Rochester is also moody and Jane notes this upon her first few encounters with him at Thornfield Hall. At first he is abrupt with and almost unkind to Jane; this is seen in his response to her entrance, and her thoughts on his response, during the initial encounter in the drawing room at Thornfield:
“"Let Miss Eyre be seated," he said: and there was something in the forced stiff bow, in the impatient yet formal tone, which seemed further to express, "What the deuce is it to me whether Miss Eyre be there or not? At this moment I am not disposed to accost her."”
At times he is congenial and attentive, while at other times he is cold and aloof: here he is the latter. But subsequent to this encounter, Rochester warms to Jane after she has saved his life from the fire in his room: “You have saved my life: I have a pleasure in owing you so immense a debt . . . . Nothing else that has being would have been tolerable to me in the character of creditor for such an obligation: but you: it is different”.
Certainly Rochester is passionate about Jane, another Byronic characteristic, and this is demonstrated in this passage where Rochester is speaking to Jane, he contrasts her (and his love for her) with his lawful wife, Bertha:
“Then you are mistaken, and you know nothing about me, and nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and in sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still: if you raved, my arms should confine you, and not a straight waistcoat . . . . I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her.”
There are two effects of this passage, however, which are diametrically opposed. While this passage provides evidence of his passion and his acute sense of self-awareness about his own emotions (both characteristic of a Byronic hero), it is also indicative of the conventionalities of his character. He requires human companionship, and he ultimately dislikes isolation: at one point Rochester exclaims, “Solitude! Solitude! . . . . You [Jane] are to share my solitude”. Also, Rochester desires a conventional marriage with Jane; at least, he has convinced himself that it would be a conventional marriage.
Rochester's bigamy, or near-bigamy, as the case may be, provides an excellent illustration of the "Byronic" side of his character. He refuses to acknowledge the legal and moral code of the society in which he lives by refusing to acknowledge his marriage to Bertha Mason, and this simultaneously makes him unrepentant, both are qualities of a Byronic hero. He views Bertha as his ward, someone who must be taken care of, and not as his wife. He pursues Jane while still married to Bertha, because he has convinced himself that his marriage to Bertha is unrecognizable as such. Since bigamy is legally criminal (in the context here, also considered a sexual crime), Rochester also carries the burden of the guilt associated with it, yet another characteristic of the Byronic hero. This is shown by the secrecy maintained about his attempted marriage to Jane, and it is also exhibited in his early conduct with Jane shortly after she arrives at Thornfield Hall. Jane questions Mrs. Fairfax about his behavior in Chapter 13 when she first comments:
“"[He] is very changeful and abrupt."
"True: no doubt, he may appear so to a stranger, but I am so accustomed to his manner, I never think of it; and then, if he has peculiarities of temper, allowance should be made," [Mrs. Fairfax replies].
"Why?"
"Partly because it is his nature-and we can none of us help our nature; and, partly, he has painful thoughts, no doubt, to harass him, and make his spirits unequal."”
This conversation between Jane and Mrs. Fairfax indicates that it is noticeable to others that Rochester carries guilt, the "painful thoughts", about something in his past: Bertha, of course, and his marriage to her and his treatment of her.
Although there are striking examples of how Rochester's character is that of a Byronic hero, there are perhaps as many examples of him as a conventional man. In a letter to W. S. Williams in 1848, Bronte describes how she intended to portray the character of Rochester. Bronte writes:
Mr. Rochester has a thoughtful nature and a very feeling heart; he is neither selfish nor self-indulgent; he is ill-educated, misguided; errs, when he does err, through rashness and inexperience: he lives for a time as too many other men live, but being radically better than most men, he does not like that degraded life, and is never happy in it. He is taught the severe lessons of experience and has sense to learn wisdom from them. Years improve him; the effervescence of youth foamed away, what is really good in him still remains.
Even Bronte's own description of him sends a mixed message. Perhaps most importantly, she specifically says he is “ill-educated” has a good nature and a “feeling heart” and is not selfish or self-indulgent. All of these characteristics seem to be at odds with that of a Byronic hero. Yet she also describes him as "radically better than most men," and through this description, that Rochester learns from his experience, she implies that he possesses self-awareness, a characteristic that is consistent with those of a Byronic hero.
The most convincing evidence of Rochester's conventionality, which Bronte provides for the reader, is Rochester's own descriptions of himself. In Chapter 18, when Rochester and Blanche Ingram are bantering back and forth about the charade they have just performed, Rochester asks her, “You would like a hero of the road then?” To this Blanche replies, “An English hero of the road would be the next best thing to an Italian bandit; and that could only be surpasses by a Levantine pirate”. By “English hero of the road” Blanche clearly means a Byronic hero, for it was the most notable hero in English literary history, and here Blanche implies that she views Rochester as such a character. The response that Bronte provides Rochester with, however, provides evidence that he is not so convincingly defined. He responds, “Well, whatever I am, remember you are my wife; we were married an hour since, in the presence of all these witnesses”. When Rochester says, “Well, whatever I am . . .,” he discretely rejects what she has implied: Blanche misunderstands Rochester's character. With his (now legal) marriage to Jane at the end of the novel and their residence at the Manor House of Ferndean, Bronte indicates that Rochester is less Byronic than he at first may appear to the reader.
