“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
Documented source
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About this line
St. John Rivers — handsome, cold, convinced of his own righteousness — leaves the room in displeasure, and Jane watches him go. Then she gets up and goes after him anyway. Not because she has to. Because she’d rather be warm than right. In a novel full of people performing dignity they haven’t earned, Jane just quietly chooses happiness instead. Brontë slipped the whole argument for living into one sentence.
Why we carry this line
Ever laughed so loud that every one in the restaurant turned their eyes toward you? Ever skipped for no reason other than you felt like it? Ever grabbed a super soaker and used it saying “it’s only water!”? Yeah, me neither.
What happened next
‘Jane Eyre’ came out in 1847 under the name “Currer Bell.” Most readers had no idea a woman had written it.
Charlotte got her own chance at happiness late. Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate, proposed in December 1852. Her father objected, partly because Nicholls had little money, and Charlotte turned him down.
Nicholls didn’t give up, and on June 29, 1854, they married. Charlotte died nine months later, three weeks short of her 39th birthday.
