I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I…

The scene takes place in chapter XXIII of Jane Eyre, on a midsummer evening in the orchard at Thornfield. Mr Rochester has let Jane believe that he will marry Blanche Ingram and send her away to a post in Ireland. Jane breaks out: does he think that because she is “poor, obscure, plain, and little” she is “soulless and heartless”? Her spirit addresses his as if they stood at God’s feet, “equal—as we are!” When he takes her in his arms, she resists, and he begs her not to struggle “like a wild frantic bird”.

Her answer ends with a will “which I now exert to leave you.” Rochester then offers her “my hand, my heart”, and she accepts. That night, lightning splits the great chestnut tree in the orchard: the wedding will reveal that Rochester already has a wife, hidden at Thornfield.

Charlotte Brontë published the novel in 1847 as Currer Bell. Jane’s cry, from a penniless governess to her rich employer, is often quoted as a declaration of women’s independence.

Jane Eyre, Chapter XXIII, 1847

Checked word for word in the work itself.

Read the passage in the work