Study Team Exercise: Jane Eyre

(Leader: Eric, Recorder: Kaitlin, Reporter: Ceara)

Rochester as the “Byronic Hero”

1. “Quite extraordinary, often very intelligent and learned…”

a. Very intellectual, University educated, traveled the country
2. “Possibly high born”
a. Was the 2nd son born to a wealthy family, they wanted him to marry into wealth
because he inherited nothing.
3. “Who lives apart from others”
a. Lived far away from home for years bouncing between countries traveling.
4. “Is often admired from afar by those who know him”
a. He has many trysts with numerous women that are only attracted to his money.
5. “Who may be more at home in the natural world than he is in human society”
a. Constantly goes into the garden to be with nature.
6. “Who lives according to his own rule”
a. He was willing to try to deceive Jane to marry her.
b. He is used to being polite, however, Jane returns it and puts him in his place.
c. Loses Jane because of a lie.
7. “And is ready to pay the price for that way of life”
a. Could not marry for love and happiness because he was already married
8. “Who has a dark secret- some past sin, misdeed, or motivation”
a. Dark Secret- previously married to a mad woman.
b. Locked wife up in room of third floor.

St. John as the “Byronic Hero”

1. “Quite extraordinary, often very intelligent and learned…”

a. He was a clergyman which means he was well educated
b. Can identify Janes character
2. “Possibly high born”
a. He was born into wealth- landed family.
3. “Who lives apart from others”
a. Left Britain to go to India
4. “Is often admired from afar by those who know him”
a. His sister adored him and did not want him to go to India.
b. Admired by Rosamond and Mr. Oliver
5. “Who may be more at home in the natural world than he is in human society”
a. Lives a very simple life
6. “Who lives according to his own rule”
a. He is cold/reserved/controlling
b. He did not want to marry someone that did not fit his career path.
c. Alienated from his feelings.
7. “And is ready to pay the price for that way of life”
a. Pursued his mission work in India although he knew he would probably die there.
 8. “Who has a dark secret- some past sin, misdeed, or motivation”
a. He secretly liked Miss Oliver, but he knew he could not marry her because she would
not make a good Missionaries wife, but thought Jane would.

There are eight characteristics that make up the Byronic Hero and in Jane Eyre it is evident that
Rochester’s character fits the part. One of the first ways Bronte shows us this is in his appearance; a
Byronic Hero is often someone who is not physically attractive but still admired by those who know him
and is intelligent and learned. When Jane first see’s Mr. Rochester he describes him as having a, “dark
face, with stern features and a heavy brow” (94). Then later, when Jane is asked by Rochester whether
she finds him handsome and she responds, “I do not” (111), which lets us know that Rochester is
obviously not an attractive man. Rochester is also a very intelligent man who, according to Mrs. Fairfax,
is liked by many and has a character that is “unimpeachable”. While he can be sort of strange at times,
Fairfax tells Jane he has traveled the world and is very clever and like by many (88). Furthermore,
Rochester is rich, and comes from a wealthy family. Mrs. Fairfax mentions that Rochester’s father was,
very “fond of money, and anxious to keep to keep the family estate together” (108), so much so, he
went through a “great deal of mischief”(108) to ensure it. This mischief would contribute to the reason
why Rochester is said, by Mrs. Fairfax, to never be at Thornfield longer than a fortnight (109) showing
that he likes to live away from others. Another characteristic that Mrs. Fairfax points out that relates
him to a Byronic Hero is the fact that Rochester is a man of free will, he lives his life by his own taste and
standards and expects to have things “managed in conformity to them” (109).

Bronte further portrays Rochester as a Byronic Hero by depicting him as a man troubled with an
extraordinary sin of his past for which he has not yet atoned. This extraordinary sin with which
Rochester is troubled is dismissing his significant other because of her madness also, erroneously
keeping up his status as an affluent lone ranger. Or maybe than tolerating his error and atoning for it,
Rochester, all things considered, covers his previous slip-up by locking his distraught spouse inside his
home: “Far from desiring to publish the connection, I became anxious to conceal it . . . and saw her
safely lodged in that third story room of whose secret inner cabinet she has now for ten years made a
wild beast’s den” (271). This is his dark secret. This marriage among Jane and Rochester could not ever
have been lawful, and Jane would have basically gotten the role as another one of Rochester's
mistresses. However, Rochester is willing to pay the price for this burden, this is shown when he gets
caught at the church and admits to his sin saying, “Bigamy is an ugly word! —I meant, however, to be a
bigamist: but fate has outmaneuvered me; or Providence has checked me” (257). He recognizes he
would have been a bigamist, and he would have energetically been driving Jane into a bogus union.
Rochester's plural marriage or attempt at such, all things considered, gives a superb delineation of the
"Byronic" side of his character. He won't recognize the legitimate and good code of the general public
wherein he lives by declining to recognize his union with Bertha Mason, and this at the same time makes
him unrepentant, both are characteristics of a Byronic Hero. Rochester is a Byronic Hero because he
epitomizes the trademark attributes of an unflattering though charming appearance, insight, pomposity,
and a reluctance to cling to social and otherworldly laws. Rochester then advances as a character what is
more, atones for his past sins, modifying from the cliché
qualities of Byronic Hero. This demonstration of apology be that as it may, and the adjustment in
Rochester, is the thing that permits Rochester and Jane to become viable.