"[W]hile he spoke my very Conscience and Reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him. - - - "Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?" Still indomitable was the reply - "I care for myself."

When I first read Jane Eyre at the age of 17, a few months shy of 18, it made me believe that the world is large, and that belief in yourself and your inner life makes a difference. Re-reading it 13 years later made me realize again that, like other big classics, it's so much more than the sum of its parts. So much more than a romance novel (a genre that I would normally avoid like the plague).

Rochester, the master of Thornfield Hall where Jane gets a position as a governess (after a tough childhood and a period of growth in Lowood Institution), is a byronic and wild-tempered character. He's like the night to Jane's morning, but the restlessness swirling within both are similar. To him, short and plain Jane appears as an otherworldly being, a sprite who has bewitched him. An unconventional girl who doesn't get ruffled or confused, but is direct and honest. Someone who's opinions he wants to hear.

As dark as Rochester and his past is Thornfield Hall, practically a concrete representation of its master's nature and a constant claustrophobic presence. The wild storms and secrets bubbling under the surface peek through from time to time in scenes that rival the best gothic novels. It's almost like a part of Jane's rebellious nature has escaped from the chains of social convention and her own doubt. She believes that "women feel just as men feel", and at one point she even states how she has desires that she cannot compromise for anyone.

In the end, companionship is only possible when there's no pretense or baggage. In contrast to the view of an ideal woman in Charlotte's time, Jane takes control and decides what and when her happy ending is going to be. She marries her man, not the other way around. She doesn't try to change him or be his savior, because he's the one who has to make peace with himself instead of relying on another person to reform him. When neither is following love blindly and our heroine has retained her self-respect and is treated as a real person and as an equal, they are on the same level and can ride into the sunset to become one of the most epic couples in the history of literature.

Now THAT is the kind of romance novel I can get behind of.