Byronic Hero: Mr. Rochester
A Byronic hero is someone who is charismatic with strong passions and beliefs, but who are nonetheless deeply flawed individuals who may act in ways which are socially reprehensible because he's definitely contrary to his mainstream society. (“Byronic Hero”) Authors have been known to try and make their characters this unique kind of hero. I think authors like to depict this kind of hero because they are realistic but they do have a bit of fantasy to them. Most Byronic heroes actually tend to be vampires just because it’s common for them to be very attractive and what all women dream of having but yet they do have a dark side and normally troubled past. When it comes to romance they are the best types of heroes to use because they are the type of men most women dream of having. One author who did a tremendous job in following the guidelines of Byronic hero was Charles Bronte in the novel Jane Eyre with the character Mr. Rochester.
Rochester was a wanderer and was cursed with a sin he was forced to hide. Rochester enjoyed wandering about and was at many times away from Thornfeild, touring around the world. Mrs. Fairfax once said that she would not be surprised if Rochester had just went directly to London. She also explains to Jane before Jane meets Rochester that he is peculiar and something to point of him having traveled the world. The other characteristic of Rochester that makes him a Byronic hero is that he hides the sin of having
a wife but pursuing another woman. People around Rochester could tell that he was hiding something very sinful. This sin creates for much of the suspense in this novel. Mrs. Fairfax suggests at the hiding of a sin when she expresses, "Partly because ...
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...he blaze in order to save their lives as well as the life of his crazy wife. In short, Rochester is further classified as a Byronic hero because he is courageous and passionate.
In conclusion, Rochester is without a doubt a Byronic hero, because he portrays the Byronic characteristics of intelligence, mysterious appearance, courageousness, passionate feelings as well as being a wanderer and hiding dark secret sin to take pity on himself. All of these traits combined together create an interesting and enjoyable Byronic hero. Bronte uses the Byronic hero in order to further the Gothic feel to the novel. Gothic style of writing has been used by many writers to demonstrate their particular mood and feeling about the novel. Gothic is the relating of writing to the middle ages or dark periods.
"Byronic Hero." TVTropes. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
...ctions do not have to be moral, in order to see him as a character that shows immense strife, great power and apparent flaws. His immorality is a disturbing aspect and makes it difficult to use the word, Hero, but it can also be argued that without his presence the story would hold no value. He is the main attraction and his journey becomes man’s journey. Writer William Blake shares:
In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre there are many occasions in which there is motifs about division and bias relations. Money was a major division between people in the Victorian Era. Family made people rise in the standings with others, If your family was rich or well known, then you were going to be well known and well liked. There are many situations in which Jane is thought of as poor and worthless, as well as having no family.
“Lord Byron.” Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2009: 269-272. Student Resources in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
The Byronic hero in literature is named after Lord Byron and his main protagonist in his poem Childe Harold. The Byronic hero was established during the Romantic period in art and literature as an anti-hero; he is supposed to represent the antithesis of the ideal, chivalrous hero of the time. This hero is dark, mysterious, and brooding. He often harbors the torturing memory of an enormous, nameless guilt that drives him toward an inevitable doom. He holds himself detached and sees himself as superior in his passions and powers compared to society and humanity, whom he regards with disdain. He stubbornly pursues his own ends according to his self-generated moral code, against all opposition. He also gains an attraction from the other characters because it involves their confusion at his obliviousness to ordinary human concerns. Byronic heroes in literature often have the following characteristics: passionate, unrepentant, wandering, isolated, attractive, and self-reliant.
...ment and realization that he has lost Jane to another man in the following dialogue between them, “’I know where your heart turns, and to what it clings. The interest you cherish is lawless and unconsecrated. Long since you ought to have crushed it: now you should blush to allude to it. You think of Mr. Rochester?’ It was true. I confessed it by silence. ‘Are you going t seek Mr. Rochester?’ ‘I must find out what is become of him.’ ‘It remains for me, then,’ he said, ‘to remember you in my prayers; and to entreat God for you, in all earnestness, that you may not indeed become a castaway. I had thought I recognized in you one of the chose. But God sees not as man sees: His will be done.’” (Bronte 436) Though Jane Eyre’s stay at Moor House and Morton were crucial for her recovery to stability of her life, she yearned to be at Thornfield and wedded to Mr. Rochester.
Jane becomes jealous when Rochester goes to see Blanch Ingram, a beautiful, young woman who also loves Rochester. When he returns, Jane leaves to see her dying Aunt and they are parted again. Now, in chapter 23, Rochester is supposedly telling Jane she can no longer be at Thornfield. Jane Eyre was written by Bronte in 1847, this was an era when the Gothic novel was very popular.
Mr. Rochester is irresistibly driven by his feelings. He carries a long history of ignoring sound judgment, including his hasty and unwise marriage to Bertha Mason because he "was dazzled, stimulated...[he] thought [he] loved her"(310), and his ensuing licentious, wandering life in search of pleasure. He has grown so accustomed to burying good sense, that he is able to completely disregard the fact that he still has a living wife with a clear conscience. Swept away by his feelings, he ignores the law, and tries to justify marriage to Jane. His passion often exceeds his control, like when Jane tells him she must leave Thornfield. "‘Jane! Will you hear reason? Because, if you won't, I'll try violence'" (307), he tells Jane desperately. Mr. Rochester deludes himself into the belief that he listens to sound judgment, but in reality, what he calls reason is simply folly born from his uncontrolled passions.
“The night as Jane lays there thinking about everything Mr. Rochester has told her, when she thinks she hears a “demoniac” laugh. When she leaves her room she then finds a candle burning in the hallway. Jane sees Mr. Rochester’s door open and finds his curtains on fire. He is stupefied by Smokey air, but she wakes him by extinguishing the flames and dousing him with water”, chap 15. Then the actions that took place puts Mr. Rochester in a position of vulnerability as Jane douses water in Mr. Rochester’s room. The situation allows to show her growth as a grown woman in control and independent. The situation brings Mr. Rochest...
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., et al. A Brief History of Heroes. 2004. Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 69-72. Print.
When reading Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, I find myself cheering for Rochester. After finishing the book, I ask myself why Jane chooses Rochester over St. John. After all, Rochester has a "mad" wife, Bertha Mason, locked in the attic of Thornfield Hall at the same time that he is proposing marriage to Jane. He has a ward living with him, possibly the offspring of an illicit affair with a French dancer. He is arrogant, pushy, and basically ill-tempered. St. John, on the other hand, is well mannered, respected, and has a promising future. To answer my own question, then, it is essential to look at how each man fits the idea of masculinity in Victorian society, at how each man relates to Jane, and at why Bronte creates her two leading men to be such extreme opposites.
In 1847, Charlotte Bronte, although a woman, published her semi autobiographical Jane Eyre. She wrote her novels in Thornton, Yorkshire, England. This novel later became a classic literature novel. ( Bronte) She wrote in the 1800’s and her novel reflects the time period, which she wrote in with the various techniques and themes. In the novel Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses literary devices such as, imagery and themes like religion and feminism to demonstrate the time period in which she wrote.
A Byronic hero is typically arrogant, rebellious, anti-social, and darkly and enticingly romantic. They have a tendency to be influenced by past events and they are driven by all-consuming passion.
Thorslev, Peter L., Jr. The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1962. Print.
“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a novel about an orphan girl growing up in a tough condition and how she becomes a mature woman with full of courage. Her life at Gateshead is really difficult, where she feels isolated and lives in fear in her childhood. Her parents are dead when she was little, her dead uncle begged his evil wife, Mrs. Reed, to take care of Jane until she becomes an adult. But Mrs. Reed does not keep her promise, no one treats Jane like their family members even treats her less than a servant. By the end of this essay it will be proven that Jane’s life at Gateshead has shaped her development as a young woman and bildungsroman.
I disagree with that part of Lorna in which she says that it is important to note that although the scenes at Gateshead demonstrate that Jane's childhood unhappiness comes largely from her inability to fit the expectations of those around her, there is no implication on the part of the narrator that Jane is in the wrong. She is unhappy because she does not fit in. I think that if she fit herself there, then she always be like her aunt Mrs. Reed and she never want to be like her. And if she fit herself there then how is it possible for Jane to feel with these phases of life and also a romantic journey.