Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat—your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me.
Chapter 27 · Edward Rochester
Context
Rochester insists to Jane that even if she were mad, he would still love her and care for her, contrasting his devotion to her with his revulsion toward Bertha.
Analysis
Rochester uses anaphora—'Your mind is my treasure … it would be my treasure still … your grasp … would have a charm'—to build a rhythm of insistent, almost incantatory devotion. The repetition of 'your' (seven times in three sentences) grammatically centers Jane, while 'my treasure' twice over makes her into something he owns and hoards. He is trying to prove constancy, but the possessive structure undermines it: his love is framed as acquisition. The contrast he draws with Bertha—'I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her'—also implies that love is contingent on the beloved's behavior, which contradicts the unconditional devotion he claims.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Rochester's declaration of love is deeply possessive—he offers Jane tenderness, but the language of 'treasure' and 'mine' reveals he still imagines love as ownership, which is precisely what Jane must reject to remain free.