Jane Eyre
Prompt #17 · Jane Eyre
Prompt Type: Character Arc
Throughout the novel, Jane struggles to reconcile her passionate nature with her moral principles. Analyze how Brontë uses this internal conflict to develop Jane's character and advance the novel's thematic concerns. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“No; I know I should think well of myself; but that is not enough: if others don't love me I would rather die than live—I cannot bear to be solitary and hated, Helen.”
Chapter 8
Argument
Early in the novel at Lowood, this quote establishes Jane's baseline passionate nature through hyperbole, revealing her desperate need for human love and connection that will later conflict with moral duty.
Quote 2
“Conscience, turned tyrant, held Passion by the throat, told her tauntingly, she had yet but dipped her dainty foot in the slough, and swore that with that arm of iron he would thrust her down to unsounded depths of agony.”
Chapter 27
Argument
At a critical turning point after discovering Rochester's marriage, this personification dramatizes the violent internal battle between Jane's passion (desire to stay with Rochester) and her conscience (moral principles), showing how she must forcibly suppress her feelings to maintain her integrity.
Quote 3
“The wondrous shock of feeling had come like the earthquake which shook the foundations of Paul and Silas's prison; it had opened the doors of the soul's cell and loosed its bands—it had wakened it out of its sleep, whence it sprang trembling, listening, aghast; then vibrated thrice a cry on my startled ear, and in my quaking heart and through my spirit, which neither feared nor shook, but exulted as if in joy over the success of one effort it had been privileged to make, independent of the cumbrous body.”
Chapter 36
Argument
Near the novel's resolution when Jane hears Rochester's supernatural call, this biblical allusion demonstrates her final synthesis of passion and principle—her soul's awakening allows her to follow her feelings while remaining spiritually independent, no longer needing to choose between love and morality.
Quote 4
“_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.”
Chapter 27
Argument
At the crucial turning point when Jane flees Thornfield, this anaphora and parallelism crystallize her internal conflict's resolution—she chooses moral law over passionate desire, demonstrating how her principles ultimately govern her actions even when completely alone and unsupported.
Quote 5
“Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?—a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,—as we are!”
Chapter 23
Argument
During the garden proposal scene, this passionate declaration through rhetorical questions and metaphor reveals Jane's struggle to assert both her feelings and her equality, showing how her passionate nature demands recognition while her moral principles insist on spiritual parity rather than subordination.