Charlotte Bronte Quote
Never, said he, as he ground his teeth, never was anything at onceso frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand! (And heshook me with the force of his hold.) I could bend her with my fingerand thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushedher? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing lookingout of it, defying me, with more than courage—with a stern triumph.Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it—the savage, beautifulcreature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let thecaptive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate wouldescape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwellingplace.And it is you, spirit—with will and energy, and virtue and purity—that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you couldcome with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seizedagainst your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence—you will vanishere I inhale your fragrance.
Never, said he, as he ground his teeth, never was anything at onceso frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand! (And heshook me with the force of his hold.) I could bend her with my fingerand thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushedher? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing lookingout of it, defying me, with more than courage—with a stern triumph.Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it—the savage, beautifulcreature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let thecaptive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate wouldescape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwellingplace.And it is you, spirit—with will and energy, and virtue and purity—that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you couldcome with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seizedagainst your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence—you will vanishere I inhale your fragrance.
Related Quotes
About Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte was the third of six siblings born to Maria Branwell, the daughter of a Cornish merchant, and Patrick Brontë, an Irish clergyman. Maria died when Charlotte was only five years old, and three years later, Charlotte was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, along with her three sisters, Maria, Elizabeth and Emily. Conditions at the school were appalling, with frequent outbreaks of disease. Charlotte's two elder sisters fell ill there and died; Charlotte attributed her own lifelong ill-health to her time at Cowan Bridge, and later used it at the model for Lowood School in Jane Eyre.
In 1831, Charlotte became a pupil at Roe Head School in Mirfield, but left the following year in order to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home. In 1835, Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher. In 1839, she accepted a job as governess to a local family, but left after a few months.
In 1842, Charlotte joined the Heger Pensionnat, a girls' boarding school in Brussels, as a student teacher, in the hope of acquiring the skills required to open a school of her own. However she was obliged to leave after falling in love with the school's director, Constantin Heger, a married man, who inspired both the character of Rochester in Jane Eyre, and Charlotte's first novel, The Professor.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne then attempted to open a school in Haworth, but failed to attract pupils. In 1846 the sisters published a collection of poems under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although Charlotte's first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. The sisters' true identities were revealed in 1848, and by the following year Charlotte was known in London literary circles.
In 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854, but died on 31 March 1855, possibly of tuberculosis, although there is evidence that she may have died from hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy.