Charlotte Brontë on Dependence and Love
More musing on one of life's most important subjects.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ONE OF THE GREATEST NOVELS EVER WRITTEN!
I regret to inform my audience that I am continuing to write about the whole friendship-relationship platonic-romantic thing. For the past half a year, I have found the subject mesmerizing and inexhaustible. As I spoke to a cherished mentor and friend Saturday evening, my mind recalled a particularly beautiful passage from Jane Eyre, my all-time favorite novel. Here it is in its entirety:
Jane: “Mr. Rochester, if ever I did a good deed in my life—if ever I thought a good thought—if ever I prayed a sincere and blameless prayer—if ever I wished a righteous wish,—I am rewarded now. To be your wife is, for me, to be as happy as I can be on earth.”
Rochester: “Because you delight in sacrifice.”
Jane: “Sacrifice! What do I sacrifice? Famine for food, expectation for content. To be privileged to put my arms round what I value—to press my lips to what I love—to repose on what I trust: is that to make a sacrifice? If so, then certainly I delight in sacrifice.”
Rochester: “And to bear with my infirmities, Jane: to overlook my deficiencies.”
Jane: “Which are none, sir, to me. I love you better now, when I can really be useful to you, than I did in your state of proud independence, when you disdained every part but that of the giver and protector.”
I promise the passage evokes tears if one is familiar with the story. Even for those unfamiliar with the specific relationship, the excerpt’s moral is a moving one: To be depended upon by one’s belovéd, both physically and spiritually, brings delight to the lover and further strengthens the bond between the two.
I reiterate my sincere wish that all those who walk the earth experience such a union.