Let's not put down Mr. R!
Posted by Sendra on October 01, 1997 at 18:53:18:
In response to Rochester vs Brandon, written by Denise on September 30, 1997 at 23:33:10
]
] ]
] ] ] Linda:
] ] ] ] selfish. It was unfair to Jane and to Blanche Ingram, for
] ] ] Luisa:
] ] ] ] I agree with it being unfair to Jane, but Blanche Ingram, no way. She´s after Rochester for his money and position. She deserves everything that comes her way.
] ] ] Whatever the character of Blanche and no matter how deserving she is of losing her quest, it was still very wrong of Rochester to lead her on.
] ] ] Linda:
] ] ] ] ] I am with you, Margie. I need a quick dose of Darcy or Knightly or Captain Wentworth as an antidote to Rochester.
] ] ] Luisa:
] ] ] ] Come on, Rochester does repent in the end and he even tried to save Bertha from the fire.
] ] ] But we are not yet "at the end". I expect that I will feel sorrier still for Rochester (I feel sorry for him already), but I doubt that I will change my mind about his actions. As I said before, I understand that he was misused and betrayed, but I do not think that gives him license to run roughshod over the feelings of others.
] ] ] Luisa:
] ] ] And Darcy is NOT exactly perfect either...He makes me more angry than Rochester ever did.
] ] ] None of JA's characters are perfect, but Darcy, Knightly and Wentworth are honorable men. I do not think that Rochester shares that characteristic.
] ]
] ] What do you mean by honorable? Mr. Rochester not be as 'good' as those men, but he is basically kind and caring underneath.. As much as he hated Bertha, he couldn't put her in Ferndean where she'd die, and he even tries to save
] ] her life. So Mr. Knightly wouldn't have mistresses, but
] ] then look at Mr. Rochester's family. I'm not trying to blame his actions on his childhood, but that-along with
] ] all he went through with Bertha- does have some part in it.
] ] And he does eventually turn to God. If Mr. Rochester
] ] seems so awful to you, I can' t imagine what you must
] ] think of Heathcliff.
]
] If you are looking for an honorable man, whose family is not much better than Rochester's, than it has to be Colonel Brandon. Despite the raw deal he was delt, he still conducted himself as a gentleman, not giving in to selfish desires and passions. He won his lady without resorting to tricks and suffered comparitively little. For my part, Brandon wins my heart too.
] Denise
I didn't read through all of Charlotte Bronte's wonderful
love scenes thinking 'hey, Rochester's not too honourable
of a guy.' So he's not the good, admirable man, but I'm
so glad he's not. The Austen heroes are more realistic,
but are a little uninteresting. Life is too realistic; I don't want to read about characters that are.
After reading Austen, Bronte's characters were like
a breath of fresh air. Mr. Rochester isn't stuffy and
respectable; he's passionate and true. That's why
I read the Brontes.
Posting followups to old messages is disabled; instead go to the main index and post a new message which mentions this one.
