Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.”
- Source
- Jane Eyre
- Date
- 1847
- Local voice
- Fictional character · Edward Rochester
Meaning of “Dread remorse when you are tempted to err,…”
Rochester describes remorse as corrosive because wrongdoing can continue to poison later life; the scene immediately turns to the harder question of whether repentance or actual reformation can change what follows.
Where does it come from?
Jane Eyre, Project Gutenberg #1260. Rochester says this to Jane while recounting his own decline. Jane replies that repentance is said to cure remorse; Rochester answers that reformation may be its cure. This is fictional character dialogue, not Charlotte Brontë’s direct psychological advice.
Why the local voice matters
Rochester says this to Jane while describing his past degeneration. Jane immediately answers that repentance is said to be the cure, and Rochester turns the discussion toward reformation.
