At this point in the novel, we are still getting to know Mr Rochester. We know nothing of him but what he says about his experience with Adele's mother and what Jane has so far observed from conversations with him. Since Rochester's characterization comes entirely from dialogue with Jane, as Jane does not make many direct observations about him, this passage is very telling of Rochester's character and of his judgements of Jane so far. The passage elaborates on Rochester's inner being, allowing the audience to contrast his personality, as shown here, with his persona, as shown by previous interactions that Rochester has with Jane.
Rochester does not seem originally to be a romantic soul. He's rough, calculating, and slightly manipulative. Jane sees him as fascinating, but by no means kind or gentle, and she does not express any indications that Rochester will turn out to be loving of anyone. In the passage just before this one, however, Rochester discusses his relationship with Celine, and shows himself as quite gentle and caring. In this passage, he indicates that his roughness has come from love and jealousy. Jane has never felt jealousy because she "never felt love," according to Rochester; this shows that he feels that jealousy can only come from amorous complications. In Sula, Toni Morrison discusses the feeling of possession that can ruin a love affair. This seems to apply to Rochester as well, as his experience with Celine (as well as his own kind nature) was soured by the destruction of the perception of Celine as his own.
However, Rochester's assertion that Jane's "soul sleeps" because she has felt neither love nor jealousy indicates that Rochester was awakened by love to find the world as it truly is. He describes life before love as an "existence [that] lapses in as quiet a flow as that in which. . . youth has hitherto slid away." By this, Rochester means that time passes quietly and uninterrupted until love disturbs the peace of existing. He equates life to a calm ocean or stream that one floats through, and love as dangerous rocks or turbulent currents that disrupt the flow. Rochester tells Jane that encountering the rocks and currents is inevitable, because love does not exist without jealousy and the desire to hold someone completely and exclusively -- and jealousy does not exist without internal conflict and external friction.
Rochester finally says that there are only two options when one finds himself jealous: destruction, or elevation. Either one gets "dashed to atoms on crag points, or lifted up and borne on by some master-wave into a calmer current." This, really, is where he is characterized the most. It seems that he was nearly destroyed by his jealousy and the threat of losing his love. Rather than being utterly crushed, however, he was raised up into a calmer sphere. As we find later, this makes it hard for him to connect to Jane immediately. He wants to love her from the minute he meets her, but he makes both himself and Jane go through trials, of sorts, in order to ascertain that their love will be true and honest. He is mostly concerned with the issue of trusting Jane, however, because he does not endeavor to make himself trustworthy to her.
Rochester has been emotionally crippled by his encounters with Celine. It ruined him for future love, making him fear jealousy and betrayal more than anything. Rochester cannot move past these fears, and his predictions in this passage for Jane's future love life come terribly true -- both because he purposefully makes Jane jealous, and because he bars Jane from trusting him by refusing to trust her completely.
This is an enjoyable analysis. I love how you incorporate plot points from elsewhere in the book. You are right- this passage says a lot about Rochester's character. The post could benefit from some more direct quotations from the passage, but very good overall!
ReplyDelete