Characterisation in Jane Eyre

INDIVIDUAL “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”/ "I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. "

'Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?'

“You — you strange — you almost unearthly thing! — I love as my own flesh. You — poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are — I entreat to accept me as a husband.” 

"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... women fell just as men feel"

'my little darling... my little wife...'

“There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.”  

' I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am: ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.'

“I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.” 

'My master’s colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth, — all energy, decision, will, — were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me; they were full of an interest'

'If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way; they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should - so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again.”

'My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my equal is here, and my likeness.'

'to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break — at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent — I am ever tender and true.'

“You, Jane, I must have you for my own--entirely my own.” 

MISS TEMPLE= IDEAL VICTORIAN WOMAN “A beauty neither of fine colour nor long eyelash, nor pencilled brow, but of meaning, of movement, of radiance.” 

Jane

Rochester

Female minor characters