Great God!—what delusion has come over me? What sweet madness has seized me?
Chapter 37 · Edward Rochester
Context
Rochester hears Jane's voice for the first time in a year but cannot see her. He speaks aloud, unable to believe she has returned.
Analysis
Rochester's exclamation 'Great God!' collapses religious invocation and raw disbelief into a single breath. The pairing of 'delusion' with 'sweet madness' shows him trying to name an experience that feels too good to be real—he reaches for clinical terms ('delusion,' 'madness') to contain joy he doesn't trust. The question form itself performs his uncertainty: he's asking permission to believe what he hears.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Rochester's suffering has inverted his earlier arrogance—where he once commanded, he now questions his own senses, and the man who tried to control Jane's reality now can't verify his own.