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 · Narrator
Context
Jane reflects on the mysterious voice she heard the previous night—a voice that seemed to call her name and pull her away from St. John's proposal. She is alone in her room at Moor House, trying to understand whether the experience was real or imagined.
Analysis
The extended Biblical allusion to Paul and Silas transforms Jane's psychological crisis into a spiritual liberation narrative. By framing her decision to reject St. John as a prison door bursting open, Jane claims divine sanction for following her own desire rather than duty. The paradox in the final clause—her spirit 'exulted' while remaining separate from her 'cumbrous body'—suggests Jane is rewriting Christian doctrine to justify a choice her society would condemn, using religious language to authorize a secular, romantic imperative.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Jane strategically uses religious rhetoric to justify her own desires—here she borrows the language of miraculous deliverance to make her choice to pursue Rochester (rather than marry St. John) seem divinely ordained, not selfish.