In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte created two incredibly memorable characters. The titular Jane is “poor, plain, and little,” but she is also the most stubborn heroine ever, and knows her own worth: “I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”
Her foil, her true soulmate, is the irascible Mr. Rochester, whom Jane describes as having “broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair. I recognized his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw—yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake.”
Rochester is arrogant, as stubborn as Jane, proud, obnoxious, and manipulative. And yet? And yet he is an iconic hero in literature, and his type shows up in romances as the Alpha male (most recently as a Billionaire rather than a wealthy man with an estate). Since Edward Fairfax Rochester is such a memorable hero, it’s time to round up the Top 4 On-Screen portrayals of Rochester (I stuck with four because these are the ones I think of when I think of Rochester; other people mentioned the William Hurt portrayal, and then there’s Orson Welles hamming it up against Joan Fontaine, but those aren’t MY Rochesters):
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