Edward Rochester

Edward Fairfax Rochester (often referred to as Mr Rochester) is a character in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. The brooding master of Thornfield Hall, Rochester is the employer and eventual husband of the novel's titular protagonist, Jane Eyre. He is regarded as an archetypal Byronic hero.

Edward Rochester is the oft-absent master of Thornfield Hall, where Jane Eyre is employed as a governess to his young ward, Adèle Varens. Jane first meets Rochester while on a walk, when his horse slips and he injures his foot. He does not reveal to Jane his identity and it is only that evening back at the house that Jane learns he is Mr Rochester.

Rochester and Jane are immediately interested in each other. She is fascinated by his rough, dark appearance as well as his abrupt manner. Rochester is intrigued by Jane's strength of character, comparing her to an elf or sprite and admiring her unusual strength and stubbornness. The two quickly become friends, often arguing and discussing topical matters. Rochester confides to Jane that Adèle is the daughter of his past lover, French opera dancer Céline Varens, who had run off with another man. Rochester does not claim paternity of Adèle but had brought the orphaned child to England.

Rochester quickly learns that he can rely on Jane in a crisis. On one evening, Jane finds Rochester asleep in his bed with all the curtains and bedclothes on fire; she puts out the flames and rescues him. Jane and Rochester grow closer and fall in love with each other.

While Jane is working at Thornfield, Rochester invites his acquaintances over for a week-long stay, including the beautiful socialite Blanche Ingram. Rochester lets Blanche flirt with him constantly in front of Jane to make her jealous and encourages rumours that he is engaged to Blanche, which devastates Jane. Rochester tells Jane he is to be married, at which point Jane is prepared to leave Thornfield, believing Blanche is his bride. Eventually Rochester stops teasing Jane, admitting that he loves her and that he never intended to marry Blanche, especially as he had exposed Blanche's interest in him as solely mercenary when he caused a rumour that he is far less wealthy than she imagined. He asks Jane to marry him and she accepts.

During their wedding ceremony, two men arrive claiming that Rochester is already married. Rochester admits to this, but believes he is justified in his attempt to marry Jane. He takes the wedding party to see his wife of fifteen years, Bertha Antoinetta Mason, and explains the circumstances of his marriage. He claims he had been rushed into marrying Bertha by his father and the Mason family, and only after they were wed did he discover that Bertha is violently insane. Unable to live with Bertha due to her madness, Rochester tried to keep her existence a secret and kept her on the third floor of Thornfield Hall with a nursemaid, Grace Poole. It was Bertha who had set Rochester's bedsheets on fire, along with a number of other disruptive incidents. Rochester confesses that he had travelled around Europe for ten years trying to forget his failed marriage and keeping various mistresses. Eventually he gave up on searching for a woman he could love, came home to England, and fell in love with Jane.

Rochester asks Jane to go to France with him, where they can pretend to be a married couple. Jane refuses to be his mistress and runs from Thornfield. Much later, she finds out that Rochester searched for her everywhere, and, when he couldn't find her, sent everyone else away from Thornfield and shut himself up alone. After this, Bertha set the house on fire one night and burned it to the ground. Rochester rescued all the servants and tried to save Bertha, too, but she committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the house and he was injured. Now Rochester has lost an eye and a hand and is blind in his remaining eye.

Jane returns to Mr Rochester and offers to take care of him as his nurse or housekeeper. He asks her to marry him and they have a quiet wedding. They adopt Adèle Varens, and after two years of marriage Rochester gradually gets his sight back – enough to see his and Jane's firstborn son.