See Gayatri Spivak’s writing on imperialism for a more grounded take on this novel. The coded implications of mahogany furniture is just one example of the many gems in this book and what it says about British attitudes toward colonialism, the West Indies, and the psychology of women’s sexuality in Victorian England. Just a fascinating book if you’re reading for either entertainment or a more academic angle. 

“then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which i am capable. every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a strait waistcoat - your grasp, even in fury, would have a charm for me: if you flew at me as wildly as that woman did this morning, i should receive you in an embrace, at least as fond as it would be restrictive. i should not shrink from you with disgust as i did from her: in your quite moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and i could hang over you with untiring tenderness though you have me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, through they had no longer a ray of recognition for me.”

and if i DIED MS. BRONTË.