Examples of how far Rochester is guided by his passions are illustrated throughout the book. In chapter fourteen, Rochester tells Jane of his wild and dissipated past. They discuss sin, remorse and reformation, and Rochester confesses that he hasn't lived the purest, most innocent life. In chapter fifteen he tells of his affair with Céline Varens, a French-opera dancer whom he naively believed loved him. Rochester was ruled by his "grande passion", despite its immorality. However, after Céline abandons her daughter to run away to Italy with a musician, Rochester takes pity on the abandoned and destitute child, Adèle, and brings her to England, although he refuses to recognize her as his daughter.
His catastrophic marriage to Bertha Mason was the result of his judgment being swayed by her appearance and lifestyle. He found her "a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram: tall, dark and majestic", all the qualities which "dazzled and stimulated" his senses.
Despite the fact that Rochester is often ruled by his senses, and makes rash decisions, where things go wrong he tries his best to remedy the situation. In an effort to make up for Adèle's losses he accepts responsibility for her, and takes her to England with him in the hope that she will have better life under his care than might otherwise have been the case. In Bertha Mason's case, he personally looks after his first wife and hires a private carer for her, rather than admitting her to a hospital.
Rochester's goal is self-transformation, an enactment through his relationships with other women. He says, however, that he has given up his shameful lifestyle, and is ready to begin a new, purer life. Rochester tells Jane he is rearing Adèle in order to expiate the sins of his youth. This is quite admirable, as he is willing to give up his lively past in exchange for the freshness and freedom he believes Jane can bring him.
Longing for innocence and purity he wants Jane to be the good angel in his life creating new harmony. Despite his desires for a new life, Rochester is still caught up in a web of lies and immorality. He attempts bigamy and then tries to convince Jane to become his mistress.
While these acts may place him in a less than admirable light, it is worth noting just how much he is willing to give up in order to pursue a relationship with Jane. He is unafraid to flout social conventions, as is apparent in his relationship with Jane. Rather than maintaining proper class boundaries, Rochester leads Jane to admit to feeling "as if he were my relation rather than my master."
Although he criticizes Blanch Ingram and Céline Varens for their materialism and superficiality, he seems to be mimicking them. He tries to objectify Jane by clothing her in expensive satins and laces, leaving her feeling like a "performing ape." However, Jane works towards disciplining his passions and materialism to make him the perfect husband.
Jane can be perceived as the catalyst for Rochester's change. Although he was working towards self-transformation, his means were quite immoral until he began to know and love Jane. Their relationship encouraged him to become a new man.
Throughout the novel Rochester is in a state of transformation and the reader can see the change from the rude and obnoxious man he was when Jane bumped into him on Hay Lane, to the loving husband he has become at the end of the novel.
His attempts at bigamy and other immoral acts can all be forgiven as they are in an effort to keep Jane with him, and pursue a relationship with his soul mate. This combined with his change throughout the novel, and other instances such as his attempt to save Bertha from the fire she started at Thornfield in an effort to kill him, show the reader how admirable he is.
Perhaps not insignificantly he is blinded and loses a hand when Bertha sets fir to Thornfield; symbolically his excessive passion has exploded leaving him disabled. Rochester has passed "through the shadow of the valley of death" to become the perfect mate, having paid for his sins, he is now a suitably docile husband for Jane, who morally guides him and corrects him at the novels end.
