Charlotte Brontë

The early life of Jane Eyre, an orphan, takes her from the loveless home of the Reeds to Lowood, a charity school where she is first pupil and the teacher, before she moves to a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. The master of the house, Edward Fairfax Rochester, is a firm, swarthy and engaging man, and by the time he asks Jane, in his own teasing fashion, to be his wife, she knows she will accept him. But there is an impediment to their marriage, and when it is revealed on their wedding day it sends Jane fleeing into the unknown, and further trials on her redoubtable character. Jane Eyre was an immediate success when it was published in 1847, and the dramatic story, centred upon a young woman of impressive independence and integrity of spirit, has assured it a place as one of the most enduringly popular novels in the language.

Englische Originalausgabe

Jane Eyre

Elizabeth Park

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”

Zainab 

»Aber Sie müssen doch nicht Missionar werden! Sie könnten diesen Plan dann aufgeben.« 

»Aufgeben! Was? Meinen Beruf? Mein großes Werk? Den Grundstein, welchen ich auf Erden für eine Wohnung im Himmel legen will? Meine Hoffnung, einst zu der Zahl derer gerechnet zu werden, welche allen Ehrgeiz von sich gestreift haben, um des größeren Zieles willen, das Men- schengeschlecht besser gemacht, Kenntnisse und Belehrung in das Reich der Unwissenheit getragen zu haben? Frieden an die Stelle des Krieges gestellt, Freiheit für Knechtschaft, Religion für Aberglauben, die Hoffnung auf das ewige Leben für die Furcht der Hölle eingetauscht zu haben? Das soll ich aufgeben? Es ist mir teurer als das Blut in meinen Adern. Es ist das, worauf ich hoffe, wofür ich lebe!«

 Hier gab es keine quälende Zurückhaltung, kein Unterdrücken von Lebhaftigkeit und Fröhlichkeit, denn ihm gegenüber fühlte ich mich vollkommen behaglich, weil ich wusste, dass ich ihm angenehm war. Alles, was ich sagte oder tat, schien ihn entweder zu trösten oder neu zu beleben. Welch ein beglü- ckendes Bewusstsein! Er ließ mein ganzes Wesen aufleben und brachte es zum Strahlen. In seiner Gegenwart lebte ich wahrhaft - und er in der meinen. 

Grace McCarter

Still I felt that Helen Burns considered things by a light invisible to my eyes.

 aishu✧

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as thier brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would surfer; and it is narrow-minded in their more priviliged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

Most true it is that 'beauty is in the eye of the gazer'. My master's colourless, olive face , square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features; firm, frim mouth- all energy, decision, will - were not beautiful, according to rule, but they were more than beautiful to me: they were full of interest, an influence that quite mastered me - that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his. I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the gems of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me. 

Camila Carvalho

Um medo do desconhecido estava tomando conta de mim. Mas ainda não me vencera completamente: meu sangue continuava quente. O estado de espírito do escravo revoltado ainda me tomava com seu vigor amargo. Todas as tiranias violentas do John Reed, toda a indiferença orgulhosa de suas irmãs, toda a aversão da mãe, toda parcialidade dos empregados, tudo isso revirava em minha mente como uma água suja sendo revolvida no fundo de um poço. Por que eu estava sempre sofrendo, sempre apanhando, sempre sendo acusada e eternamente condenada?

Se as pessoas fossem sempre gentis e obedientes com aqueles que lhes são cruéis e injustos, as pessoas más sairiam sempre ganhando. Não temeriam nada e, assim, nunca se transformariam. Ao contrário, só iriam piorar. Quando somos agredidos sem razão, devemos agredir de volta, e com toda a força. Estou convicta disto: com força suficiente para ensinar à pessoa que nos agrediu a não fazer aquilo de novo.

É inútil dizer que os seres humanos deveriam satisfazer-se com uma vida tranquila. Eles precisam de ação. E se não encontrarem, irão fazê-la acontecer.

martian1138

It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

Jane Eyre quotes

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