Jane Eyre: Key Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature)

The assessment objectives state that you should use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate your interpretations. Summarising, paraphrasing, referring to single words or plot events and quoting directly from the text are all equally valid ways of showing you understand Jane Eyre. That means you can demonstrate your knowledge of the novel by referring to it and quoting from it. 

Having a really thorough knowledge of Jane Eyre is the best way to give yourself as many options as possible in your response to the exam question. If you just memorise quotations, they may not “fit” the question on your exam paper. However, your deep knowledge and understanding of the novel will enable you to choose your references and quotations appropriately. 

The best way to approach revising quotations is to link them by theme or by character. Below you will find meanings and analysis of the most important quotations, linked by theme:

• Justice and injustice
• Social class
• Love and romance
• Personal growth

Jane Eyre’s story addresses ideas of justice and injustice. The ways in which others treat Jane are often unjust, but her sense of moral justice enables her to survive and find happiness.

“You are like a murderer – you are like a slave-driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 1

Meaning and context

• Jane is reacting to John Reed, who has just attacked her physically

Analysis

• John, the only son in the Reed family, bullies Jane constantly
• Jane is responding to John’s behaviour by comparing him to three figures who embody cruelty, oppression and injustice:
• Murderers commit a crime by taking another person’s life
• Slave-drivers commit injustice by owning and trading other human beings
• Roman emperors like Nero and Caligula were reowned for their acts of cruelty and oppression
• By standing up to John, Jane shows her intolerance of injustice, even when she knows she will be punished for it
• Brontë is showing that the refusal to accept injustice is one of the fundamental aspects of Jane’s character
• Brontë is also illustrating the way that people with power can behave unjustly towards those without power

“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” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 12

Meaning and context

• Jane is reflecting on her situation and that of all women in her society
• She feels discontented and trapped in her position as Adèle’s governess

Analysis

• By showing Jane’s dissatisfaction, Brontë is illustrating unjust attitudes towards women’s abilities and strengths:
• Jane notes that women need to use their minds just as much as men do, but are unable to do so
• By referring to a “field for their efforts”, Jane is indicating the limited practical opportunities for women compared with men

“Revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low” – Helen Burns, Chapter 6

“He is a good and a great man, but he forgets, pitilessly, the feelings and claims of little people, in pursuing his own large views” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 35

Meaning and context

• The first quotation is something that Helen Burns tells Jane to try and persuade her that it is better to accept the injustices in her life
• The second quotation is Jane’s explanation of why she is refusing to marry St John Rivers

Analysis

• These two quotations show the ways in which extreme religious views can lead to injustice, or the acceptance of injustice:
• Helen Burns believes that her suffering is unimportant, because she will have her reward in the afterlife
• St John’s religious zeal is stronger than his compassion for the feelings of others
• Brontë is showing that even the moral codes of Christianity can be warped into extreme self-denial, or cruelty and injustice: 
• Jane’s rejection of Helen’s views illustrates Brontë’s certainty that people should never accept injustice, even in the context of religious belief
• Jane’s comment about St John shows Brontë’s awareness that extreme religious beliefs can be cruel and disempowering for others

All of the events in Jane Eyre happen against a background of social class. Characters are aware of their position in the social hierarchy, which governs their freedom to act as they wish. 

“Most things free-born will submit to anything for a salary” – Mr Rochester, Chapter 14

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 23

Meaning and context

• In the first quotation, Mr Rochester is responding to Jane’s refusal to accept insolence, just because she is his employee
• In the second quotation, Jane is telling Rochester why she will leave Thornfield when he marries Blanche Ingram

Analysis

• Rochester demonstrates the power of people in his social class over those of a lower social class:
• He argues that money can buy anything, including obedience, even when it contradicts someone’s moral views
• Brontë is showing the cynicism and disregard with which people of Rochester’s class are able to treat those of lower social status, even if they are “free-born” (i.e. not slaves)  
• Jane fights back against Rochester’s cruel disregard for her feelings:
• Rochester is still pretending at this point that he intends to marry Blanche
• He is trying to make Jane reveal her own feelings for him by making her jealous
• Jane’s anger towards Rochester demonstrates her belief that all human beings are equally entitled to respect
• Jane’s attitude illustrates Brontë’s belief that all human emotions are important, regardless of people’s social position:
• Jane’s response represents Brontë’s view that personal merits are more important than class status

“I should wish her to be brought up in a manner suiting her prospects” – Mrs Reed, Chapter 4

Meaning and context

• Mrs Reed is explaining to Mr Brocklehurst why she wishes Jane to be educated at Lowood school

Analysis

• Jane’s “prospects”, or life choices, are very limited:
• As an orphan with no money, Jane will have to work or marry in order to survive
• Mrs Reed could educate Jane along with her own daughters, but chooses not to
• Brontë is illustrating the extremely limited options for someone of Jane’s social class: 
• She is also demonstrating the way in which upper-class characters like Mrs Reed can exercise their power over those with very low social status, like Jane

“Mary and I have had, I should think, a dozen at least in our day; half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi” – Blanche Ingram, Chapter 17

Meaning and context

• Blanche, having spotted Jane in the corner of the room, is discussing governesses

Analysis

• Because of her high social status, Blanche feels she can be rude and dismissive of Jane, who as a governess is an employee of a lower class
• As well as her extreme rudeness, Blanche’s description of governesses as “incubi” characterises her view of them as predatory parasites:
• Incubi are demons who, in folklore, are believed to sexually attack sleeping women
• Blanche is showing her ignorance (an incubus is male; a succubus is the female form), despite having had so many governesses
• In terms of character development, Blanche is shown here to be extremely callous in her desire to impress Rochester
• Brontë criticises the way that those of high social status are able treat the lower classes
• Presenting the scene from Jane’s point of view shows how disempowered she is: 
• Jane is unable to defend herself, unless she wants to lose her job

The romantic relationship between Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester is central to the novel. However, it is Jane’s experiences of platonic love and friendship that give her the strength to deal with the hardships in her life.

“It was as if a martyr, a hero, had passed a slave or victim, and imparted strength” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 7

Meaning and context

• Helen Burns has just passed Jane while she is standing on a stool in front of the whole school as a punishment

Analysis

• Helen’s friendship has the power to inspire and strengthen Jane:
• Helen stands by Jane, even when Jane has been singled out as a liar by Mr Brocklehurst
• This exchange shows Helen’s strength and the quality of her friendship
• The expression of love and inspiration in Helen’s eyes makes Jane feel she is heroic:
• She also sees her as a martyr, which aligns with Helen’s deeply-held religious beliefs and her foreshadows her premature death
• Brontë shows how the power of friendship can sustain a person, even when they are enduring terrible experiences:
• Even though Jane does not agree with all of Helen’s ideas about injustice and the afterlife, she still treasures Helen’s friendship
• The mutual support between Brontë and her sisters can be seen as a model for Jane’s friendships with Helen, Miss Temple and the Rivers sisters

“I looked at my love: that feeling which was my master’s – which he had created; it shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 26

“All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence for ever” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 37

Meaning and context

• The first quotation is Jane’s reflection on her feelings after the abandoned wedding, when she has discovered that Rochester has a living wife
• The second quotation is Jane speaking to Rochester after their reunion at the end of the novel

Analysis

• In the first quotation, Jane sees her love for Rochester as his “creation”:
  • The image of a child suggests innocence and vulnerability
  • The cold cradle increases the sense that Jane cannot ease her own suffering
• It suggests a lack of autonomy over her own feelings that contradicts her behaviour elsewhere in the novel
• The reference to a suffering child in a cold cradle reinforces Jane’s feelings of helplessness:
• Brontë seems to suggest that a lack of emotional control is typical of romantic love 
• Brontë also implies that romantic love can be personally disempowering 
• In the second quotation, Brontë makes a distinction between Jane’s “heart” and her thoughts and actions:
  • When they do so, her moral convictions are stronger than her feelings
• This reflects Jane’s initial decision to leave Rochester when she discovers the truth about his previous marriage
• It shows Jane’s morality and actions contradicting her emotional preferences:
• However, Brontë also shows the absolute and enduring nature of Jane’s love for Rochester:
• Expressions like “all” her love, “belongs” to him, “for ever” emphasise the strength of Jane’s emotions
• This illustrates the strength of character required to “exile” herself from Rochester 

“Reader, I married him” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 38

Meaning and context

• Possibly the most famous sentence in Jane Eyre, this statement appears at the beginning of the final chapter

Analysis

• In this statement, Brontë reverses the more conventional “he married me”, making Jane the subject of the sentence:
• Brontë suggests a reversal of the power dynamic that has characterised Jane’s relationship with Rochester throughout the novel
• This could be due to Rochester’s injuries, which make him physically dependent on Jane
• Brontë presents their marriage as a happy one, with Rochester regarding Jane as his “equal”:
• This represents Brontë’s ideal of an egalitarian marriage, with mutual respect and enjoyment of each other’s company 

Jane Eyre’s story is told in the first person, which gives it the directness and emotional intensity of personal experience. Jane’s account of her life and honest evaluation of her actions show how she overcomes adversity through strength of character.

“My soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 4

Meaning and context

• Jane is describing her feelings after telling Mrs Reed exactly what she thinks of her

Analysis

• Jane is experiencing a sense of her own power: 
  • They hurt Mrs Reed, who does not understand Jane’s outburst and looks frightened by it
  • They make Mrs Reed even more determined to send Jane away and to break contact with her completely
• She feels expanded and raised up by the act of expressing her true feelings
• She feels liberated by her actions
• However, she is not considering the consequences of her actions:
• Brontë shows how empowering it can be to speak truth to power:
• Even in her disempowered position, Jane finds it intensely satisfying to speak her true feelings
• However, Brontë also shows Jane’s actions as those of a child:
• Jane feels no sympathy for Mrs Reed or the effect her anger has upon her
• Jane has not learned to avoid unkindness when expressing her feelings

“Reader, though I look very comfortably accommodated, I am not very tranquil in my mind” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 11

Meaning and context

• Jane is describing her feelings in the George Inn at Millcote, where she is waiting for someone from Thornfield to pick her up
• She is anxious because nobody has appeared to meet her coach and she is alone

Analysis

• This is an example of Jane addressing the reader directly:
• It emphasises the fact that every situation is described from Jane’s point of view
• It reinforces our direct access to Jane’s thoughts and opinions
• It also reminds us that we are reading a work of fiction

• Brontë wants to give readers access to Jane’s thoughts, without the intervention of a third-person narrator:

• This means that Jane owns her own narrative and has the narrative authority in the novel
• It also means that nobody contradicts Jane’s view, unless she chooses to report that
• By giving Jane narrative authority, Brontë demonstrates her belief that a woman’s voice is as valid and powerful as a man’s:
• This challenges 19th-century gender norms, which regarded women’s voices and ideas as having far less credibility and importance

“The strange little figure there gazing at me” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 2

“I saw a robed and veiled figure, so unlike my usual self that it seemed almost the image of a stranger” – Jane Eyre, Chapter 26

Meaning and context

• In the first quotation, Jane is looking at herself in the mirror in the darkening red-room where she has been locked as a punishment
• In the second quotation, Jane is looking at herself in the mirror, dressed in her wedding clothes on the morning of her marriage

Analysis

• Both quotations show Jane regarding, assessing and describing her reflection in the mirror:
• The words “strange” and “stranger” are used in each case to convey her alienation
• There is something uncanny about the way Jane both recognises and does not recognise her own image
• In the first quotation, Jane’s alienation is the result of her terror: 
• She sees herself as “half fairy, half imp”, like a character from one of the nursery maid Bessie’s stories
• This has the effect of dehumanising Jane and separating her from her sense of herself
• In the second quotation, Jane’s alienation may be due to pre-wedding nerves:
• However, Jane’s ominous dream and her terrifying experience two nights previously give her a sense of foreboding
• Both the dream and Bertha’s intrusion into her room are dismissed by Rochester as “unreal”
• Brontë uses Jane’s alienation and sense of foreboding as a foreshadowing device: 
• First of all, to present Jane’s outsider status and genuine sense of alienation
• Secondly, to foreshadow her disastrous wedding day
• Brontë uses supernatural elements throughout Jane Eyre:
• To signify the richness and importance of Jane’s imagination
• To suggest that the imagination has the power to affect the real world, especially for those who have no worldly power