Rochester:
I know you; you're thinking. Talking is of no use, you're thinking how to act.
Jane Eyre:
All has changed sir. I must leave you.
Rochester:
No. No. Jane do you love me.
[Jane nods]
Rochester:
Then the essential things are the same. Be my wife.
Jane Eyre:
You have a wife.
Rochester:
I pledge you my honor, my fidelity...
Jane Eyre:
You cannot.
Rochester:
...my love until death do us part.
Jane Eyre:
What of truth?
Rochester:
I would have told you the truth.
Jane Eyre:
You are deceitful sir.
Rochester:
I was wrong to deceive you. I see that now, it was cowardly. I should have appealed to your spirit as I do now. Bertha Antoinette Mason, she was wanted by my father for her fortune. I hardly spoke with her before the wedding. I lived with her for 4 years. Her temper ripened, her vices sprang up, violent and unchaste. Only cruelty would check her and I'd not use cruelty. I was chained to her for life Jane. Not even the law could free me. Have you ever set foot in a mad house Jane?
Jane Eyre:
No sir.
Rochester:
The inmates are caged and baited like beasts. I spared her that at least. Jane?
Jane Eyre:
Yes I pity you sir.
Rochester:
Who would you offend by living with me? Who would care?
Jane Eyre:
I would.
Rochester:
You would rather drive me to madness than break some mere human law.
Jane Eyre:
I must respect myself.
Rochester:
Listen to me. Listen. I could bend you with my finger and my thumb. A mere reed you feel in my hands. But whatever I do with this cage, I cannot get at you, and it is your soul that I want. Why can't you come of your own free will?
Jane Eyre:
God help me.
