Jane Eyre Character Analysis in Jane Eyre

The protagonist and narrator, Jane is an orphaned girl caught between class boundaries, financial situations, and her own conflicted feelings. In her youth and again as a governess, Jane must depend on others for support. Jane feels isolated, and strives for her personal freedom and meaningful connections with others—to find the loving family she never had. Jane is intelligent, imaginative, and principled. She defies many restrictive social conventions, especially those affecting women. As the novel progresses, Jane learns to temper her passions with self-control—she controls her feelings with judgment based on self-respect and Christian humility. She must reconcile her contradictory desires to be both independent and to serve a strong-willed man. Religion helps Jane to gain a mature understanding of herself as a self-respecting individual who credits her feelings, but also defers to God.

Jane Eyre Quotes in Jane Eyre

The Jane Eyre quotes below are all either spoken by Jane Eyre or refer to Jane Eyre. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Love, Family, and Independence Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Classics edition of Jane Eyre published in 2006.

You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 13

Explanation and Analysis:

Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: … the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols: ,

Page Number and Citation: 18

Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 44

Explanation and Analysis:

I resolved, in the depth of my heart, that I would be most moderate … I told her all the story of my sad childhood. Exhausted by emotion, my language was more subdued than it generally was when it developed that sad theme; and mindful of Helen's warnings against the indulgence of resentment, I infused into the narrative far less of gall and wormwood than ordinary. Thus restrained and simplified, it sounded more credible: I felt as I went on that Miss Temple fully believed me.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 84

Explanation and Analysis:

The refreshing meal, the brilliant fire, the presence and kindness of her beloved instructress, or, perhaps, more than all these, something in her own unique mind, had roused her powers within her … [Helen] suddenly acquired a beauty more singular than that of Miss Temple's—a beauty neither of fine color nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

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Page Number and Citation: 86

Explanation and Analysis:

I tired of the routine of eight years in one afternoon. I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing. I abandoned it and framed a humbler supplication; for change, stimulus: that petition, too, seemed swept off into vague space: "Then," I cried, half desperate, "grant me at least a new servitude!"

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 102

Explanation and Analysis:

While I paced softly on, the last sound I expected to hear in so still a region, a laugh, struck my ear. It was a curious laugh; distinct, formal, mirthless. I stopped: the sound ceased, only for an instant; it began again, louder: for at first, though distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every lonely chamber; though it originated but in one, and I could have pointed out the door whence the accents issued.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 126

Explanation and Analysis:

I climbed the three staircases, raised the trap-door of the attic, and having reached the leads, looked out afar over sequestered field and hill, and along dim sky-line—that then I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen—that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind, of acquaintance with variety of character, than was here within my reach.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 129

Explanation and Analysis:

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. 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 … 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.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 129

Explanation and Analysis:

I don't think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 157

Explanation and Analysis:

"He is not to them what he is to me," I thought: "he is not of their kind. I believe he is of mine;—I am sure he is—I feel akin to him—I understand the language of his countenance and movements: though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him … I must, then, repeat continually that we are for ever sundered:—and yet, while I breathe and think, I must love him."

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 203

Explanation and Analysis:

I saw he was going to marry her, for family, perhaps political reasons, because her rank and connections suited him; I felt he had not given her his love, and that her qualifications were ill adapted to win from him that treasure. This was the point—this was where the nerve was touched and teased—this was where the fever was sustained and fed: she could not charm him.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 216

Explanation and Analysis:

What crime was this that lived incarnate in this sequestered mansion, and could neither be expelled nor subdued by the owner?—what mystery, that broke out now in fire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of night? What creature was it, that, masked in an ordinary woman's face and shape, uttered the voice, now of a mocking demon, and anon of a carrion-seeking bird of prey?

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 243

Explanation and Analysis:

I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home—my only home.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 283

Explanation and Analysis:

I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you—especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 291

Explanation and Analysis:

He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 316

Explanation and Analysis:

I faced the wreck of the chestnut-tree; it stood up black and riven: the trunk, split down the centre, gaped ghastly … their great boughs on each side were dead, and next winter's tempests would be sure to fell one or both to earth: as yet, however, they might be said to form one tree—a ruin, but an entire ruin.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 318

Explanation and Analysis:

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: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 338

Explanation and Analysis:

"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. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 365

Explanation and Analysis:

This was the climax. A pang of exquisite suffering—a throe of true despair—rent and heaved my heart. Worn out, indeed, I was; not another step could I stir. I sank on the wet doorstep: I groaned—I wrung my hands—I wept in utter anguish. Oh, this spectre of death! Oh, this last hour, approaching in such horror! Alas, this isolation—this banishment from my kind!

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 385

Explanation and Analysis:

St. John, no doubt, would have given the world to follow, recall, retain her, when she thus left him; but he would not give one chance of heaven, nor relinquish, for the elysium of her love, one hope of the true, eternal Paradise.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 424

Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 432

Explanation and Analysis:

I looked at the blank wall: it seemed a sky thick with ascending stars,—every one lit me to a purpose or delight. Those who had saved my life, whom, till this hour, I had loved barrenly, I could now benefit. They were under a yoke,—I could free them: they were scattered,—I could reunite them: the independence, the affluence which was mine, might be theirs too.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 445

Explanation and Analysis:

I will be your neighbor, 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.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 502

Explanation and Analysis:

Reader, I married him.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 517

Explanation and Analysis:

Jane Eyre Character Timeline in Jane Eyre

The timeline below shows where the character Jane Eyre appears in Jane Eyre. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

On a dreary afternoon in Gateshead Hall, the ten-year-old Jane Eyre, who has been forbidden by her Aunt from playing with her three cousins, finds... (full context)

Social Class and Social Rules Theme Icon

Jane's bullying cousin John Reed barges in and insults her, calling her a penniless orphan and... (full context)

Stunned, John goes crying to Mrs. Reed: his mother and Jane's aunt. Mrs. Reed, despite Jane's protests, accuses Jane of starting the fight. As punishment, Mrs.... (full context)

Two servants, Bessie Lee and Miss Abbot, haul the wildly struggling Jane upstairs. Shocked at her violent outbreak, they scold her for disrespecting Mrs. Reed, her benefactress... (full context)

They lock Jane alone in the red-room. Jane catches sight of her gaunt reflection in the mirror and... (full context)

The Spiritual and the Supernatural Theme Icon

Jane thinks about the dead and how, when wronged, they can arise to seek revenge. Suddenly,... (full context)

Jane wakes up in the nursery, cared for by Bessie, and by the local apothecary, Mr.... (full context)

As Jane recovers, Mr. Lloyd asks her about her health and her well-being. Jane confesses her unhappiness... (full context)

Mr. Lloyd asks Jane if she'd like to attend school. Jane gladly says yes. He obtains permission from Mrs.... (full context)

Later, Jane overhears Bessie telling Miss Abbot the story of Jane's family. Jane's father was a poor... (full context)

For two months, Jane anxiously waits for her schooling to start. She is finally interviewed by Mr. Brocklehurst—the aloof... (full context)

Jane is so hurt by Mrs. Reed's false accusation that she can't stop herself from angrily... (full context)

The Reeds continue to shun Jane during her remaining time at Gateshead. Yet Jane makes friends with Bessie and speaks to... (full context)

Four days later, on a January morning, Jane leaves Gateshead. The carriage trip winds through a dreary landscape and lets Jane off at... (full context)

...orphan girls, ranging in age, and all wearing drab rough uniforms. On her first day, Jane witnesses the strictly regimented routine. Teachers order the girls around in formation. Students share beds... (full context)

...Ms. Maria Temple, intervenes to provide some better food. Ms. Temple also teaches several subjects. Jane respects her for her kindness and knowledge. (full context)

Jane spots a solitary girl reading. The girl is Helen Burns, an orphan herself. Jane is... (full context)

...and makes her stand in the middle of the school room for all to see. Jane cannot understand how Helen can bear the humiliation so quietly. (full context)

On Jane's second day at the school, she wakes up shivering to a meager breakfast. She finds... (full context)

In classes, Jane is overwhelmed by the lessons, but is fascinated by watching Helen Burns across the room.... (full context)

Later, Jane tells Helen how she should furiously resist such unjust treatment. Helen explains to Jane her... (full context)

...poorly-clothed girls suffer exposure to frigid weather. They are constantly cold and underfed. In sympathy, Jane gives most of her small meals to other starving girls. (full context)

Jane is terrified that Mr. Brocklehurst will remember his promise to Mrs. Reed to tell all... (full context)

Jane is devastated, but takes heart from Helen Burns, who smiles at Jane every time she... (full context)

After school is dismissed that evening, thinking that she is hated by everyone, Jane collapses into tears. Helen Burns reassures Jane that she is pitied, not hated, by her... (full context)

...Temple brings the two girls to her office and treats them to tea and cake. Jane tells Ms. Temple that she is not a liar, and relates her life story, trying... (full context)

Ms. Temple promises to write to Mr. Lloyd to confirm that Jane's assertion that she is not a liar. Mr. Lloyd soon writes back to exonerate Jane,... (full context)

Jane returns to her studies with new vigor and excels in French and drawing. She now... (full context)

...that infects more than half of Lowood's students. Many are sent home. Many others die. Jane, meanwhile, is encouraged to wander outside for her health, and she takes great pleasure in... (full context)

Jane soon learns that Helen is also deathly ill. Helen suffers from consumption (tuberculosis), not typhus,... (full context)

One night Jane sneaks to Helen's bedside. Helen assures Jane that she is not scared of dying because... (full context)

Helen is buried in an unmarked grave. But 15 years later, someone (probably Jane) places a headstone on the grave that is carved with the word "Resurgam"—Latin for "I... (full context)

Eight years pass. Jane excels in her studies during that time. Driven by a wish to please her teachers,... (full context)

Jane posts a newspaper advertisement for her services as a tutor, and a week later is... (full context)

Just as she's leaving Lowood, Jane gets a surprise visit from Bessie. Bessie updates Jane about the Reeds—Georgiana tried to run... (full context)

Bessie also notes that Jane's family (the Eyres) was poor but respected—they even owned property. In fact, seven years previous... (full context)

Jane arrives at Thornfield Hall at night, and therefore can't make out much more than the... (full context)

Jane meets her new pupil, the hyperactive French girl Adèle Varens, whose mother was a French... (full context)

After they leave the third floor, strange laughter echoes above them, spooking Jane. Mrs. Fairfax blames the noise on Grace Poole, a servant and seamstress whom Mrs. Fairfax... (full context)

Jane eases into the habits of life at Thornfield. She is comfortable and likes the bright... (full context)

Jane frequently hears the strange laughter on the third floor, and observes Grace Poole coming and... (full context)

As Jane carries a letter to the post one winter evening, she hears a horse approaching. The... (full context)

The horse then slips and falls on a sheet of ice. Jane helps up the rider, a dark and stern-faced man, who questions Jane about her position... (full context)

The next evening, Jane and Adèle join Rochester for tea. Rochester seems distant and moody, and speaks in commands,... (full context)

When he learns that Jane can draw, Rochester is intrigued and asks to see her work. Jane's pictures show sublime... (full context)

Jane mentions to Mrs. Fairfax that she finds Rochester unpleasantly abrupt. Mrs. Fairfax explains that Rochester... (full context)

Jane barely sees Rochester, until one night after dinner he calls for Jane and Adèle to... (full context)

..."Indian-rubber." He makes obscure references to his past and his plans for reforming himself, but Jane gets confused by his vagueness and she stops the conversation. (full context)

One afternoon, Rochester takes Jane aside and explains his history with Adèle. Years ago in Paris, Rochester fell for Céline... (full context)

That night, Jane thinks over Rochester's story and realizes that she really likes speaking with him now that... (full context)

Later, when trying to sleep, Jane is disturbed by strange noises in the hallway, a demonic laugh at her door, and... (full context)

Rochester, now awake, rushes up to the third floor. He returns and asks Jane if she's ever heard the demonic laughter before. When Jane responds that she has heard... (full context)

In the morning, Jane is surprised that the servants believe that the previous night's fire started when Rochester accidentally... (full context)

To Jane's dismay, Rochester soon leaves for a nearby estate to join a party of aristocrats, including... (full context)

Rochester is gone for a week when Jane is upset to learn from Mrs. Fairfax that he may go to Europe for a... (full context)

Meanwhile, Jane keeps an eye on Grace Poole, who spends most of her time alone upstairs. Jane... (full context)

...the parlor. Adèle, starry eyed, wanders through an adoring crowd in a French dress while Jane, wearing a Quakerish frock, retreats to a corner to observe. (full context)

Watching Rochester with Blanche, Jane realizes that she's helplessly in love with him. She sneaks away, about to cry, but... (full context)

The guests remain for several days. Each night Jane has to watch Blanche flirt with Rochester, including during a game of charades from which... (full context)

Jane senses that Blanche, despite all her efforts, cannot charm Rochester. Still, she thinks Rochester will... (full context)

...on business. A strange gentleman—Mr. Mason—comes looking for him. The man's unusual, vacant appearance makes Jane uneasy. She learns from Mr. Mason that he and Rochester both had business in the... (full context)

...other girls twitter about the gypsy's surprising knowledge. The old woman then requests to see Jane. (full context)

Alone with Jane, the gypsy hides behind a large hat. She describes how Jane feels lonely and represses... (full context)

The gypsy asks Jane about any love interests, which Jane denies having. Jane admits she is alone, but not... (full context)

As the gypsy woman continues speaking, her voice deepens, and Jane suddenly recognizes the gypsy's voice and hand—the gypsy is Rochester in disguise! (For a moment,... (full context)

Once everyone has returned to bed, Rochester taps on Jane's bedroom door and asks for her help. They go up to Grace Poole's third floor... (full context)

Rochester takes Jane for a walk in the garden. He tells her about an obviously autobiographical story of... (full context)

One afternoon, a messenger from Gateshead brings Jane some shocking news. John Reed, heavily in debt from gambling, has committed suicide. Now Mrs.... (full context)

At Gateshead, Jane has a pleasant reunion with Bessie. The Reed sisters, meanwhile, have grown into two very... (full context)

Though she's on her deathbed, Mrs. Reed shows no remorse for her treatment of Jane. On the tenth day of Jane's visit, Mrs. Reed calls Jane into her room and... (full context)

While at Gateshead, Jane gets a letter from Mrs. Fairfax that says Rochester has gone to London to buy... (full context)

On the road, Jane unexpectedly meets Rochester, who's out driving his new carriage. Rochester begs her to look at... (full context)

...confesses that he has no plans to marry Blanche. He was only trying to make Jane jealous. He passionately asks Jane to marry him. Jane at first thinks Rochester is teasing... (full context)

...promises a wedding in four short weeks. After the engagement is announced, Mrs. Fairfax congratulates Jane weakly and warns her about men and marriages between unequal parties. Jane is irritated with... (full context)

Feeling like she's living a fairy tale, Jane is exuberantly happy—at first. But when Rochester starts lavishing expensive gifts and flattering compliments on... (full context)

Jane privately decides to answer the letter from her uncle, John Eyre, which Mrs. Reed had... (full context)

Throughout the wedding planning process, Jane resists Rochester's romantic overtures. To put him off, she argues with him and aggravates him.... (full context)

...everything is packed for a honeymoon to Europe. While Rochester is briefly away on business, Jane wanders outside to see the lightning-blasted chestnut tree. (full context)

Jane spends the night cradling Adèle in the nursery behind a bolted door. She cries when... (full context)

On the morning of the wedding, as Rochester hurries Jane to the church, Jane notices two strangers in the churchyard. The strangers also attend the... (full context)

Rochester is furious. He concedes that the story is true, but stresses that neither Jane nor anyone else knew of Bertha. His wife is insane, he says, and is kept... (full context)

Mr. Mason then reveals to Jane that he learned about her wedding plans with Rochester from a business acquaintance—Jane's uncle. After... (full context)

Jane locks herself into her room. Feeling that all her hopes have been destroyed, she succumbs... (full context)

Rochester admits that he acted cowardly and wrong and tells Jane the full truth about his past. Rochester's father left his entire fortune to his eldest... (full context)

For an instant, Jane considers staying with Rochester, reasoning that she deserves a devoted man after a life of... (full context)

Jane soon runs out of money. The carriage drops her off at a crossroads, and she... (full context)

Jane walks into a nearby village to ask for work, which is scarce. She tries to... (full context)

Weak from hunger and despair, Jane wanders into the wilderness expecting to die. She follows the light of a distant candle... (full context)

Jane collapses outside, believing death is imminent and vowing to wait for God's will. Just then,... (full context)

Jane is semi-conscious for three days. On waking on the fourth day, she finds her clothes... (full context)

Later, Jane gives the Rivers a brief personal history, but refuses to reveal her real name or... (full context)

Jane quickly becomes friends with Mary and Diana. They share books and conversation, Jane teaches them... (full context)

St. John, unlike his sisters, remains pensive and distant at home. Jane visits his church and hears him preach a stern sermon that leaves her feeling sad.... (full context)

St. John offers Jane a position running a small school for the poor children of his parish in Morton.... (full context)

Jane starts work at her school. She has 20 students with little education. While Jane believes... (full context)

In conversation, St. John reassures Jane that he also had doubts about choosing his career in the parish church, but that... (full context)

One of the school's benefactors is the rich and classically beautiful Rosamond Oliver. Jane can see that Rosamond and St. John are in love. (full context)

As the days pass, Jane starts to enjoy her teaching, makes progress with her students, and becomes a respected favorite... (full context)

Rosamond makes frequent visits to the school, conveniently arriving when St. John is also there. Jane notices that St. John is visibly affected by Rosamond's presence. At home, Jane draws a... (full context)

The following night, St. John fights through the snow to visit Jane. He tells her a story which, to Jane's astonishment, is her own personal history. It... (full context)

Notices and letters were posted everywhere to find Jane. One reached St. John because John Eyre is in fact his uncle, too. St. John... (full context)

When the winter holidays arrive, Jane closes her school and spends a happy Christmas with Mary and Diana, who have returned... (full context)

One day, St. John finds Jane studying German and suggests that she learn "Hindostanee" instead—the language he's studying for his missionary... (full context)

Time passes. That summer, St. John takes Jane on a walk in the hills. St. John tells Jane she has admirable qualities, and... (full context)

St. John continues to try to convince Jane to marry him. Jane knows that working in India would be a tremendous sacrifice: the... (full context)

One evening after dinner, St. John reads prayers aloud with such fervor and command that Jane feels compelled to accept his marriage proposal. (full context)

Yet just as she's about to give in, Jane hears Rochester's voice calling for help as if from a great distance: "Jane! Jane! Jane!"... (full context)

As Jane prepares to leave to go to Thornfield, St. John slips a note under her door... (full context)

On the journey to Thornfield, Jane thinks about the differences the year away has made in her. Formerly poor and alone,... (full context)

Jane learns what happened from the proprietor of a local inn. Bertha escaped and set Jane's... (full context)

Jane travels to Ferndean, which is deep in the forest. When she arrives, she sees Rochester... (full context)

Jane knocks and talks with the servants at the door. Jane then takes to Rochester a... (full context)

Jane updates Rochester about her new wealth and leads him on about St. John, jokingly using... (full context)

Rochester tells Jane about his new repentant relationship with God. He feels punished for his pride and now... (full context)

The final chapter begins with the famous line: "Reader, I married him." Remaining at Ferndean, Jane and Rochester have a small, quiet wedding and live in perfect harmony. Jane never tires... (full context)

Jane visits Adèle and finds her unhappy in a harsh school. Jane transfers her to a... (full context)

Writing ten years after the events of the novel, Jane informs the reader that Diana and Mary both have married respectable and caring husbands and... (full context)