Quote:
Originally Posted by Deskisamess
Sure, Rochester is complicated. But I see him more as the injured party, made bitter by what his father heaped on him, out of pure greed.
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He married Bertha out of lust and greed himself, but foisted the blame on his father and brother. He kept her a prisoner in the sole care of a drunken woman, and clearly that was not safe as it caused her eventual death. He was responsible for what happened, so I give him no moral props for trying to save her. But far worst of all, she wasn't nuts all the time; she had lucid intervals during which she had to endure her imprisonment and Grace. I always hoped that her attempts to set him on fire were during periods of sanity!
But leaving Bertha aside, which I can't, Rochester also would have been the ruination of Jane if his bigamy had been discovered after they married. He claimed he would have told her after a year; can we believe him? And if he had, what would Jane have done? What would her options have been? Suppose she was pregnant or a mother by that time? His maiming is meant to signify his redemption, but being redeemed doesn't mean he wasn't an evil and cruel person until then.
Anyway, that's my take on him!
