Wednesdays with Words (Jane Eyre)

 

I am listening to Jane Eyre on audio and just listened to this passage and thought, "Wow!" and had to go find my book to share. This portion is at the point where Mr. Rochester is trying to convince Jane to go away with him.

     This was true: and while he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. "Oh, comply!" it said. 'Think of his misery; think of his danger; look at his state when left alone; remember his headlong nature; consider the recklessness following on despair - soothe him; save him; love him; tell him you love him and will be his. Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?

     Still indomitable was the reply: 'I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am , the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad - as I am now. 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; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth - so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane - quite insane, with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.'

Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte