Bronte has a wonderful range of simile and metaphor, here demonstrated in powerlessness being likened to stubble thrown into a furnace.

See also another of her images of vulnerability.

‘Physically, I felt, at the moment, powerless as stubble exposed to the draught and glow of a furnace.’

Source: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (London: Bounty Books, 2012 (1847)), p. 415

Photo credit: pixel2013 at pixabay.com