How Brontë presents Mr Rochester, and how the character develops across the text: the brooding master of Thornfield whose secret marriage nearly destroys Jane, humbled and redeemed at Ferndean.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'Do you think me handsome?', 'you would do me good in some way, at some time', 'my cherished preserver', 'as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs', 'my equal is here, and my likeness', 'God pardon me! ... and man meddle not with me', 'I could bend her with my finger and thumb', 'you think me, I daresay, an irreligious dog', 'The caged eagle, whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished', 'I am no better than the old lightning-struck chestnut-tree in Thornfield orchard', 'Divine justice pursued its course'.
Context: Rochester as a Byronic hero, and echoes of the Bluebeard tale in a master who hides a wife in his house.
How his injuries at Ferndean humble him, and whether he is punished, redeemed or both.
OCR's question on this novel is one essay, from a choice of two, for 40 marks: an extract-based question on the printed extract and the novel elsewhere, or a discursive question on a view of the novel, using at least two moments. Response (AO1) and language, form and structure (AO2) carry the most weight and equal weight, context (AO3) counts when it is relevant to the question, and 4 marks are for vocabulary, sentence structures, spelling and punctuation (AO4). An extract-based answer that never leaves the extract, or a discursive answer built on one moment, cannot go above Level 3. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the question it is for.
