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[first lines]
Jane Eyre: [narrating] My name is Jane Eyre... I was born in 1820, a harsh time of change in England. Money and position seemed all that mattered. Charity was a cold and disagreeable word. Religion too often wore a mask of bigotry and cruelty. There was no proper place for the poor or the unfortunate. I had no father or mother, brother or sister. As a child I lived with my aunt, Mrs. Reed of Gateshead Hall. I do not remember that she ever spoke one kind word to me.
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[last lines]
Jane Eyre: [narrating] As the months went past, he came to see the light once more as well as to feel its warmth; to see first the glory of the sun, and then the mild splendour of the moon, and at last the evening star. And then one day, when our firstborn was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes as they once were... large, brilliant and black.
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Jane Eyre: I should never mistake informality for insolence. One, I rather like; the other, no free-born person would submit to, even for a salary.
Edward Rochester: Humbug! Most free-born people would submit to anything for a salary.
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Mrs. Reed: [introducing Jane] This, Mr. Brocklehurst, is the child in question. She is the daughter of my late sister's husband by an unfortunate union which we in the family prefer to forget. For some years she's lived in this house.
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Dr. Rivers: You keep your schoolroom uncommonly cold, Mr. Brocklehurst.
Henry Brocklehurst: A matter of principle, Dr. Rivers. Our aim is not to pamper the body but strengthen the soul.
Dr. Rivers: I should not have thought that a bad cough was any aid to salvation, but then I'm not a theologian. Good day, sir.
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Edward Rochester: I put my requests in an absurd way. The fact is once and for all, I do not wish to treat you as an inferior, but I've baffled through varied experiences with many men of many nations and roved over the globe while you've spent your whole life with one set of people in one house. Don't you agree it gives me the right to be masterful and abrupt?
Jane Eyre: Do as you please, sir. You pay me 30 pounds a year for receiving your orders.
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Edward Rochester: Are you always drawn to the loveless and unfriended?
Jane Eyre: When it's deserved.
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Blanche Ingram: [as she and Rochester emerge from the house into the garden:] It is a beautiful place, your Thornfield.
Edward Rochester: As a dungeon, it serves its purpose.
Blanche Ingram: Dungeon? Why, it's a paradise!
[Rochester grunts. Blanche goes on:]
Blanche Ingram: Though of course, if one lived here, one would really have to have a house in London, wouldn't one?
Edward Rochester: [dry:] Unquestionably. And a little apartment in Paris, perhaps a villa on the Mediterranean.
Blanche Ingram: How delightful that would be! But Thornfield would always be there, as a retreat from the world. A green haven of peace and... and love.
Edward Rochester: Love? Who's talking of love? All a fellow needs is a bit of distraction. A houseful of beautiful women every now and then to keep him from brooding on his woes -
[chuckling:]
Edward Rochester: peering too closely into the mysteries of his heart.
Blanche Ingram: That is, if he has a heart. And sometimes I wonder, Edward, if you really do have one.
Edward Rochester: [unperturbed:] Have I ever done or said anything to make you believe that I have? If so, I assure you it was quite unintentional.
Blanche Ingram: Are you never serious?
Edward Rochester: Never more than at this moment, except perhaps when I'm eating my dinner.
Blanche Ingram: Really, Edward, you can be revoltingly coarse sometimes.
Edward Rochester: [not as a question:] Can I ever be anything else.
Blanche Ingram: Can you?
[She lays a hand on his arm and draws him around to look at her]
Blanche Ingram: Would I have come to Thornfield if you couldn't?
Edward Rochester: Ha, that's a very nice point, Blanche. Would you, or would you not? We'll begin by considering the significant facts of the case. Mr. Rochester is revoltingly coarse, and as ugly as sin...
Blanche Ingram: [interrupting:] Edward! I...
Edward Rochester: [light and cheerful, all through:] Allow me, my dear Blanche - I repeat, as ugly as sin. Secondly, he flirts sometimes, but is careful never to talk about love or marriage. However - this is the third point - Lady Ingram is somewhat impoverished,
[she gives him a sharp look]
Edward Rochester: whereas the revolting Mr. Rochester has an assured income of eight thousand a year. Now in view of all this, what is the attitude that Miss Blanche may be expected to take? From my experience of the world, I'd surmise that she would ignore the coarseness, et cetera, until such time as Mr. R is safely...
Blanche Ingram: How dare you!
Edward Rochester: [laughing outright] Now now now, no horseplay!
Blanche Ingram: I've never been so grossly insulted in all my...
Edward Rochester: [quite cheerful] Insulted? My dear Blanche, I merely paid you the enormous compliment of being completely honest!
Blanche Ingram: Mr. Rochester, you are a boor and a cur!
[He watches as she stalks off. Fade to black. Fade up: the Ingram party is riding away from Thornfield]
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Jane Eyre: Do you think I can stay here become nothing to you? Do you think because I'm poor and obscure and plain that I'm soulless and heartless? I have as much soul is you and fully as much heart. But if God had gifted me with wealth and beauty, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. There, I've spoken my heart, now let me go...
Edward Rochester: Jane, Jane... you strange, almost unearthly thing. You that I love as my own flesh.
Jane Eyre: Don't mock me now.
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Mrs. Reed: You see, Mr. Brockelehurst, how passionate and wicked she is.
Henry Brocklehurst: I do, indeed. Come here, child. You and I must have some talk. No sight so sad as that of a wicked child.
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Henry Brocklehurst: Do you know where the wicked go after death?
Jane Eyre as a Child: They go to Hell.
Henry Brocklehurst: And what is Hell?
Jane Eyre as a Child: A pit full of fire.
Henry Brocklehurst: And should you like to fall into that pit and be burning there forever?
Jane Eyre as a Child: No, sir.
Henry Brocklehurst: Then what must you do to avoid it?
Jane Eyre as a Child: I must keep in good heaIth and not die.
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Henry Brocklehurst: Now I must pray God to take away your heart of stone and make you meek and humble and penitent.
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Henry Brocklehurst: Pupils! Observe this child. She is yet young. She possesses the ordinary form of girlhood. No single deformity points her out as a marked character. Who would believe that the evil one had already found in her a servant and an agent? Yet such, I grieve to tell you, is the case. Therefore, you must be on your guard against her. Shun her example, avoid her company, exclude her from your sports, and shut her out from your converse. Teachers! You must watch her, weigh well her words, and scrutinize her actions. Punish her body to save her soul. For it is my duty to warn you, and my tongue faIters as l tell it, that this girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, no better than many a little heathen that said its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Jagannath. This girl is a liar!
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Jane Eyre as a Child: I thought school would be a place where people would love me. I want people to love me and believe in me and be kind to me.
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Mrs. Scatcherd: If I may venture an opinion, Sir.
Henry Brocklehurst: When I want your opinion, Madame, I shall call for it.
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Henry Brocklehurst: Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this establishment, is this young person permitted to wear her hair in one massive curls?
Mrs. Scatcherd: Her hair curls naturally, sir.
Henry Brocklehurst: Mrs Scatcherd, how often must I tell you, we are not here to conform to nature?
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Henry Brocklehurst: Silence! So this is the spirit that prevails at Lowood. First vanity, and now insurrection. It shall be rooted out.
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Henry Brocklehurst: The ways of Providence are inscrutable.
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Dr. Rivers: Jane, you know what duty is, don't you? Duty is what you have to do even when you don't want to do it. I may not want to go out into a snow storm to visit a sick child, but I know I have to go because it's my duty. Now, what is your duty, Jane?
Jane Eyre: l don't know.
Dr. Rivers: Yes, you do, Jane. In your heart, you know perfectly well. Your duty is to prepare yourself to do God's work in the world.
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Jane Eyre: I do not wish to stay at Lowood.
Henry Brocklehurst: But this is unheard of! The ingratitude.
Jane Eyre: What have I to be grateful for? Ten years of harshness and...
Henry Brocklehurst: Silence! Stiff-necked as ever.
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Henry Brocklehurst: You have no talents, your disposition is dark and rebellious, your appearance insignificant.
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Dr. Rivers: Jane, it's not every young woman that can face the world single-handed, but you know what right is, and you stick to it through thick and thin.
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Mrs. Fairfax: That's Mr. Edward's room. He's abroad, of course, but I always keep it ready for him. His visits are always so unexpected and sudden. A wanderer on the face of the Earth. That's what Mr. Edward is, I'm afraid.
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Jane Eyre: It's very beautiful. I can't understand why a gentleman of a house like this so seldom comes to it
Mrs. Fairfax: It is strange, but you'll find, Miss Eyre, that in many ways, Mr. Edward is a strange man.
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Edward Rochester: Now, just hand me my whip.
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Edward Rochester: Well, Miss Eyre, have you no tongue?
Jane Eyre: I was waiting, sir, until l was spoken to.
Edward Rochester: Very proper.
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Edward Rochester: You have rather a look of another world. I marvelled where you got that sort of face. When you came on me in the mist, I found myself thinking of fairy tales. I had half a mind to demand whether you'd bewitched my horse. Indeed, I'm not sure yet.
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Edward Rochester: Do you play the piano?
Jane Eyre: A little.
Edward Rochester: Of course. That's the established answer.
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Edward Rochester: Excuse my tone of command. I'm used to saying, ''Do this,'' and it is done. I cannot alter my customary habits.
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Edward Rochester: Take a candle with you. Leave the door open. Sit down at the piano. Play a tune.
[Jane plays]
Edward Rochester: Enough! You play a little, I see, like any other English schoolgirl. Perhaps rather better than some, but not well.
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Edward Rochester: Miss, Eyre, I'm not fond of the prattle of children As you see, I'm a crusty old bachelor, and I have no pleasant associations connected with their lisp. In this house, the only aIternative is the prattle of a simple-minded old lady which is nearly as bad. Today, I feel disposed to be gregarious and communicative, and I believe you could amuse me.
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Edward Rochester: Does my forehead not please you? What do you tell from my head? Am I a fool?
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Edward Rochester: I'm not a kindly man, though l did once have a sort of tenderness of heart. You doubt that?
Jane Eyre: No, sir.
Edward Rochester: Since then, fortune's knocked me about, and kneaded me with her knuckles till I flatter myself I'm as hard and tough as an India rubber ball with, perhaps, one small, sensitive point in the middle of the lump. Does that leave hope for me?
Jane Eyre: Hope of what, sir?
Edward Rochester: My retransformation from India rubber back to flesh.
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Edward Rochester: You look very puzzled, young lady, and a puzzled air becomes you. Besides, it keeps those searching eyes of yours away from my face.
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Edward Rochester: You're afraid of me. You wish to escape me. In my presence, you are hesitant to smile gaily or speak too freely. Admit that you're afraid.
Jane Eyre: I'm bewildered, sir, but I am certainly not afraid.
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Edward Rochester: I was thinking only of myself, my own private memories and feelings. The fact is, nature meant me to be, on the whole, a good man - one of the better kind, but circumstance decreed otherwise. I was as green as you once. Aye, grass green. Now my spring is gone, leaving me what? This little artificial French flower.
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Edward Rochester: Poor little Adele, trying to console herself from my unkindness to her. The child has dancing in her blood and coquetry in the very marrow of her bones.
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Edward Rochester: Love's a strange thing, Miss Eyre. You can know that a person's worthless, without heart or mind or scruple, yet suffer to the point of torture when she betrays you.
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Lady Ingraham: Governesses? Don't speak to me of governesses. The martyrdom I've endured with those creatures. The clever ones are detestable, while the others are grotesque.
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Edward Rochester: I wish I were on a quiet island with only you; trouble and danger and hideous recollection far away.
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Edward Rochester: Jane, if all the people in that room came and spat on me, what would you do?
Jane Eyre: I'd turn them out of the room, if I could.
Edward Rochester: If I were to go to them, and they only looked coldly at me and dropped off and left me, one by one, what then? Would you go with them?
Jane Eyre: I would stay with you, sir.
Edward Rochester: To comfort me?
Jane Eyre: Yes, sir. To comfort you as well as I could.
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Edward Rochester: One of the maids had a bad dream, woke up screaming. Moral of that is, don't eat toasted cheese for supper.
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Edward Rochester: Jane, what you see may shock and frighten and confuse you. I beg you not to seek an explanation. Don't try to understand. Whatever the appearance, you must trust me.
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Edward Rochester: Whatever happens, do not move from here. Whatever happens, do not open a door. Either door.
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Mason: She sank her teeth into me like a tigress. She said she'd drain my heart's blood.
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Edward Rochester: Hurry. We must have him off. I've tried so long to avoid exposure. I shall make very certain it doesn't come now.
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Edward Rochester: You're my little friend, Jane, aren't you?
Jane Eyre: I like to serve you, sir, in everything that's right.
Edward Rochester: But if I asked you to do something you thought was wrong, what then?
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Edward Rochester: Jane, I want you to use your fancy. Suppose yourself a boy, a thoughtless, impetuous boy indulged from childhood upwards. Imagine yourself in some remote, foreign land. Conceive that you there commit a capital error, one that cuts you off from the possibility of all human joys! You're in despair. You wander about vainly seeking contentment and empty pleasure.
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Jane Eyre: Every conscience must come to its own decision.
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Edward Rochester: Cold fingers. They were warmer last night.
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Edward Rochester: You don't know these young ladies of fashion. They may not admire my person, but I assure you, they dote on my purse.
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Edward Rochester: Let us sit here in peace, even though we shall be destined never to sit here again.
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Edward Rochester: Sometimes I have a queer feeling with regard to you, Jane. Especially when you're near me as now. It's as if I had a string somewhere under my left rib, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in corresponding corner of your little frame. And if we should have to be parted, that cord of communion would be snapped.
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Edward Rochester: I'm going to marry Mademoiselle and take Mademoiselle to the moon and find a cave in one of the white valleys, and Mademoiselle will live with us there forever. Do you approve?
Adele Varens: Monsieur, there's no one I'd rather you marry, not even Mrs. Fairfax.
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Edward Rochester: I fled from this place. My fixed desire was to find a woman I could love, a contrast to the fury I'd left here. What did I find? A French dancing girl, a Viennese milliner, a Neapolitan contessa with a taste for jewelry.
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Edward Rochester: Someone was walking there in the moonlight - a strange little elfin-like creature.
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Edward Rochester: I could crush you between my hands, but your spirt would still be free.
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Bessie: Jane! Jane Eyre! A grown young lady, and you were such a tiny thing, no higher than a broomstick.
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Bessie: A gentleman to see you, Miss Jane.
Jane Eyre: Oh, I don't want to see him. I don't want to see anyone.
Bessie: You don't be foolish. You can't live all alone like the man in the moon.
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Edward Rochester: Her very fingers. What small, soft fingers!
Jane Eyre Quotes
Extended Reading
