Jane Eyre (1943)
Joan Fontaine: Jane Eyre
Photos
Quotes
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[first lines]
Jane Eyre : [narrating] My name is Jane Eyre... I was born in 1820, a harsh time of change in England. Money and position seemed all that mattered. Charity was a cold and disagreeable word. Religion too often wore a mask of bigotry and cruelty. There was no proper place for the poor or the unfortunate. I had no father or mother, brother or sister. As a child I lived with my aunt, Mrs. Reed of Gateshead Hall. I do not remember that she ever spoke one kind word to me.
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[last lines]
Jane Eyre : [narrating] As the months went past, he came to see the light once more as well as to feel its warmth; to see first the glory of the sun, and then the mild splendour of the moon, and at last the evening star. And then one day, when our firstborn was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes as they once were... large, brilliant and black.
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Edward Rochester : Are you always drawn to the loveless and unfriended?
Jane Eyre : When it's deserved.
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Jane Eyre : Do you think I can stay here become nothing to you? Do you think because I'm poor and obscure and plain that I'm soulless and heartless? I have as much soul is you and fully as much heart. But if God had gifted me with wealth and beauty, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. There, I've spoken my heart, now let me go...
Edward Rochester : Jane, Jane... you strange, almost unearthly thing. You that I love as my own flesh.
Jane Eyre : Don't mock me now.
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Jane Eyre : I should never mistake informality for insolence. One, I rather like; the other, no free-born person would submit to, even for a salary.
Edward Rochester : Humbug! Most free-born people would submit to anything for a salary.
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Edward Rochester : I put my requests in an absurd way. The fact is once and for all, I do not wish to treat you as an inferior, but I've baffled through varied experiences with many men of many nations and roved over the globe while you've spent your whole life with one set of people in one house. Don't you agree it gives me the right to be masterful and abrupt?
Jane Eyre : Do as you please, sir. You pay me 30 pounds a year for receiving your orders.
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Dr. Rivers : Jane, you know what duty is, don't you? Duty is what you have to do even when you don't want to do it. I may not want to go out into a snow storm to visit a sick child, but I know I have to go because it's my duty. Now, what is your duty, Jane?
Jane Eyre : l don't know.
Dr. Rivers : Yes, you do, Jane. In your heart, you know perfectly well. Your duty is to prepare yourself to do God's work in the world.
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Edward Rochester : You're my little friend, Jane, aren't you?
Jane Eyre : I like to serve you, sir, in everything that's right.
Edward Rochester : But if I asked you to do something you thought was wrong, what then?
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Jane Eyre : I do not wish to stay at Lowood.
Henry Brocklehurst : But this is unheard of! The ingratitude.
Jane Eyre : What have I to be grateful for? Ten years of harshness and...
Henry Brocklehurst : Silence! Stiff-necked as ever.
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Edward Rochester : Do you play the piano?
Jane Eyre : A little.
Edward Rochester : Of course. That's the established answer.
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Edward Rochester : Well, Miss Eyre, have you no tongue?
Jane Eyre : I was waiting, sir, until l was spoken to.
Edward Rochester : Very proper.
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Edward Rochester : I'm not a kindly man, though l did once have a sort of tenderness of heart. You doubt that?
Jane Eyre : No, sir.
Edward Rochester : Since then, fortune's knocked me about, and kneaded me with her knuckles till I flatter myself I'm as hard and tough as an India rubber ball with, perhaps, one small, sensitive point in the middle of the lump. Does that leave hope for me?
Jane Eyre : Hope of what, sir?
Edward Rochester : My retransformation from India rubber back to flesh.
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Jane Eyre : It's very beautiful. I can't understand why a gentleman of a house like this so seldom comes to it
Mrs. Fairfax : It is strange, but you'll find, Miss Eyre, that in many ways, Mr. Edward is a strange man.
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Edward Rochester : Jane, if all the people in that room came and spat on me, what would you do?
Jane Eyre : I'd turn them out of the room, if I could.
Edward Rochester : If I were to go to them, and they only looked coldly at me and dropped off and left me, one by one, what then? Would you go with them?
Jane Eyre : I would stay with you, sir.
Edward Rochester : To comfort me?
Jane Eyre : Yes, sir. To comfort you as well as I could.
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Edward Rochester : You're afraid of me. You wish to escape me. In my presence, you are hesitant to smile gaily or speak too freely. Admit that you're afraid.
Jane Eyre : I'm bewildered, sir, but I am certainly not afraid.
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Jane Eyre : Every conscience must come to its own decision.
