CBCharlotte Brontë

302 collected words

Charlotte Brontë

Life dates: 1816 AD — 1855 AD

English novelist and poet whose first-person fiction explores independence and belonging. Jane Eyre’s narrator is a character, so her voice should not be confused with direct autobiography.

▷ Play this voice Search these words ↗Place in time ↗happiness death faith wealth love time friendship life

Life and writing

Charlotte Brontë lived from 1816 to 1855 and grew up in Haworth, according to the Academy of American Poets biography. The same reference identifies her writing and the publication of Jane Eyre under the name Currer Bell. This profile documents the author attached to an existing archive label; it does not merge her with her sisters or convert every supplied quotation into a verified statement about her life. Literary voice remains separate from biographical evidence.

In chapter XXIV of the linked Jane Eyre, Jane resists Rochester’s idealised description of her. Chapter XXXIV places her preference for happiness over dignity in a different encounter. Both selected source records match those chapter passages under case, punctuation and spacing comparison. Reading the encounters shows why the voice cannot be reduced to a slogan detached from relationships and choices. The title’s autobiography belongs to Jane’s fictional narrative, not a claim that the novel is Charlotte Brontë’s direct life story.

Reading this voice

Begin with chapters XXIV and XXXIV, retaining the distinction between narrator, other speakers and author. Two selected supplied passages have checked locations in the 1897 Service & Paton edition; this does not independently verify the remaining 300 associated records. Existing wording, IDs and historical uncertainty are preserved. Profile lifetime dates add context without becoming dates of composition for the excerpts.

Subjects to explore

freedom love respect self-control

Words to begin with

Quotations and sayings

01c. 1835 AD

Poetry destroyed? Genius banished? No! Mediocrity, no: do not let envy prompt you to the thought. No; they not only live, but reign, and redeem: and without their divine influence spread everywhere, you would be in hell--the hell of your own meanness.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

02c. 1835 AD

A strong, vague persuasion that it was better to go forward than backward, and that I could go forward— that a way, however narrow and difficult, would in time open— predominated over other feelings: its influence hushed them so far, that at last I became sufficiently tranquil to be able to say my prayers and seek my couch. I had just extinguished my candle and lain down, when a deep, low, mighty tone swung through the night. At first I knew it not; but it was uttered twelve times, and at the twelfth colossal hum and trembling knell, I said: “I lie in the shadow of St. Paul’s.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

03c. 1835 AD

But this I know; the writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master--something that at times strangely wills and works for itself. He may lay down rules and devise principles, and to rules and principles it will perhaps for years lie in subjection; and then, haply without any warning of revolt, there comes a time when it will no longer consent.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

04c. 1835 AD

Writers cannot choose their own mood: with them it is not always hide-tide, nor --thank Heaven!--always Storm.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

05c. 1835 AD

I write because I cannot NOT write.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

06c. 1835 AD

To you I am neither man nor woman. I come before you as an author only. It is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me--the sole ground on which I accept your judgment.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

07c. 1835 AD

You can write nothing of value unless you give yourself wholly to the the theme -- and when you so give yourself -- you lose appetite ans sleep -- it cannot be helped --

Charlotte Brontë / quote

08c. 1835 AD

If for instance the sentiment possessing for the moment the empire of our mind is sorrow, will not the genius sharpen the sorrow and the sorrow purify the genius? Together, will they not be like a cut diamond for which language is only the wax on which they stamp their imprint? I believe that genius, thus awakened, has no need to seek out details, that it scarcely pauses to reflect, that it never thinks of unity: I believe that the details come naturally without search by the poet, that inspiration takes the place of reflection and as for unity, I think there is no unity so perfect as that which results from a heart filled with a single idea...The nature of genius is related to that of instinct; it's operation is both simple and marvelous.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

09c. 1835 AD

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?

Charlotte Brontë / quote

10c. 1835 AD

My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not, in those days, see God for His creature: of whom I had made an idol.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

11c. 1835 AD

And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”“A pit full of fire.”“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”“No, sir.”“What must you do to avoid it?”I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable: “I must keep in good health, and not die.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

12c. 1835 AD

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion...Appearance should not be mistaken for truth; narrow human doctrines that only tend to elate and magnify few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

13c. 1835 AD

Dr. John, throughout his whole life, was a man of luck - a man of success. And why? Because he had the eye to see his opportunity, the heart to prompt to well-timed action, the nerve to consummate a perfect work. And no tyrant-passion dragged him back; no enthusiasms, no foibles encumbered his way.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

14c. 1835 AD

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

15c. 1835 AD

Would you not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs." - Helen Burns

Charlotte Brontë / quote

16c. 1835 AD

I wish I had only offered youa sovereign instead of ten pounds. Give me back nine pounds, Jane; I’ve a use for it.''And so have I, sir,' I returned, putting my hands and my purse behind me. 'I could not spare the money on any account.''Little niggard!' said he, 'refusing me a pecuniary request! Give me five pounds, Jane.''Not five shillings, sir; nor five pence.''Just let me look at the cash.''No, sir; you are not to be trusted.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

17c. 1835 AD

You think too much of your "toilette", Adele; but you may have a flower." I took a rose from a vase and fastened it in her sash. She sighed a sign of ineffable satisfaction, as if her cup of happiness were now full. I turned my face away to conceal a smile I could not suppress; there was something ludicrous as well as painful in the little Parisienne's earnest and innate devotion to matters of dress.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

18c. 1835 AD

It is a very strange sensation to inexperience youth to feel itself quite alone the world, cut adrift from every connection, uncertain whether the port to which it is bound can be reached, and prevented by many impediments from returning to that it has quitted. The charm of adventure sweetens that sensation, the glow of pride warms it; but then the throb of fear disturbs it; and fear with me became predominant when half an hour elapsed, and still I was alone.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

19c. 1835 AD

My help had been needed and claimed; I had given it: I was pleased to have done something: trivial, transitory though the deed was, it was yet an active thing, and I was weary of an existence all passive.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

20c. 1835 AD

If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love our friends for their sakes rather than for our own.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

21c. 1835 AD

Friendship however is a plant which cannot be forced -- true friendship is no gourd spring up in a night and withering in a day.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

22c. 1835 AD

An odour of camphor and burnt vinegar warned me when I came near the fever room: and i passed its door quickly, fearful lest the nurse who sat up all night should here me. I dreaded being discovered and sent back; for I must see Helen,- I must embrace her before she died,- I must give her one last kiss, exchange with her one last word.

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23c. 1835 AD

I used to rush into strange dreams at night: dreams many-coloured, agitated, full of the ideal, the stirring, the stormy--dreams where, amidst unusual scenes, charged with adventure, with agitating risk and romantic chance, I still again and again met Mr. Rochester, always at some exciting crisis; and then the sense of being in his arms, hearing his voice, meeting his eye, touching his hand and cheek, loving him, being loved by him--the hope of passing a lifetime at his side, would be renewed, with all its first force and fire. Then I awoke. Then I recalled where I was, and how situated. Then I rose up on my curtainless bed, trembling and quivering; and then the still, dark night witnessed the convulsion of despair, and heard the burst of passion.

Charlotte Brontë / quote

24c. 1835 AD

I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.

Charlotte Brontë / quote