Shortly before Jane uttered this statement, she referred to Rochester as her master: “…he was so soon to cease to be my master,” (Brontë 282). She claims she has no association with birds and outright abandons an obedient disposition while challenging the authority figure in her life. The above quote problematizes the desire of Jane’s freedom. Like a caged bird, Jane is instinctively captivated and taunted by the idea of freedom, be it through reading Bewick’s History of British Birds, expressing her infatuation with a plate that had a painting of a bird, or having her likeliness to a bird be reified by Rochester (Brontë 1, 25, 283). Brontë uses birds as a symbol of liberation to express a longing for freedom while simultaneously as a visual trope to illustrate the similarity between Jane and the animal through zoomorphic descriptions. The tension between captivity and freedom is demonstrated throughout the novel in the form of an extended metaphor of a bird. “’I am no bird, and no net ensnares me I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.’”
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