When we first meet Mr. Rochester, he is struggling to get his horse back on track after an accident with ice. The ever pleasant Jane obliges to help him and she discloses that she is in fact the governess for Thornfield. Curiously, Mr. Rochester does not immediately reveal his identity and even goes as far as asking Jane if she has ever seen the master of Thornfield to which she responds she hasn’t. Thus begins the weird relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester.
As they become more acquainted, Mr. Rochester tells Jane the kind of person he is,“Nature meant me to be, on the whole, a good man, Miss Eyre: one of the better end, and you see I am not so” (207). Upon first reading this, you assume that Mr. Rochester is just the brooding type that takes things way too seriously, but we learn later that he may actually not be a good man and he is fully aware of it (which in my opinion is way worse).
Jane then becomes someone Mr. Rochester likes to have around all the time. Though he fails at properly communicating this at first, he tells her at a party with the rest of his high class friends, “…but understand that so long as my visitors stay, I expect you to appear in the drawing room every evening: it is my wish; don’t neglect it” (259). He likes having her near and appreciates her input on the topics they speak of. Things begin to get more complicated for Jane when she develops romantic feelings for Mr. Rochester, though. She recognizes the feelings are inappropriate and even delusional as he will be marrying someone else, but she still cannot help but feel this way, “a pleasure like what the thirst-perishing man might feel who knows the well to which he has crept is poisoned, yet stoops and drinks divine draughts nevertheless” (252).
After a brief leave to Gateshead, Jane returns to find that Mr. Rochester is indeed marrying Miss Ingram even though he does not love her and she pities him for his supposed lack of fortune. This causes Jane to be upset and one night when Mr. Rochester finds her in the garden they end up confessing their feelings to each other leading to a proposal, promising a wedding in a month. It’s all very sudden and very dramatic especially when lightning strikes the tree in the garden and a downpour forces the pair inside.
In a rush the couple are finally getting married when all is revealed about Mr. Rochester and the strange happening that have been going on at Thornfield. Mr. Mason, who had sustained injuries at the house while everyone was visiting, and a man named Mr. Briggs interrupt the wedding to let everyone know that Mr. Rochester is in fact already married. This knowledge is made even worse when we learn that he has been keeping her in the attic because she “went crazy”. Everything happens so fast and we rarely focus on Jane’s point of view during the whole ordeal. When we finally focus back on her she says,“Mr. Rochester was not to me what he had been; for he was not what I had thought him” (384). She is heartbroken and truly lost now that she once again is left alone with no prospects and possibly no job.
Essentially, the relationship (both romantic and work wise) between Mr. Rochester and Jane can be seen as a monster because in the end everything that was built upon it (Adele’s well being, Jane’s job and sense of security) have all been ruined in a mere matter of minutes by a secret that Mr. Rochester was holding the entire time.
