I like to serve you, sir, and to obey you in all that is right.
Chapter 20 · Jane Eyre
Context
In the garden, Rochester is testing Jane's loyalty by describing his power over her. Jane responds by defining the limits of her obedience.
Analysis
Jane's qualifier 'in all that is right' functions as a quiet but absolute limit—she offers service and obedience, but only within a moral framework she will judge for herself. The phrasing makes morality ('right') rather than Rochester's authority the governing principle, which means she is not truly offering obedience in the traditional sense; she is offering conditional cooperation that she retains the right to withdraw.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Jane's language of service contains built-in resistance—she uses the vocabulary of submission ('serve,' 'obey') but empties it of patriarchal meaning by making her own moral judgment the final authority, not his will.