7 Most Important Jane Eyre Quotes with Analysis

This article will analyze some of the most important quotes from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Even if you’re only familiar with the gothic, Michael Fassbender-vehicle, you probably know the gist of this classic bildungsroman. The orphaned Jane Eyre is sent to live with her cruel aunt, Mrs. Reed. After years of neglect, she attends Lowood Institution, where she eventually becomes a teacher. When she tires of Lowood, she becomes a governess at Thornfield. There, she meets (and falls in love with) Mr. Rochester. Things get gothic and Jane flees. After some drama, Jane eventually makes it back to Rochester, who is now blind and missing a hand. (To find out how, check out this Jane Eyre Summary.)

You may also be interested in our Characters in Jane Eyre article.

Though Project Gutenberg has a searchable Jane Eyre, I recommend the Oxford World Classics text for its helpful endnotes and footnotes. 

Jane Eyre Important Quotes 

1) “‘Unjust!—unjust!’ said my reason, forced by the agonizing stimulus into precocious though transitory power…How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle I fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question—why I thus suffered: now…I see it clearly. 

I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there: I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage.” (15)

This quote appears early in the text, just after Jane has been locked in the red-room. Recall the incident that led to her being locked up. After years of bullying Jane, the 14-year-old John Reed has finally gone too far. He throws a book at Jane, who falls and hits her head, drawing blood. Jane calls him “a slave-driver…like the Roman emperors” (11). John comes at her and they begin to fight. Mrs. Reed arrives to separate them and then sends Jane to the red-room. 

Once in the red-room, Jane starts to freak out. (The red-room is the room in which Mr. Reed died.) When she sees a flash of light, she thinks it “a vision from another world” (17), and screams to be released. The servants seem on the verge of letting her go. However,  Mrs. Reed pushes Jane back into the room, where she faints. 

Jane Eyre Quotes (Continued)

It’s clear that Jane has done nothing wrong – she was attacked by John Reed and defended herself. As we read in the quote, Jane cannot for the life of her figure out why she suffers so much in the Reed household. It’s only when she’s older that she begins to understand the source of her suffering – her difference. Mrs. Reed and her children aren’t inclined to like Jane because Jane is unwilling to conform to their expectations. Though she’s constantly reminded of her dependence on Mrs. Reed, she refuses to be cowed into conformity. 

In some ways, this is the crux of Jane’s difficulty in the world – she steadfastly refuses to give in to others’ desires for her. We can see this throughout the book. Though she loves Mr. Rochester, she refuses to betray her Christian faith and become his mistress. And though she holds St. John in the highest (Christian) esteem, she refuses to marry him merely because he wants a helpmate. Even at ten years old, Jane knows who she is and how she wants to move through a world that demands submission. 

2) “People think you are a good woman, but you are bad; hard-hearted. You are deceitful!’

Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I had ever felt. It seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled out into unhoped-for liberty.” (36) 

This quote appears right after Jane has been interviewed by Mr. Brocklehurst, the head of Lowood Institution. While Jane is elated that she’ll be leaving Mrs. Reed’s household, she is furious that Mrs. Reed describes her as a liar and deceitful. She launches into a tirade against Mrs. Reed – the above quote describes her subsequent feelings. 

If the trauma in the red-room represents the larger world’s desire for conformity, then this moment distills Jane’s response – defiance. This first taste of liberty and freedom makes it impossible for Jane to ever return to slavery or conformity. 

3) “‘Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.’” (54) 

Helen Burns speaks these words to Jane shortly after Jane’s arrival at Lowood Institution. (Helen will eventually succumb to consumption.) Jane is immediately suspicious of this sentiment, writing that she “could not comprehend this doctrine of endurance” (55). 

Narratively, Helen Burns is the compliant foil to Jane’s fiery spirit – she exists to throw Jane into contrast. At the same time, it’s safe to say that Helen represents what was the dominant understanding of how an individual was to navigate the world. Helen looks outward – to Christian faith – to understand herself. For Helen, any wrong or fault in this material world will eventually be swallowed up by death (and salvation) – so why worry? Jane simply cannot abide this orientation. For Jane, to do so would be to abandon the hard, important work of defining one’s own self. 

Jane Eyre Quotes (Continued)

(The Atlantic has a wonderful article on “Jane Eyre and the Invention of the Self.” The article’s author argues that Jane’s “quest for her true self peels back the stiff layers of conventionality in order to discover genuine morality and faith.”)

4) “It did not seem as if a prop had been withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me, but the reason for tranquility was no more…I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.” (83) 

After Helen Burns dies, the public finds out about the atrocious conditions at Lowood. The ensuing outrage results in better conditions for the girls. Perhaps as a result of this improvement, Jane ends up spending eight years at Lowood – six as a student, two as a teacher. She finally decides to move on when her friend, Miss Temple, gets married and leaves Lowood. 

Miss Temple had been the only person at Lowood who was kind to Jane. Jane describes her as “mother, governess, and latterly, companion” (82). With Miss Temple married off, Jane thinks about the fact that she hasn’t left Lowood in eight years. At the same moment, Jane realizes that Lowood isn’t enough for her anymore. 

Jane Eyre Quotes (Continued)

In this quote, we see what sustains Jane in the world – personal connection. It’s only Miss Temple’s companionship that has made Lowood tolerable. With her absence, Jane is unwilling to submit to the conformity and routine of her previous existence. (In a humorous sequence, Jane first asks the universe for “liberty,” then for more modest “change,” then simply “new servitude” (83).)

5) “Who blames me? Many no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes…It is in vain to say that human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.” (107)

Jane’s new existence at Thornfield seems the beginning of a long, smooth career as a governess. And yet, something is still missing – Jane still finds herself “discontented.” While she acknowledges that there are “millions…condemned to a stiller doom than mine,” she refuses to accept what has become the stultifying routine at Thornfield. 

In this moment, Jane also explicitly addresses the expectations that the world has for women. She writes that women “feel just as men feel…they suffer from too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer” (107). She goes on to criticize the way the world responds to women who would desire more – she writes that it is “heartless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary” (107).

Jane Eyre Quotes (Continued)

Jane’s musings seem set between two possible futures. On the one hand, Jane’s ruminations on the constraints of her gender appear directly before the arrival of Mr. Rochester. It is as if Mr. Rochester has been summoned by Jane’s belief in “other and more vivid kinds of goodness” (107). It’s also significant that “Grace Poole” makes an appearance here as well. We read that “When thus alone, I not infrequently heard Grace Poole’s laugh” (107). Of course, it is not Grace Poole who is laughing – it is Berta Mason. At this moment, when Jane is considering the course of her life, Bertha Mason seems to represent the consequences of stultifying, wifely domesticity. 

6) “During the moment I was silent, Miss Eyre, I was arranging a point with my destiny. She [destiny] stood there, by that beech-trunk—a hag like one of those who appear to Macbeth on the heath of Forres.” (139)

If you’ve read my articles on Macbeth, you know how significant the witches are. Of course, we eventually realize that Mr. Rochester is talking about his commitment to Bertha Mason. Bertha is imprisoned on the third floor of Thornfield. At the same time, it’s worth taking a look at Mr. Rochester’s relationship with fate. Recall that Macbeth is tempted to evil by the predictions of the witches. When the witches tell Macbeth he will be king, Macbeth immediately starts thinking about who he’s going to have to murder. 

Jane Eyre Quotes (Continued)

Mr. Rochester has a different orientation to fate. Rather than touch on some evil lodged in his person, Mr. Rochester resolves to be “a better man than I have been; than I am” (139). In some ways, Mr. Rochester’s reaction is closer to that of Banquo than to that of Macbeth. 

7) “I felt veneration for St. John—veneration so strong that…I was tempted to cease struggling with him—to rush down the torrent of his will into the gulf of his existence, and there lose my own.” (407)

Recall that after fleeing Thornfield, Jane is taken in by Diana, Mary, and St. John. St. John is taken with Jane and asks her to enter into a loveless marriage with him and accompany him to India. Jane is tempted. As we see in the quote above, St. John’s holy enthusiasm is seductive. At the same time, Jane knows that the easy submission to St. John’s will would mean the disappearance of her own self. This is something that Jane cannot abide. 

Wrapping Up – Most Important Jane Eyre Quotes 

What surprised me most about Jane Eyre was how un-fusty it was. Given its gothic reputation, I assumed it would have a similar vibe as Frankenstein. To the contrary, Jane’s concerns – about freedom, society, and the self – are as modern today as they were in 1847. 

If you’ve found this article useful or interesting, you can also check out my summaries and analyses of 1984, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, The Crucible, Beloved, Brave New World, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Macbeth.