I have told you, reader, that I had learnt to love Mr. Rochester: I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me—because I might pass hours in his presence, and he would never once turn his eyes in my direction—because I saw all his attentions appropriated by a great lady, who scorned to touch me with the hem of her robes as she passed.
Chapter 18 · Narrator
Context
Jane watches Rochester flirt with Blanche Ingram during the house party. Though he ignores Jane completely, she reflects on her continued love for him despite his clear courtship of Miss Ingram.
Analysis
The triple anaphora—"because I found," "because I might pass," "because I saw"—builds a rhythmic accumulation of reasons that paradoxically fail to justify unlove, mirroring how rational arguments cannot dislodge emotion. The image of Miss Ingram scorning to "touch me with the hem of her robes" condenses class cruelty into a single gesture of physical avoidance, positioning the reader to feel Jane's exclusion as both social and spatial. Jane's direct address—"I have told you, reader"—pulls us into complicity, making us witnesses to a love she refuses to renounce even as she catalogues its futility.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Jane's love is an act of defiance against social hierarchy—this quote shows her claiming emotional agency precisely when her class position should render her invisible, refusing to let external circumstances dictate her inner life.