I should have been a careless shepherd if I had left a lamb – my pet lamb – so near a wolf’s den, unguarded: you were safe.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 20. Rochester assures Jane that when he left her alone with Richard Mason for a number of hours she was safe with the door secured. He uses a series of metaphors to compare Jane to a vulnerable lamb, himself to the caring shepherd and Bertha Mason to a predatory wolf. His contempt for and resentment towards his secret wife Bertha is evident here. He also sees Jane as one of his possessions, referring to her as his “pet.”