Jane Eyre Quote Analysis

Rochester removes his gipsy costume, quoting a line as he sheds the disguise and steps back into his own identity in front of Jane.

The quotation 'Off, ye lendings' is lifted directly from King Lear (III.iv), where Lear tears off his clothes in his madness, trying to strip away the trappings of civilization. By borrowing these words, Rochester frames his disguise as 'borrowed' layers obscuring his true self—but the allusion also associates him with Lear's descent into instability and self-deception. The theatricality of the moment, marked by the exclamation points, makes identity itself seem like a costume one can don and discard at will.

Support a thesis that Rochester's Shakespearean allusion reveals more than he intends—by echoing Lear's unraveling, he hints at his own precarious grip on control and the destructive secrets he is hiding, even as he plays the reveal for comedy.