“ To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts ”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (16 October 1847). copy citation
| Author | Charlotte Brontë |
|---|---|
| Source | Jane Eyre |
| Topic | beauty heart soul |
| Date | 16 October 1847 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm |
Context
“and like you again! I think I shall like you again, and yet again: and I will make you confess I do not only like, but love you—with truth, fervour, constancy.»
«Yet are you not capricious, sir?»
«To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts—when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break—at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent—I am ever tender and true.»
«Had you ever experience of such a character, sir? Did you ever love such an one?»
«I love it now.»
«But before me: if I, indeed, in any respect come up to your difficult standard?»
” source
«Yet are you not capricious, sir?»
«To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts—when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break—at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent—I am ever tender and true.»
«Had you ever experience of such a character, sir? Did you ever love such an one?»
«I love it now.»
«But before me: if I, indeed, in any respect come up to your difficult standard?»
” source
Meaning and analysis
