What makes Rochester such a distinctive hero? cover art

What makes Rochester such a distinctive hero?

What makes Rochester such a distinctive hero?

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What makes Rochester

such a distinctive hero?

When Rochester arrives at Thornfield on a “tall

steed” whose “rude noise” breaks the evening calm,

accompanied by a “great dog” – “a lion-like creature

with long hair and a huge head” (12) – he thunders

into Jane’s life as if destined to fulfil his role as

powerful masculine incumbent of secluded,

brooding Thornfield, with its “chill and vault-like

air”, “dark and spacious staircase”, “long cold

gallery” and “wide hall” hung with likenesses of

“grim” personages and an oak-carved ebony clock.

The “narrow, low, dim passage” of the third storey

strikes Jane as resembling “a corridor in some

Bluebeard’s castle”; and here, while Jane’s

imagination prepares itself for a creature from fairy

tale – “As this horse approached… I remembered

certain of Bessie’s tales wherein figured a North-of-

England spirit” – the villain-hero himself seems

about to appear through the dusk.

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