The Real Rochester

Stacey Lemaux
 


John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester was one of the most infamous rakes from the Restoration period. While Wilmot’s debauched lifestyle was well recorded, his deathbed conversion became even more popular. Through these early biographies and the poetry written by Wilmot, Charlotte Bronte became familiar with this historical figure. Bronte modeled her character of Edward Rochester on Wilmot. There are many instances in the novel Jane Eyre that link the two figures. In his essay "John Wilmot and Mr. Rochester" Murray Pittock establishes the link between Rochester and Wilmot. Pittock does such a thorough job of supporting the claim that Rochester and Wilmot are related. However Pittock fails to explain why Charlotte Bronte chose to compare her Rochester to the historical Rochester. The key to understanding Bronte’s motivation in selecting John Wilmot as the model for Rochester lies in Wilmot’s deathbed confessional. By the end of his short life Wilmot repented his immoral lifestyle. After his death, Wilmot became the focus of a number of religious tracts publishing his deathbed conversion. It is this aspect of Wilmot’s career as the rake that intrigued Bronte. In Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte not only establishes a connection between John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, but she also links Rochester’s reform to the reform of Wilmot. However, unlike Wilmot’s reform which occurs on his deathbed, Bronte allows her character to reform and continue his life.

The similarities between John Wilmot and Edward Rochester go far beyond the traits associated with the rake. Charlotte Bronte uses names for her characters that link the two characters. Wilmot’s title as the Earl of Rochester directly relates to the name of Edward Rochester. John Wilmot’s grandfather had the name Sir John St. John (Pittock 464). Edward Rochester’s main rival for Jane’s affection is St. John Rivers. Again the use of a name closely related to John Wilmot is remarkable. The repeated usage of names links the character of Edward Rochester with John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester.

That Charlotte Bronte would have been familiar with the second Earl of Rochester is undeniable. In his Lives of the Poets, Samuel Johnson included a biography on Wilmot. That Bronte would have been familiar with Johnson’s work can be established in the references she makes to Johnson’s novel Rasselas. Gilbert Burnet, a Scottish Bishop and famed historian, wrote Life and Death of John Rochester based on interviews he had with Wilmot on his deathbed. By 1848 this biography had gone through ten editions. This book was so famed that both Horace Walpole, writer of the first Gothic novel, and Samuel Johnson wrote critiques which ere incorporated into the 1820 edition (Pittock 464). Receiving critiques by both Walpole and Johnson serves as an indicator of the importance of this biography. In 1814 The Conversion of the Earl of Rochester was published. Finally, as Pittock explains, "such widely disseminated tales of reformed rakes and deathbed conversions were an important part of the literary culture of Bronte’s youth" (Pittock 464). Pittock recognizes that these deathbed conversions were an important part of Bronte’s reading; yet, he never establishes the influence these writings would have on Bronte’s work. As stated before, the link between Rochester and Wilmot can be seen through their reformation.

Rochester’s conversations with Bishop Burnet sparked the deathbed conversion, Life and Death of John Rochester. The novel greatly influenced religious tracts which discussed the evils of a debauched lifestyle and salvation through repentance. Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Poets discusses not only the importance Burnet played in Rochester’s reformation but the influence his deathbed conversion had on society:

At this time he was led to an acquaintance with Dr. Burnet, to whom he laid open with great freedom the tenour of his opinions, and the course of his life, and from whom he received such conviction of the reasonableness of moral duty, and the truth of Christianity, as produced a total change both of his manners and opinions. The account of those salutary conferences is given by Burnet, in a book intituled, Some Passages of the Life and Death of John earl of Rochester, which the critick ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the saint for its piety. It were an injury to the reader to offer him an abridgement. Wilmot confesses to Bishop Burnet the evils of his past life. Bishop Burnet in turn helps Wilmot forsake his former life and accept religion. Bronte uses this model of Wilmot’s deathbed confessional and conversion in the dealings of Rochester and Jane.

When Rochester and Jane are reunited after the fire at Thornfield, their conversation resembles that of a confessional and rebirth. When Jane encounter Rochester at Ferndean his life has become meaningless. Jane decides that "it is time some one undertook to rehumanize" Rochester (425; ch.3). It is Jane that will save Rochester from his meaningless existence and bring him back to humanity. Finally, much as Wilmot discovered Christianity at the end of his life, Rochester praises the God that has brought his Jane Eyre back:

But my heart swells with gratitude to the beneficent God of this earth just now. He sees not as man sees, but far clearer: judges not as man judges, but far more wisely. I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower – breathed guild on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, almost cursed the dispensation: instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. His chastisements are mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever. [. . .]. Of late, Jane – only – only of late – I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere. (435; ch.37) Rochester has repented for the misdeeds of his previous life. Bronte’s hero, unlike John Wilmot, repented before his deathbed and was rewarded with his marriage to Jane. Bronte allows her reformed rake to celebrate in his reformation and continue on with his life.

Charlotte Bronte followed the literary tradition of the epistolary novel in the story of Edward Rochester as the rake. She looked to the historical figure of John Wilmot as a model for her character. Wilmot’s fame as one of the most infamous rake’s at the Restoration Court was well recorded. His deathbed conversion and repentance for his debauched lifestyle sparked the well known novel The Life and Death of John Rochester. Instead of having her hero repent on his deathbed, Bronte allows her character to repent on his metaphoric death (the loss of his eyesight and hand). Bronte balks at the idea that salvation comes at the price of death, instead she allows Rochester to repent and rewards him by allowing his marriage to Jane.
 
 

Works Cited

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Beth Newman. Boston: St. Martin’s, 1996.

Johnson, Samuel. The Life of Cowley. The Penn State Archive of Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets. Ed. Kathleen Nulton Kemmerer. 3 March 2003.

Pittock, Murray G.H. "John Wilmot and Mr. Rochester." Nineteenth-Century Literature 41 (1987): 462-69.

Home | Previous | Next