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.”