Quotes Eyre

in double retirement.
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 1). .
my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe,
and no pleasure excite them agreeably.
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 11).
the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart
away. Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a
transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver’s Travels from the
library.
crib. To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love
something,
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.
head. I saw a girl sitting on a stone bench near; she was bent over a
book, on the perusal of which she seemed intent: from where I stood I
could see the title—it was “Rasselas;”
Most of the books were locked up behind glass doors;

but there was one bookcase left open containing everything that could
be needed in the way of elementary works, and several volumes of light
literature, poetry, biography, travels, a few romances, &c.
the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.
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.
vanished, “Like heath that, in the wilderness,

The wild wind whirls away.”
“It is not its cure. Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform—I
have strength yet for that—if—but where is the use of thinking of it,
hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is
irrevocably
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (pp. 104-105). .
to remain longer by myself: I must go to Mrs. Fairfax. I hurried on my

frock and a shawl; I withdrew the bolt and opened the door with a
trembling hand. There was a candle burning just outside, and on the
matting in the gallery. I was surprised at this circumstance: but still
more was I amazed to perceive the air quite dim, as if filled with
smoke; and, while looking to the right hand and left, to find whence
these blue wreaths issued, I became further aware of a strong smell of
burning.
had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa, and prepared to

beguile, by the spell of fiction, the tedious hours of absence. The
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 144). Feedbooks. Edición de Kindle.
What crime was this that lived incarnate in this sequestered mansion,
and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the owner?—
“She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart,” said Mason.
“Let her be taken care of; let her be treated as tenderly as may be: let
her—” he stopped and burst into tears.
recommence your life, and to spend what remains to you of days in a

way more worthy of an immortal being. To attain this end, are you
justified in overleaping an obstacle of custom—a mere conventional
impediment which neither your conscience sanctifies nor your
judgment approves?”
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 167). . CASARSE CON JANE
Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are

signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has
not yet found the key.
one. If you knew it, you are peculiarly situated: very near happiness;
yes, within reach of it. The materials are all prepared; there only wants
a movement to combine them. Chance laid them somewhat apart; let
them be once approached and bliss results.”
Good God! What a cry! The night—its silence—its rest, was rent in
twain by a savage, a sharp, a shrilly sound that ran from end to end of
Thornfield Hall.
“Help! help! help!” three times rapidly.
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 158). . (THREE TIMES, AS

THURSDAY CALLS JANE EYRE WHEN THE HOUSE BEGAN
BURNING. IT REMEMBERS TO HER TO WHEN richard MASON
ASKED HER FOR HELP)
“She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart,” said Mason. I
saw Mr. Rochester shudder: a singularly marked expression of disgust,
horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion;
earth; but I experienced firmer trust in myself and my own powers, and
less withering dread of oppression.
Glancing at the bookcases, I thought I could distinguish the two

volumes of Bewick’s British Birds occupying their old place on the
third shelf, and Gulliver’s Travels and the Arabian Nights ranged just
above. The inanimate objects were not changed; but the living things
had altered past recognition.
“Where was I to go?” I dreamt of Miss Ingram all the night: in a vivid
morning dream I saw her closing the gates of Thornfield against me and
pointing me out another road; and Mr. Rochester looked on with his
arms folded—smiling sardonically, as it seemed, at both her and me.
confusion: the evil—if evil existent or prospective there was—seemed

to lie with me only; his mind was unconscious and quiet.
inwardly. As for you,—you’d forget me.” “That I never should, sir: you
know—” Impossible to proceed.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an

independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”
I want to read your countenance—turn!” “There! you will find it

scarcely more legible than a crumpled, scratched page. Read on: only
make haste, for I suffer.”
Human beings never enjoy complete happiness in this world. I was not
born for a different destiny to the rest of my species: to imagine such a
lot befalling me is a fairy tale—a day-dream.”
don’t desire a useless burden! Don’t long for poison—don’t turn out a
downright Eve on my hands!” “Why not, sir? You have just been
telling me how much you liked to be conquered, and how pleasant over-
persuasion is to you.
necessary—for the sake of a mere essay of my power?”
I shall continue to act as Adèle’s governess; by that I shall earn my

board and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. I’ll furnish my
own wardrobe out of that money, and you shall give me nothing but—”
a lamb-like submission and turtle-dove sensibility, while fostering his

despotism more, would have pleased his judgment, satisfied his
common-sense, and even suited his taste less.
This is you, who have been as slippery as an eel this last month, and as
thorny as a briar-rose? I could not lay a finger anywhere but I was
pricked; and now I seem to have gathered up a stray lamb in my arms.
You wandered out of the fold to seek your shepherd, did you, Jane?”
presently she took my veil from its place; she held it up, gazed at it
long, and then she threw it over her own head, and turned to the mirror.
“Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt

head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both
on the floor, trampled on them.”
“Afterwards?” “It drew aside the window-
curtain and looked out; perhaps it saw
dawn approaching, for, taking the candle, it
retreated to the door. Just at my bedside,
the figure stopped: the fiery eyes glared
upon me—she thrust up her candle close to
my face, and extinguished it under my
eyes. I was aware her lurid visage flamed
over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the
second time in my life—only the second
time—I became insensible from terror.”
(VELO REGALO DE BODAS DE
ROCHESTER)
saucepan. In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran
backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being,
one could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it
snatched and growled like some strange wild animal:
strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect.
to bear her company and be at hand to give her aid in 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—”

Mrs. Fairfax may indeed have suspected something, but she could have
gained no precise knowledge as to facts.
time. On the first of these occasions, she perpetrated the attempt to

burn me in my bed; on the second, she paid that ghastly visit to you.
My fixed desire was to seek and find a good and intelligent woman,
whom I could love: a contrast to the fury I left at Thornfield—”
I longed only for what suited me—for the antipodes of the Creole: and I
longed vainly.
with a look and air at once shy and independent
Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you
do?” Still indomitable was the reply—“I care for myself. The more
solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will
respect myself.
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the

heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education:
they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
a poem: one of those genuine productions so often vouchsafed to the

fortunate public of those days—the golden age of modern literature.
they will both assert their existence, their presence, their liberty and
strength again one day. Powerful angels, safe in heaven! they smile
when sordid souls triumph, and feeble ones weep over their
destruction. Poetry destroyed? Genius banished? No! Mediocrity, no:
do not let envy prompt you to the thought. No; they not only live, but
reign and redeem: and without their divine influence spread
everywhere, you would be in hell—the hell of your own meanness.
Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their

sentiments and griefs more than the expansive. The sternest-seeming
stoic is human after all; and to “burst” with boldness and good-will into
“the silent sea” of their souls is often to confer on them the first of
obligations.
Again the surprised expression crossed his face. He had not imagined
that a woman would dare to speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home
in this sort of discourse. I could never rest in communication with
strong, discreet, and refined minds, whether male or female, till I had
passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold
of confidence, and won a place by their heart’s very hearthstone.
since yesterday I have experienced the excitement of a person to whom

a tale has been half-told, and who is impatient to hear the sequel.”
“Jane, come with me to India: come as my helpmeet and fellow-

labourer.”
“God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife. It is not

personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed
for labour, not for love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You
shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s
service.”
Jane, you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant, and

courageous; very gentle, and very heroic: cease to mistrust yourself—I
can trust you unreservedly.
My work, which had appeared so vague, so hopelessly diffuse,

condensed itself as he proceeded, and assumed a definite form under his
shaping hand.
My business is to live without him now: nothing so absurd, so weak as

to drag on from day to day, as if I were waiting some impossible change
in circumstances, which might reunite me to him.
he asks me to be his wife, and has no more of a husband’s heart for me

than that frowning giant of a rock, down which the stream is foaming in
yonder gorge.
“And I will give the missionary my energies—it is all he wants—but

not myself: that would be only adding the husk and shell to the kernel.
For them he has no use: I retain them.”
Having felt in him the presence of these qualities, I felt his imperfection
and took courage. I was with an equal—one with whom I might argue
—one whom, if I saw good, I might resist.
forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to

burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame
consumed vital after vital—this would be unendurable.
“I scorn your idea of love,” I could not help saying, as I rose up and
stood before him, leaning my back against the rock. “I scorn the
counterfeit sentiment you offer: yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you
offer it.”
the disappointment of an austere and despotic nature, which has met

resistance where it expected submission—the disapprobation of a cool,
inflexible judgment, which has detected in another feelings and views
in which it has no power to sympathise: in short, as a man, he would
have wished to coerce me into obedience:
And when you go to India, will you leave me so, without a kinder word
than you have yet spoken?” He now turned quite from the moon and
faced me. “When I go to India, Jane, will I leave you! What! do you
not go to India?” “You said I could not unless I married you.” “And you
will not marry me! You adhere to that resolution?”
“It would be fruitless to attempt to explain; but there is a point on which

I have long endured painful doubt, and I can go nowhere till by some
means that doubt is removed.”
So I think at this hour, when I look back to the crisis through the quiet
medium of time: I was unconscious of folly at the instant.
WHEN ST JOHN ASKS TO HER FOR THE LAST TIME WHETHER

SHE WILL GO TO INDIA
“What have you heard? What do you see?” asked St. John. 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.
“You left me too suddenly last night. Had you stayed but a little longer,
you would have laid your hand on the Christian’s cross and the angel’s
crown.
The grim blackness of the stones told by what fate the Hall had fallen—
by conflagration: but how kindled?
The fire broke out at dead of night, and before the engines arrived from
Millcote, the building was one mass of flame. It was a terrible
spectacle: I witnessed it myself.”
Was it suspected that this lunatic, Mrs. Rochester, had any hand in it?”
“You’ve hit it, ma’am: it’s quite certain that it was her, and nobody but
her, that set it going.
They say she had nearly burnt her husband in his bed once: but I don’t
know about that. However, on this night, she set fire first to the
hangings of the room next her own, and then she got down to a lower
storey, and made her way to the chamber that had been the governess’s
—(she was like as if she knew somehow how matters had gone on, and
had a spite at her)—and she kindled the bed there; but there was nobody
sleeping in it, fortunately.
and he was not so very handsome;
“He is stone-blind,” he said at last. “Yes, he is stone-blind, is Mr.

Edward.”
there was a great crash—all fell. He was taken out from under the
ruins, alive, but sadly hurt: a beam had fallen in such a way as to protect
him partly; but one eye was knocked out, and one hand so crushed that
Mr. Carter, the surgeon, had to amputate it directly.The other eye
inflamed: he lost the sight of that also.
“Great God!—what delusion has come over me? What sweet madness
has seized me?” “No delusion—no madness: your mind, sir, is too
strong for delusion, your health too sound for frenzy.”
“No, sir! I am an independent woman now.”
“Certainly—unless you object. I will be your neighbour, your nurse,

your housekeeper. I find you lonely: I will be your companion—to read
to you, to walk with you, to sit with you, to wait on you, to be eyes and
hands to you. Cease to look so melancholy, my dear master; you shall
not be left desolate, so long as I live.”
I had indeed made my proposal from the idea that he wished and would
ask me to be his wife: an expectation, not the less certain because
unexpressed, had buoyed me up, that he would claim me at once as his
own.
There was no harassing restraint, no repressing of glee and vivacity

with him; for with him I was at perfect ease, because I knew I suited
him; all I said or did seemed either to console or revive him. Delightful
consciousness! It brought to life and light my whole nature: in his
presence I thoroughly lived; and he lived in mine.
“Am I hideous, Jane?” “Very, sir: you always were, you know.”
“Humph! The wickedness has not been taken out of you, wherever you
have sojourned.”
Thus urged, I began the narrative of my experience for the last year.
“He intended me to go with him to India.”
“He asked me to marry him.” “That is a fiction—an impudent invention

to vex me.”
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.”
“The third day from this must be our wedding-day, Jane. Never mind
fine clothes and jewels, now: all that is not worth a fillip.”
You know I was proud of my strength: but what is it now, when I must
give it over to foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness?
more. That I merited all I endured, I acknowledged—that I could

scarcely endure more, I pleaded; and the alpha and omega of my heart’s
wishes broke involuntarily from my lips in the words—‘Jane! Jane!
Jane!’”“And it was last Monday night, somewhere near midnight?”
“Yes; but the time is of no consequence: what followed is the strange
point. You will think me superstitious,—some superstition I have in my
blood, and always had: nevertheless, this is true—true at least it is that I
heard what I now relate. “As I exclaimed ‘Jane! Jane! Jane!’ a voice—
I cannot tell whence the voice came, but I know whose voice it was—
replied, ‘I am coming: wait for me;’ and a moment after, went
whispering on the wind the words—‘Where are you?’
As to St. John Rivers, he left England: he went to India.

Quotes Eyre

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Quotes Eyre

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Quotes Eyre

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

in double retirement.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 1). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 11).

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 11). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 18). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 24). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 34). .

Most of the books were locked up behind glass doors;

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 78). .

the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 83). .

fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 84). .

vanished, “Like heath that, in the wilderness,

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 88). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (pp. 104-105). .

to remain longer by myself: I must go to Mrs. Fairfax. I hurried on my

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (pp. 113-114). .

had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa, and prepared to

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 144). Feedbooks. Edición de Kindle.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 161). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 163). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 165). .

recommence your life, and to spend what remains to you of days in a

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 167). . CASARSE CON JANE

Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 169). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 151). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 158). .

“Help! help! help!” three times rapidly.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 158). . (THREE TIMES, AS

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 163). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 175). .

Glancing at the bookcases, I thought I could distinguish the two

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 175). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 186). .

confusion: the evil—if evil existent or prospective there was—seemed

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 191). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 193). .

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 194). .

I want to read your countenance—turn!” “There! you will find it

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 195). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 199). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 201). .

necessary—for the sake of a mere essay of my power?”

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 201). .

I shall continue to act as Adèle’s governess; by that I shall earn my

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 207). .

a lamb-like submission and turtle-dove sensibility, while fostering his

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 210). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 214). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 218). .

“Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 219). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (p. 225). .

strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect.

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (pp. 230-231). .

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre . (pp. 231-232). .