Rochester on the other hand hurts only Jane, and hardly seems to take pleasure in deliberately hurting others. Rochester's hidden secret is always there to remind him of his past, but Heathcliff has no lingering secret in his past. Heathcliff embodies a more sinister Byronic type than Rochester, who is slightly more conscientious and passive in his actions. .
Jane first meets Rochester in the forest on her way to Thornfield. Without knowing who he is she thinks about "those days I was young; and all sorts of fancies bright and dark tenanted my mind
•(JE, 154). He reminds her of a figure known as a Gytrash
•which "haunted solitary ways
•(JE, 154) and "was always alone
•(JE, 154). This figure resembles the wandering and wayward Byronic hero. While inquiring about Rochester's disposition, Jane asks Mrs. Fairfax "What in short, is his character?
•to which she responds "He is rather peculiar, perhaps; he has traveled a great deal, and seen a great deal of the world, I should think.
•(JE, 143). Just after formally meeting Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre inquires to Mrs. Fairfax as to why he is so "changeful and abrupt
•(JE, 175) and she tells Jane that he has "painful thoughts, no doubt, to harass him, and make his spirits unequal.
•(JE, 175). .
Rochester exhibits more passive qualities of the Byronic figure. His mad wife is cooped up in the top floor of his house. She is Rochester's beast of burden and the source of his anxiety and guilt. He can admit his lack of sensitivity in vague ways like saying "I have plenty of faults of my own: I know it, and I don't wish to palliate them, I assure you
• have a past experience, a series of deeds, a colour of life to contemplate within my own breast, which might well call many sneers and censure from my neighbors to myself.
•(JE, 187). Though Rochester is despicable for hiding his wife from society, he is at least aware of this fault.
