heart of stone, metaphorically speaking, and commands that she pray to God to replace it with a heart of flesh.

Mr. Brocklehurst, I believe I intimated in the letter which I wrote to you three weeks ago, that this little girl has not quite the character and disposition I could wish: should you admit her into Lowood school, I should be glad if the superintendent and teachers were requested to keep a strict eye on her, and above all, to guard against her worst fault, a tendency toward deceit. I mention this in your hearing, Jane, that you may no attempt to impose on Mr. Brocklehurst.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. When Mr. Brocklehurst, supervisor of Lowood charity school for poor girls, arrives at Gateshead to decide if Jane will be accepted at his school, Mrs. Reed warns him that her niece is a liar. Her accusation about Jane is ironic, as Mrs. Reed is actually the deceitful one.

Well might I dread – well might I dislike Mrs. Reed, for it was her nature to wound me cruelly…Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to the heart. I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter; I felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Even as Jane is about to begin life afresh at Lowood School, there is no escaping Mrs. Reed’s abuse. It is set to follow her into the future, as Mrs. Reed attacks Jane’s character to Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane is “cut to the heart” by her hateful aunt’s vindictiveness.

Consistency, madam, is the first of Christian duties; and it has been observed in every arrangement connected with the establishment of Lowood: plain fare, simple attire, unsophisticated accommodations, hardy and active habits; such is the order of the day in the house and its inhabitants.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Mr. Brocklehurst says this to Mrs. Reed, but his words are later revealed to be very ironic and dripping with hypocrisy. The man who views himself as a good Christian claims that young women in his care need the deprivation that his school offers. And he preaches it in the name of “Christian duties.” But later in the novel the inhuman conditions at Lowood are revealed, as Jane tells us about “faminished” girls and how the scanty food supply is barely enough to keep a “delidate invalid” alive. Mr. Brocklehurst is the ultimate religious hypocrite who starves the girls at his school while his family lives a life of luxury.

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.

I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed; and this book about the liar, you may give it to your girl, Georgiana, for it is she who tells lies, and not I.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. An angry and hurt Jane asserts herself in this chapter and retaliates. Resentful of her aunt’s false accusations about her character, she defiantly walks up to her and asserts that she is no liar. Telling Mrs. Reed that she doesn’t love her, she declares that the only person she dislikes more is her son John. She suggests that Mrs. Reed give Mr. Brocklehurst’s book to her lying daughter Georgiana. The book, entitled the Child’s Guide, tells of the sudden death of “a naughty child addicted to falsehood and deceit.” It was was given to Jane by Brocklehurst.

I am glad you are no relation of mine: I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you treated me with miserable cruelty.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Jane is said to be “shaking from head to foot, thrilled with ungovernable excitement” when she launches this verbal assault on her aunt. Jane is striking back after Mrs. Reed branded her a liar to Mr. Brocklehurst. Jane disowns her aunt and warns her that when she grows up she won’t hesitate to tell everyone about the cruelty Mrs. Reed inflicted on her.

You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back – roughly and violently thrust me back – into the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day; though I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, “Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!” And that punishment you made me suffer because your wicked boy struck me – knocked me down for nothing. I will tell anybody who asks me questions, this exact tale. People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Jane confronts her aunt over her cruelty, hypocrisy and deceitfulness. She rejects the good woman image that Mrs. Reed portrays to other people. Instead Jane brands her as wicked and unloving. Jane rails against her aunt’s callousness in imprisoning her in the red room as punishment when John Reed struck her and knocked her down without cause. She labels her aunt a liar.

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.”

“I’ll kiss you and welcome; bend your head down.” Bessie stooped; we mutually embraced, and I followed her into the house quite comforted. That afternoon lapsed in peace and harmony; and in the evening Bessie told me some of her most enchaining stories, and sung me some of her sweetest songs. Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 4. Bessie is the only person in Jane’s childhood that treats her with any kindness. She is the closest thing Jane has to a mother figure, while Jane lives at Gateshead.

I stood lonely enough; but to that feeling of isolation I was accustomed; it did not oppress me much. I leaned against a pillar of the verandah, drew my gray mantle close about me, and trying to forget the cold which nipped me without, and the unsatisfied hunger which gnawed me within, delivered myself up to the employment of watching and thinking…Gateshead and my past life seemed floated away to an immeasurable distance; the present was vague and strange, and of the future I could form no conjecture.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 5. Having arrived at Lowood, Jane talks about the loneliness she feels at the girls boarding school, which is to be her new home. But she is used to this feeling of isolation because of her bad experience before this at Gateshead.

The punishment seemed to me in a high degree ignominious, especially for so great a girl – she looked thirteen or upward…to my surprise, she neither wept nor blushed. Composed, though grave, she stood, the central mark of all eyes…her sight seems turned in, gone down into her heart. She is looking at what she can remember, I believe; not at what is really present. I wonder what sort of girl she is – whether good or naughty.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 5. Soon after arriving at Lowood School, Jane witnesses another orphan girl Helen Burns being humilated, as she is publicly punished for untidiness by being kicked out of class and made stand in the middle of the school room. Jane is impressed with Helen’s composure and strength in enduring her unjust punishment. Jane’s interest in the stoic Helen signals how important she is to the story and how she will serve as a Christ-like friend in Jane’s life, teaching Jane about the Christian virtue of forgiveness.

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.

It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. Helen Burns is speaking to Jane after Helen has been flogged on the neck by teacher Miss Scatcherd brandishing a bundle of twigs. The rebellious Jane says that had she been struck by that rod, she would have grabbed it from the teacher’s hand and broken it under her nose. But Helen is a religious girl who believes in the Bible’s message of turning the other cheek and showing Christian forgiveness to your enemies. She becomes Jane’s best friend at Lowood.

If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way; they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should – so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 6. While her friend Helen subscribes to the doctrine of turning the other cheek when mistreated, Jane is less forgiving to those who are cruel and unjust. When people are wicked she believes in striking back hard at them in order to teach them a lesson.
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