Reader, I Married Him

Although enveloped in a cloak upon first introduction, Mr. Rochester, visible to the reader through Jane’s eyes, has “a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows [look] ireful and thwarted” (Bronte, p. 136). Upon further inspection of

 the master of the house, Jane notes that he is “more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting . . . choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw – yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake” (Bronte, p. 144). 

Edward Fairfax Rochester, the “proud, sardonic, moody master of Thornfield” (Magill, p. 540), illustrates the Byronic hero in his “persistent loneliness” and his “indulgence in personal pain” (Carson-Newman University, 2013). Rochester hides a dark secret and is near to unbridled rage when that secret, so carefully concealed for years, rises to light. Jane, standing close by, “[feels] the spasmodic movement of fury or despair run through his frame. His eye . . . now [has] a tawny, nay a bloody light in its gloom” (Bronte, p. 352). 

                                                                                             
                           
Citations:

Bronte, J. (1983). Jane Eyre. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers.
Carson-Newman University. (2013). Byronic hero. Accessed November 16, 2013, from
     http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_B.html

Magill, F.N., Ed. (1963). Cyclopedia of literary characters. New York: Harper & Row.