Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
Chapter 29 · Narrator
Context
Jane reflects on Hannah's initial coldness toward her, explaining why the servant has been slow to show kindness despite Jane's obvious need.
Analysis
The extended metaphor of prejudice as weeds in untilled soil turns Hannah's lack of education into a failure of cultivation, with 'loosened or fertilised' suggesting that only schooling can soften a heart. The simile 'firm as weeds among stones' gives prejudice a physical tenacity that feels almost natural rather than moral. Yet this image also patronizes Hannah—Jane grants herself the authority to diagnose the servant's inner 'soil,' revealing Jane's own class assumptions even as she critiques Hannah's.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Jane's sympathy has limits—this quote shows her extending understanding to Hannah while simultaneously positioning herself as more enlightened, reproducing the very class hierarchy she elsewhere resists.