Jane Quotes Flashcards
(15 cards)
🟢 Theme: Independence & Identity
💡 Hint: Jane compares herself to a trapped creature — and rejects the idea.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
– Chapter 23,
🟢 Theme: Self-Respect & Solitude
💡 Hint: Jane insists she doesn’t need to trade dignity for love.
“I can live alone, if self-respect and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss.”
– Chapter 27,
🟢 Theme: Feminism & Emotional Expression
💡 Hint: Jane erupts in defiance when treated as an object without feelings.
“Do you think I am an automaton? … I have as much soul as you – and full as much heart!”
– Chapter 23,
🟢 Theme: Gender Equality & Spiritual Connection
💡 Hint: Jane asserts that they stand as equals before God.
“It is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal—as we are!”
🟢 Theme: Personal Growth & Hope
💡 Hint: Even Jane sees rays of happiness in her darkest hours.
“Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.”
– Chapter 4,
🟢 Theme: Morality & Conscience
💡 Hint: Laws matter most when we’re tempted to break them.
“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour.”
– Chapter 27,
🟢 Theme: Resilience & Self-Care
💡 Hint: Jane chooses to value herself even when utterly alone.
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
– Chapter 27,
🟢 Theme: Gender Roles & Societal Expectations
💡 Hint: Women, like men, crave more than sewing and silence.
“Women feel just as men feel… it is narrow-minded to say they ought to confine themselves… if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”
– Chapter 12
🟢 Theme: Emotional Intimacy & Trust
💡 Hint: Jane on how she connects deeply with refined minds.
“I could never rest in communication… till I had passed the outworks of conventional reserve, and crossed the threshold of confidence.”
– Chapter 17,
🟢 Theme: Personal Fulfillment & Action
💡 Hint: Jane rejects passive contentment; she craves experience.
“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”
– Chapter 12,
🟢 Theme: Love & Soul Connection
💡 Hint: Jane’s heart belongs to Rochester no matter what.
“All my heart is yours, sir: it belongs to you; and with you it would remain, were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever.”
– Chapter 23,
🟢 Theme: Pride vs. Happiness
💡 Hint: Jane admits she values joy over status
“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
– Chapter 34
🟢 Theme: Resistance to Authority
💡 Hint: Jane challenges Mr. Brocklehurst’s patriarchal authority.
“I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have.”
– Chapter 12,
🟢 Theme: Individual Morality & Inner Strength
💡 Hint: Jane speaks on having a clean conscience even if all others condemn her.
“If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”
– Chapter 8,
🟢 Theme: Forgiveness & Emotional Maturity
💡 Hint: Jane rejects bitterness and moves on from wrongs.
“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”
– Chapter 6
