A withering riposte to any attempt at ensnarement or wing-clipping.  Mr. Rochester tries to bind Jane to him but soon learns that nothing will drive her away faster.

‘Jane, be still; don’t struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.’

‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will…’

See our love letter to this humanist masterpiece, dotted with illustrated quotes, and our selection of other quotations on the theme of freedom. 

Source: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (London: Bounty Books, 2012 (1847)), p.  330

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