I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me.
Chapter 17 · Narrator
Context
Still hidden and watching Rochester, Jane reflects on her failed attempt to suppress her feelings for him. She admits that seeing him again has caused her love to return in full force.
Analysis
The metaphor of love as 'germs' that Jane tried to 'extirpate' treats emotion like a disease or weed requiring eradication—a violent, agricultural image that reveals how hard she worked to root it out. But the resurgence is described in opposing terms: 'green and strong,' language of vibrant life and growth. The fact that love returns 'spontaneously'—without her consent—suggests it operates outside her will. The closing paradox, 'He made me love him without looking at me,' captures the involuntary nature of her attachment: his mere presence, not any deliberate charm, has undone all her self-discipline.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that the novel presents love as a force beyond rational control—Jane's language of failed extirpation and spontaneous regrowth portrays desire not as a choice but as something that happens to her, challenging the Victorian ideal of female emotional restraint.