Mr. Rochester Quotes

“The paroxysms, when my wife is prompted by her familiar to burn people in their beds at night, to stab them, to bite their flesh from their bones, and so on – ”
“Sir,” I interrupted him, “you are inexorable for that unfortunate lady: you speak of her with hate – with vindictive antipathy. It is cruel – she cannot help being mad.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester’s rage is directed at his wife Blanche. He has no sympathy for her, to him she’s the monster. Even though, like him, she is the victim of an arranged marriage, he displays his hated for her. Jane reproaches Rochester for speaking badly about Bertha.

“Jane, my little darling (so I will call you, for so you are), you don’t know what you are talking about; you misjudge me again: it is not because she is mad I hate her. If you were mad, do you think I should hate you?”
“I do indeed, sir.”
“Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still…you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness.”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. After the discovery of his mad wife, Rochester is desperate to hold onto Jane and her love. She wonders out loud would she suffer the same fate if she went mad like Bertha. Rochester assures her of his love, promising that she would as dear to him in sickness and in pain. He makes passionate and romantic declarations of his deep affection, metaphorically describing Jane as his treasure. After these words he pleads with her to move to him to a villa in the south of France, where she will be Mrs. Rochester “both virtually and nominally.”

“Now for the hitch in Jane’s character,” he said at last, speaking more calmly than from his look I had expected him to speak. “The reel of silk has run smoothly enough so far; but I always knew there would come a knot and a puzzle: here it is. Now for vexation, and exasperation, and endless trouble! By God! I long to exert a fraction of Samson’s strength, and break the entanglement like tow!”

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Jane is resisting Rochester’s plea to Jane to leave England with him for the south of France, where they can live as man and wife. The “hitch” in Jane’s character is her moral code, which won’t allow her be Rochester’s mistress as his wife is still alive. The reel of silk he talks of is a metaphor for the smooth and loving relationship they have had until now. The knot in the reel is Jane’s morality and Rochester wishes that he had the strength of Sampson to untie it.

I was sent out to Jamaica, to espouse a bride already courted for me. My father said nothing about her money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram: tall, dark, and majestic. Her family wished to secure me because I was of a good race; and so did she. They showed her to me in parties, splendidly dressed. I seldom saw her alone, and had very little private conversation with her. She flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me. I was dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester tells Jane the story of his wife Bertha, a woman of Creole descent. He was shipped to Jamaica to wed her in a marriage arranged by his “avaricious, grasping” father. His father had left his estate to Rochester’s older brother, so the father arranged for Rochester to marry a wealthy woman. Bertha was supposted to receive a fortune of thirty thousand pounds from her father. Bertha was a beautiful woman and Rochester was dazzled by her and thought he loved her.

My bride’s mother I had never seen: I understood she was dead. The honeymoon over, I learned my mistake; she was only mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum. There was a younger brother, too – a complete dumb idiot. The elder one, whom you have seen (and whom I cannot hate, whilst I abhor all his kindred, because he has some grains of affection in his feeble mind, shown in the continued interest he takes in his wretched sister, and also in a dog-like attachment he once bore me), will probably be in the same state one day. My father and my brother Rowland knew all this; but they thought only of the thirty thousand pounds, and joined in the plot against me.
These were vile discoveries; but except for the treachery of concealment, I should have made them no subject of reproach to my wife, even when I found her nature wholly alien to mine, her tastes obnoxious to me, her cast of mind common, low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger – when I found that I could not pass a single evening, nor even a single hour of the day with her in comfort; that kindly conversation could not be sustained between us, because whatever topic I started, immediately received from her a turn at once coarse and trite, perverse and imbecile – when I perceived that I should never have a quiet or settled household, because no servant would bear the continued outbreaks of her violent and unreasonable temper, or the vexations of her absurd, contradictory, exacting orders…I lived with that woman upstairs four years, and before that time she had tried me indeed: her character ripened and developed with frightful rapidity; her vices sprang up fast and rank: they were so strong, only cruelty could check them; and I would not use cruelty. What a pigmy intellect she had – and what giant propensities!

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester is describing his clandestine wife Bertha Mason, the mad woman in the attic. Only after he wed her in a marriage arranged by his father, did he learn of her violence and temper. He also discovered that her mother was mad and shut up in a lunatic asylum. He describes his wife’s behavioral and cognitive decline during their first four years of marriage.

Last January, rid of all mistresses – in a harsh, bitter frame of mind, the result of a useless, roving, lonely life – corroded with disappointment, sourly disposed against all men, and especially against all womankind (for I began to regard the notion of an intellectual, faithful, loving woman as a mere dream), recalled by business, I came back to England.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester stikes a cynical and bitter note, as he tells Jane how he came back to England following his disastrous marriage to Bertha. He felt lonely and isolated and had given up his dream of a loving and faithful woman.

You entered the room with a look and air at once shy and independent…ere long I found you full of strange contrasts…Very soon you seemed to get used to me – I believe you felt the existence of sympathy between you and your grim and cross master, Jane; for it was astonishing to see how quickly a certain pleasant ease tranquillised your manner…you showed no surprise, fear, annoyance, or displeasure, at my moroseness; you watched me, and now and then smiled at me with a simple yet sagacious grace I cannot describe.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. The day after Rochester’s deception as a married man is revealed, he appeals to Jane to understand his circumstances, forgive him and stay with him. He indicates that he knows her at a deep level, a woman who understands and is compatible with him. His profound love for Jane is shown in this passage.

I was for a while troubled with a haunting fear that if I handled the flower freely its bloom would fade – the sweet charm of freshness would leave it. I did not then know that it was no transitory blossom, but rather the radiant resemblance of one, cut in an indestructible gem.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester recalls how he began to love Jane. He compares her metaphorically to a flower, which he feared would fade if he did not handle her carefully. He did not realize then that Jane was no fragile flower, but was an indestructible gem, metaphorically speaking.

I have for the first time found what I can truly love – I have found you. You are my sympathy – my better self – my good angel – I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you – and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. In this passage a very emotional Rochester passionately reaffirms his love for Jane. He is trying to persuade her to stay after the disaster of their abandoned wedding. Rochester uses powerful metaphorical images, comparing Jane to his good angel and saying that they are bound together and fused in one by the strong flame of passion. Some of the most romantic lines in all of literature are to be found in Jane Eyre. This is one of those passages.

To tell me that I had already a wife is empty mockery; you know now that I had but a hideous demon. I was wrong to attempt to deceive you; but I feared a stubbornness that exists in your character. I feared early instilled prejudice: I wanted to have you safe before hazarding confidences. This was cowardly; I should have appealed to your nobleness and magnanimity at first…shown to you, not my resolution (that word is weak), but my resistless bent to love faithfully and well, where I am faithfully and well loved in return. Then I should have asked you to accept my pledge of fidelity, and to give me yours; Jane – give it to me now.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Explaining his deceit in not disclosing that he had a wife, Rochester admits to Jane that he is a flawed man. He accepts that he was a coward and should have trusted her with the truth about his “demon” wife. Rochester is not the typical romantic hero. He is a moody and brooding Byronic hero who is rough, flawed and haunted by his dark secret. His strong love for Jane speaks loudly in this passage.

And it is you, spirit – with will and energy, and virtue and purity – that I want, not alone with your brittle frame.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Rochester says this after seizing Jane and holding onto her with the grasp of a madman. He is desperate and doesn’t want to lose Jane. He expresses his desire to be purified by her virtue and spiritual energy. But Rochester has finally met his match in Jane’s indomitable spirit – she has decided to leave him. This is the fuller quote: “Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit – with will and energy, and virtue and purity – that I want: not alone your brittle frame.”

Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonised as in that hour left my lips; for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 27. Here Jane addresses the reader, expressing her heartbreak at leaving Rochester and Thornfield. She dreads that her going may be the cause of the downfall of the man she loves. In her anguish she makes an appeal to Heaven with her prayers.

I used to rush into strange dreams at night: dreams many-coloured, agitated, full of the ideal, the stirring, the stormy – dreams where, amidst unusual scenes, charged with adventure, with agitating risk and romantic chance, I still again and again met Mr. Rochester, always at some exciting crisis; and then the sense of being in his arms, hearing his voice, meeting his eye, touching his hand and cheek, loving him, being loved by him – the hope of passing a lifetime at his side, would be renewed, with all its first force and fire. Then I awoke. Then I recalled where I was, and how situated. Then I rose up on my curtainless bed, trembling and quivering; and then the still, dark night witnessed the convulsion of despair, and heard the burst of passion. By nine o’clock the next morning I was punctually opening the school; tranquil, settled, prepared for the steady duties of the day.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 32. Life in Morton has its compensations for Jane – independence, a teaching job, a house and educating her young scholars. But she is troubled at night by unsettling dreams about Rochester. While St. John Rivers can surpress his true feelings for Rosamond, Jane is unable do the same for her love for Rochester. Jane’s dreams are a window into her emotional mind.

Suddenly it stood still to an inexpressible feeling that thrilled it through, and passed at once to my head and extremities. The feeling was not like an electric shock, but it was quite as sharp, as strange, as startling: it acted on my senses as if their utmost activity hitherto had been but torpor, from which they were now summoned and forced to wake…
I saw nothing, but I heard a voice somewhere cry –
“Jane! Jane! Jane!” – nothing more.
“O God! what is it?” I gasped.
I might have said, “Where is it?” for it did not seem in the room – nor in the house – nor in the garden; it did not come out of the air – nor from under the earth – nor from overhead. I had heard it – where, or whence, for ever impossible to know! And it was the voice of a human being – a known, loved, well-remembered voice – that of Edward Fairfax Rochester; and it spoke in pain and woe, wildly, eerily, urgently.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 35. A supernatural occurance happens to Jane as she reconsiders St. John’s marriage proposal, having initially turned him away. Just as St. John appears to be winning her around, Jane hears what she believes to be Mr. Rochester’s voice calling for her. This breaks St. John’s spell over her. Jane rejects his proposal of a loveless marriage and walks away from him. The passage indicates the strong bond of affection that still exists between Jane and Rochester.

It was all his own courage, and a body may say, his kindness, in a way, ma’am; he wouldn’t leave the house till every one else was out before him. As he came down the great stair-case at last, after Mrs. Rochester had flung herself from the battlements, there was a great crash – all fell. He was taken out from under the ruins, alive, but sadly hurt…He is now helpless, indeed – blind and a cripple.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 36. Jane is told by the inn owner that after Bertha Mason set fire to Thornfield, Mr. Rochester bravely saved the servants from the burning house. He tried to save Bertha, but she jumped from the roof to her death. Rochester lost his sight and one of his hands in the fire, Jane hears.

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.

My living darling! These are certainly her limbs, and these her features; but I cannot be so blest, after all my misery. It is a dream; such dreams as I have had at night when I have clasped her once more to my heart, as I do now; and kissed her, as thus – and felt that she loved me, and trusted that she would not leave me…Gentle, soft dream, nestling in my arms now, you will fly, too, as your sisters have all fled before you: but kiss me before you go – embrace me, Jane.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. After their separation of ten months, the blind Rochester embraces Jane in disbelief in this great literary romantic moment. While he knows they are Jane’s form and features he touches, he feels that he is in a dream. He asks for a kiss before she flies away.

I have little left in myself – I must have you. The world may laugh – may call me absurd, selfish – but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. This romantic speech by Rochester to Jane, telling her how he cannot be without her, is why he is so many people’s favorite tortured hero. During their very emotional reunion he is full of passionate intensity in his desire for Jane.

“Oh, you are indeed there, my skylark! Come to me. You are not gone: not vanished? I heard one of your kind an hour ago, singing high over the wood: but its song had no music for me, any more than the rising sun had rays. All the melody on earth is concentrated in my Jane’s tongue to my ear (I am glad it is not naturally a silent one): all the sunshine I can feel is in her presence.”
The water stood in my eyes to hear this avowal of his dependence; just as if a royal eagle, chained to a perch, should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. In the penultimate chapter Rochester and Jane enter the final stage of their relationship. It is one in which he is dependant on her. A series of animal metaphors convey the joy and intimacy of the moment. Rochester describes Jane as his skylark, while she likens him to a royal eagle chained to a perch, which has to ask a sparrow to be its purveyor. This is a beautiful intimate moment of shared love.

Most of the morning was spent in the open air. I led him out of the wet and wild wood into some cheerful fields: I described to him how brilliantly green they were; how the flowers and hedges looked refreshed; how sparklingly blue was the sky.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. The image presented here in the fields around Ferndean is light and airy and full of the promise of spring. Jane becomes Rochester’s eyes as she leads him across the open fields and describes the greenery and the flowers and the sparkling blue sky. This contrasts with the gloomy atmosphere of Thornfield. The passage signifies the rebirth of life and love for Jane and Rochester.

“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.

I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and protector.

– Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. Jane tells Rochester that she loves him even more now, after he tells her that she will have to “bear with my infirmities…”overlook my deficiencies.” Jane wants to take care of him and Rocheser for his part admits that he is now more willing “to be helped – to be led.” Rochester’s injuries and the fact that he now needs Jane have made their relationship more equal. Equality is very important to Jane.
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