Jane Eyre The Home Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

I touched the heath: it was dry, and yet warm with the heat of the summer day. I looked at the sky; it was pure: a kindly star twinkled just above the chasm ridge. The dew fell, but with propitious softness; no breeze whispered. Nature seemed to me benign and good; I thought she loved me, outcast as I was; and I, who from man could anticipate only mistrust, rejection, insult, clung to her with filial fondness. To-night, at least, I would be her guest, as I was her child: my mother would lodge me without money and without price. (3.2.6)

For at least a little while, Jane returns to the home that we can find in Nature—it’s almost like a garden-of-Eden thing. It also strikes us that going out onto the moors and trusting that Nature will care for you has an Israelites-in-the-wilderness feel. Jane even finds some manna—okay, berries, but close enough. Unfortunately, hunger will drive her back to "civilization" and houses.

Quote #8

"And what business have you here?" she continued. "It is not your place. Mary and I sit in the kitchen sometimes, because at home we like to be free, even to license—but you are a visitor, and must go into the parlour." (3.3.72)

You know how, at parties, everyone always ends up in the kitchen, even if you put all the food and drinks in the living room? That’s what Jane did here—ended up in the kitchen because it seems like that’s where the action is. Diana’s trying to be kind by suggesting Jane go into the parlor, which implies that Jane is being treated as a high-class visitor, but actually she’s just reminding Jane of her own homelessness and the way she doesn’t belong at Moor House.

Quote #9

My home, then, when I at last find a home,—is a cottage; a little room with whitewashed walls and a sanded floor, containing four painted chairs and a table, a clock, a cupboard, with two or three plates and dishes, and a set of tea-things in delf. Above, a chamber of the same dimensions as the kitchen, with a deal bedstead and chest of drawers; small, yet too large to be filled with my scanty wardrobe: though the kindness of my gentle and generous friends has increased that, by a modest stock of such things as are necessary. (3.5.1)

This is the first (and only) time in Jane Eyre that Jane actually has a little house all to herself that she can call home, and it won’t last very long.