Jane Eyre Diana and Mary Rivers Quotes

"And what business have you here?" she continued. "It is not your place. Mary and I sit in the kitchen sometimes, because at home we like to be free, even to license—but you are a visitor, and must go into the parlour." (3.3.72)

You know how, at parties, everyone always ends up in the kitchen, even if you put all the food and drinks in the living room? That’s what Jane did here—ended up in the kitchen because it seems like that’s where the action is. Diana’s trying to be kind by suggesting Jane go into the parlor, which implies that Jane is being treated as a high-class visitor, but actually she’s just reminding Jane of her own homelessness and the way she doesn’t belong at Moor House.