“I reflected. Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation.” (pg. 18)
This quote occurs when Jane learns from Mrs. Reed that her parents lived in poverty. Mrs. Reed asks if Jane would like to go live with her parents instead of in the well-off Reed household, leading to this reflection.
This quote shows that Jane has a stereotypical idea in her head about the impoverished. It foreshadows Jane’s desire for a higher place in society late on in the book, where it is a primary …show more content…
While Rochester is purely motivated by passion, St. John is driven pure by practicality, seeing Jane as a potentially very strong missionary. Jane, on the other hand, is repulsed by the idea of a marriage with St. John, disliking both the idea of marrying someone she considers a brother and marrying a man of St. Johns character. Bronte’s use of St John’s proposal and Jane’s disagreement shows the conflict between the interests of St. John, a devout, spiritual man, and Jane.
Quote 5:
“ ‘I have an answer for you—hear it. I have watched you ever since we first met: I have made you my study for ten months. I have proved you in that time by sundry tests: and what have I seen and elicited… I acknowledge the complement of the qualities I seek. Jane, you are docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant, and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic: cease to mistrust yourself—I can trust you unreservedly. As a conductress of Indian schools, and a helper amongst Indian women, your assistance will be to me invaluable.’ ” (P 385)
This is another quote of St. John in the midst of trying to convince Jane to join him as a missionary in