Jane Eyre Quotes

Thus relieved of a grievous load, I from that hour set to work afresh, resolved to pioneer my way through every difficulty: I toiled hard, and my success was proportionate to my efforts; my memory, not naturally tenacious, improved with practice; exercise sharpened my wits; in a few weeks I was promoted to a higher class; in less than two months I was allowed to commence French and drawing. I learned the first two tenses of the verb Être, and sketched my first cottage…on the same day. That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper of hot roast potatoes, or white break and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings: I feasted instead on the spectacle of ideal drawings, which I saw in the dark; all the work of my own hands.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 8. After Jane’s name is cleared of the false charges Brocklehurst leveled against her, Jane returns to her studies with a new energy. She quickly rises to a higher class and soon is excelling in French and drawing. That night in bed, she even fantasizes about her drawing homework instead of food.

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.

Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Jane describes the arrival of spring at Lowood, where she and the other girls have suffered under the school’s harsh regime and deprivations. The coming of the pleasant spring weather lifts her spirits and reflects a new hope and inner strength felt by Jane. This is an example of pathatic fallacy, where nature imagery is used to comment on human nature. Here is the fuller quote: “But the privations, or rather the hardships, of Lowood lessened. Spring drew on: she was indeed already come; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated. My wretched feet, flayed and swollen to lameness by the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside under the gentler breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial, and a greenness grewover those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”

I am very happy, Jane; and when you hear that I am dead you must be sure and not grieve: there is nothing to grieve about. We all must die one day, and the illness which is removing me is not painful; it is gentle and gradual: my mind is at rest…By dying young I shall escape great sufferings…I believe; I have faith: I am going to God.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Helen Burns is dying of tuberculosis in Jane’s arms at Lowood School. Helen has a very stong Christian faith and endures the hardships of life at Lowood without complaint. She tells Jane that her mind is at rest and urges her not to grieve over her passing. She accepts death and is content that God will reward her by welcoming her into Heaven.

And I clasped my arms closer round Helen; she seemed dearer to me than ever; I felt as if I could not let her go; I lay with my face hidden on her neck. Presently she said in the sweetest tone, – “How comfortable I am! That last fit of coughing has tired me a little; I feel as if I could sleep: but don’t leave me, Jane; I like to have you near me.”
“I’ll stay with you, dear Helen: no one shall take me away.”
“Are you warm, darling?”
“Yes.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. In this very moving and heartbreaking passage, Jane and Helen Burns speak their final farewell words and kiss each other goodnight. Jane has climbed into Helen’s bed to be with her in her last moments before she succumbs to tuberculosis.

I learned that Miss Temple, on returning to her own room at dawn, had found me laid in the little crib; my face against Helen Burns’s shoulder, my arms round her neck. I was asleep, and Helen was – dead. Her grave is in Brocklebridge church-yard; for fifteen years after her death it was only covered by a grassy mound; but now a gray marble tablet marks the spot, inscribed with her name and the word “Resurgam.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 9. Helen Burns does not die alone, we learn. Miss Temple discovers her in her bed in the morning with Jane asleep beside her and Jane’s arms around her dead friend’s neck. This shows the strong bond of friendship between the two girls who supported and clung to each other in life and death. Helen’s grave stone is inscribed with the Latin word “Resurgam,” meaning “I will rise again.” This has a double meaning. Helen was a committed Christian who believed that after death she would rise to be with God in Heaven. Also Helen’s spirit lives on in her friend Jane.

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.

I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 10. Jane is at a crossroads in her life. Living in Lowood School for eight years, she realizes that she has been cut off from the real world. She sees a wide world out there of life knowledge to be learned and sensations to be experienced for those with the courage to venture forth. She speaks metaphorically of the “field of hopes and fears” that await such people.

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.”

“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.

It is a very strange sensation to inexperienced youth to feel itself quite alone the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. The conflicting excited and nervous emotions a person feels when about to embark on a new job are masterfully described here by Bronte. Feeling alone and adrift, inexperienced, fearful, but glowing with pride and driven by a sense of adventure, Jane is about to begin her new career as governess at Thornfield.

I am so glad you are come; it will quite pleasant living here now with a companion. To be sure it is pleasant at any time; for Thornfield is a fine old hall, rather neglected of late years perhaps, but still it is a respectable place; yet you know in winter time, one feels dreary quite alone, in the best quarters. I say alone – Leah is a nice girl to be sure, and John and his wife are very decent people; but then you see they are only servants, and one can’t converse with them on terms of equality: one must keep them at due distance, for fear of losing one’s authority.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. The kindly Mrs. Fairfax greets Jane warmly when she arrives to Thornfield Hall to take up her new position of governess. But the head housekeeper and household manager confesses that in winter she feels quite alone in Thornfield, as she unable to converse with the servants because of compromising her authority. So Mrs. Fairfax is pleased to have a companion in Jane that she can socialize with.

When Mrs. Fairfax had bidden me a kind good-night, and I had fastened my door, gazed leisurely round, and in some measure effaced the eerie impression made by that wide hall, that dark and spacious staircase, and that long, cold gallery, by the livelier aspect of my little room, I remembered that after a day of bodily fatigue and mental anxiety, I was now at last in safe haven. The impulse of gratitude swelled my heart, and I knelt down at the bedside and offered up thanks where thanks were due; not forgetting, ere I rose, to implore aid on my further path, and the power of meriting the kindness which seemed so frankly offered before it was earned. My couch had no thorns in it that night; my solitary room no fears. At once weary and content, I slept soon and soundly; when I awoke it was broad day.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. On arriving at Thornfield at night Jane has been warmly greeted and shown to her room by the housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax. As she starts this new chapter in her life, Jane feels safe and secure and protected in Thornfield mansion. When she says her couch has no thorns in it, this a metaphor suggesting that she slept comfortably and soundly.

The chamber looked such a bright little place to me as the sun shone in between the gay blue chintz window and carpeted floor, so unlike the bare planks and strained plaster of Lowood, that my spirit rose at the view. Externals have a great effect on the young: I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me – one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils. My faculties, roused by the change of scene, the new field offered to hope, seemed all astir. I cannot precisely define what they expected, but it was something pleasant: not perhaps that day or that month, but at an indefinite future period.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. Jane’s first morning at Thornfield is described in positive terms. Bronte uses the bright weather and nature to reflect Jane’s mood of hope after the darkness of Lowood, and to foreshadow the positive experiences she will have at Thornfield, where she will discover her future husband.

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.

This affable and kind little widow was no great dame, but a dependent like myself. I did not like her the worse for that; on the contrary, I felt better pleased than ever. The equality between her and me was real; not the mere result of condescension on her part: so much the better – my position was all the freer.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. Newly arrived at Thornfield, Jane is surprised by the friendliness and informality of Mrs. Fairfax, whom she at first mistakes for her “employer and superior.” Then Jane learns that she is just the housekeeper and manager of Thornfield, not the owner.

This was all the account I got from Mrs. Fairfax of her employer and mine. There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things: the good lady evidently belonged to this class; my queries puzzled, but did not draw her out. Mr. Rochester was Mr. Rochester in her eyes; a gentleman, a landed proprietor – nothing more: she inquired and searched no further, and evidently wondered at my wish to gain a more definite notion of his identity.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. Jane is curious about her new employer Mr. Rochester and asks Mrs. Fairfax questions about him. But she is left none the wiser by the housekeeper who cannot tell what kind of person he is, except that he is a landowner and gentleman. Jane’s new employer must remain a mystery to her until she can find out for herself what kind of man he is.

All these relics gave to the third storey of Thornfield Hall the aspect of a home of the past: a shrine to memory. I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness of these retreats in the day; but I by no means coveted a night’s repose on one of those wide and heavy beds: shut in, some of them, with doors of oak; shaded, others, with wrought old-English hangings crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings, – all which would have looked strange, indeed, by the pallid gleam of moonlight.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. Mrs. Fairfax gives Jane a tour of Thornfield Hall. From Jane’s description the house is Gothic and foreboding, with its air of gloom and silence, “relics” of old furniture, and paintings of strange flowers, birds and human beings.

I lingered in the long passageway to which this led, separating the front and back rooms of the third story: narrow, low, and dim, with only one little window at the far end, and looking, with its two rows of small black doors all shut, like a corridor in some Bluebeard’s castle.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. Jane gives us her first eerie impressions of the third story of her new home at Thornfield, with its secrets and locked rooms. There is a spooky creepiness about the place. Bluebeard was, according to the French folktale, a wealthy who was in the habit of murdering his wives and hiding their bodies in a locked room, which his latest wife was forbidden to enter. The reference to Bluebeard is foreshadowing of the secret that that will later be revealed about Thornfield’s locked attic.

While I paced softly on, the last sound I expected to hear in so still a region, a laugh, struck my ear. It was a curious laugh; distinct, formal, mirthless. I stopped: the sound ceased, only for an instant; it began again, louder: for at first, though distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber; though it originated but in one, and I could have pointed out the door whence the accents issued…the laugh was as tragic, as preternatural a laugh as any I ever heard; and, but that it was a high room, and that no circumstance of ghostliness accompanied the curious cachinnation, but that neither scene nor season favoured fear, I should have been superstitiously afraid.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 11. As Jane tries to settle into her new life at Thornfield, Mrs. Fairfax shows her around the house. Jane hears a strange and unnatural laugh echoing through the property. Mrs. Fairfax tells her it is from Grace Poole, an eccentric servant. The laugh spooks Jane who at first thinks that it is from a ghost and there is no Grace Poole. Then at Mrs. Fairfax’s call Grace appears out of a nearby room. The incident is foreshadowing of the Gothic horrors to come and that everything is not as it appears at Thornfield. The laugher is actually that of Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester’s insane wife, who is kept hidden and locked away in the attic.

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.

When thus alone, I not unfrequently heard Grace Poole’s laugh: the same peal, the same low, slow ha! ha! which, when first heard, had thrilled me: I heard, too, her eccentric murmurs; stranger than her laugh. There were days when she was quite silent; but there were others when I could not account for the sound she made.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. When Jane is pacing through the Gothic mansion of Thornfield, she hears frequently the eeric laugh that she believes to be that of the eccentric Grace Poole. What Jane doesn’t realize yet is that the laughter and strange sounds she often hears are from the madwoman in the attic Bertha Mason.

She would come out of her room with a basin, or a plate, or a tray in her hand, go down to the kitchen and shortly return, generally (oh romantic reader, forgive me for telling the plain truth!) bearing a pot of porter. Her appearance always acted as a damper to the curiosity raised by her oral oddities: hard-featured and staid, she had no point to which interest could attach. I made some attempts to draw her into conversation, but she seemed a person of few words: a monosyllabic reply usually cut short every effort of that sort.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. Jane is decribing Grace Poole, a strange and enigmatic figure. But Grace Poole is actually a red herring. She is in the story to misdirect Jane and the reader into believing that she is responsible for the strange noises and happenings in Thornfield. She is the keeper, nurse and prison guard of Bertha Mason, the madwoman locked in the attic and real source of the strange happenings.

I lingered till the sun went down amongst the trees, and sank crimson and clear behind them. I then turned eastward. On the hill-top above me sat the rising moon; pale yet as a cloud, but brightening momently: she looked over Hay, which, half lost in trees, sent up a blue smoke from its few chimneys; it was yet a mile distant, but in the absolute hush I could hear plainly its thin murmurs of life.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 12. During a walk to Hay Jane sits and observes Thornfield and the surrounding countryside, taking in the rising moon. Bronte frequently uses the moon metaphor to symbolize change. In this case it is foreshadowing Jane meeting Mr. Rochester for the first time, although she doesn’t know it is him. This occurs a few minutes later when he falls off his horse on the causeway as “the moon was waxing bright.”
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