preview

How Does Rochester Change Throughout The Novel

Decent Essays
Open Document

Throughout Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, the character Mr. [Edward} Rochester changes from a cold-hearted man, used to getting whatever he desires and values material things, to a blind, humble man that couldn't care less about material things. When Jane Eyre, the main character, first meets Mr. Rochester, his horse has slipped on the ice, and he has sprained his ankle; she stops to help, and upon arriving to Thornfield (the place where she lives and works as a governess), she discovers that he is the master and her employer. He is a cold-hearted man. He constantly refers to Adele (a girl he took in) as a brat, and when talking to the housekeeper about Jane, he says, “I have her [Jane] to thank for this sprain,” (Brontë 122) (despite Jane not …show more content…

He is also very much used to getting what he wants. When he orders Jane to play him some piano, he says, “Excuse my tone of command, I am used to saying, ‘Do this,’ and it is done: I cannot alter my customary habits for one new inmate,” (Brontë 123); and although he does excuse his tone, he refuses to change it. Throughout the story, Mr. Rochester falls in love with Jane, and they plan to be married. He insists on buying silk dresses and beautiful jewels, yet Jane only allows him to buy her simple things, saying, “I was glad to get him out of the silk warehouse, and the out of the jeweller’s shop,” (Brontë 274). On their wedding day, Jane discovers that he already has a wife - a murderous lunatic- and runs away, only to return a year later to find out that Thornfield has burnt down, and that Mr. Rochester was blinded and lost a hand in the fire. The reader sees that Mr. Rochester is much humbler, living only with two servants to wait on him. His humbleness shows even more upon his proposal to Jane, for when she says yes, he asks her “A poor blind man who you will have to lead about by the hand?” (Brontë 458) and then again, “A crippled man, twenty years older than you, whom you will have to wait on?”

Get Access