How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Come to my side, Jane, and let us explain and understand one another."
"I will never again come to your side: I am torn away now, and cannot return."
"But, Jane, I summon you as my wife: it is you only I intend to marry."
I was silent: I thought he mocked me.
"Come, Jane—come hither."
"Your bride stands between us."
He rose, and with a stride reached me.
"My bride is here," he said, again drawing me to him, "because my equal is here, and my likeness. Jane, will you marry me?" (2.8.80-87)
Fair warning: we could have picked almost any quote from Volume 2, Chapter 8 because it’s pretty much all like this. The irony is thick on the ground here—as Jane will learn at the end of Volume 2, Rochester’s bride does indeed stand between them, but it’s not Blanche Ingram! Notice that Rochester claims a woman could only qualify as his "bride" if she was also his "equal" and "likeness." He’s laying the groundwork for twisting this argument around later in the novel and claiming that a woman who isn’t his "likeness" can’t be his wife no matter what anyone (even the law) says.
Quote #8
"That is my wife," said he. "Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to have" (laying his hand on my shoulder): "this young girl, who stands so grave and quiet at the mouth of hell, looking collectedly at the gambols of a demon. I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout. Wood and Briggs, look at the difference! Compare these clear eyes with the red balls yonder—this face with that mask—this form with that bulk; then judge me, priest of the Gospel and man of the law, and remember, with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged!" (2.11.80)
Rochester has admitted that he was trying to commit bigamy, but the weird part is that we kind of sympathize with him. The contrast between Bertha, the wild and crazy vampire-ish woman, and plain little Jane, the "Quakerish governess," really makes us understand what Rochester is saying: Bertha’s really not playing the role of a wife in his life, so why shouldn’t he be allowed to marry Jane, especially because she’s so awesome? Then we stop for a minute and think, whoa, we’re not exactly on board with this, because it’s not really fair to Jane. But we do feel bad for the guy.
Quote #9
"It is strange," pursued he, "that while I love Rosamond Oliver so wildly—with all the intensity, indeed, of a first passion, the object of which is exquisitely beautiful, graceful, fascinating—I experience at the same time a calm, unwarped consciousness that she would not make me a good wife; that she is not the partner suited to me; that I should discover this within a year after marriage; and that to twelve months’ rapture would succeed a lifetime of regret. This I know." (3.6.45)
St. John’s radical separation of his emotional attachment to Rosamond from his calm, collected assessment of what a good wife should be sounds fairly rational at first—and really similar, in some ways, to Jane’s rejection of Rochester. But something’s bothering us about it. Oh, right, it’s the implication that he’s (someday) going to marry a woman he doesn’t love. On purpose. Now that’s just masochistic.