Jane Eyre's relationship with her employer, Fairfax Rochester, is characterized by the conflict between Jane's desire for autonomy and Rochester's conviction that she possesses some kind of mystical cure for his emotional woes. Jane is also constricted by the age and class difference between her and Rochester, and struggles to rid herself of any affection for him. Rochester, however, is sure of his love for Jane, but is held back from declaring his affection for her by his fear that those feelings will not be reciprocated and the knowledge that he is already married.
             Jane and Rochester's initial impressions of one another are distinctly different; Jane confides in Mrs. Fairfax that she finds him strikingly peculiar: "He is very changeful and abrupt," she states (Bronte 149). There are certain aspects of his personality which she greatly enjoys, but is still very much put off by his personality flaws:
             ...his presence in a room was more cheering than the
             brightest fire. Yet I had not forgotten his faults- indeed, I
             could not, for he brought them so frequently before me.
             He was proud, sardonic, harsh to inferiority of every
             However, she does begin to notice improvement in his behavior, and believes that "he was naturally a man of better tendancies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed...(Bronte 172-3)" She quickly becomes accustomed to his presence, and realizes that she would miss him should he leave Thornfield again. Rochester is instantly intruiged by Jane's independant nature and frank honesty:
             "By my word! there is something singular about you," said he: "you have the air of a little nonnette; quaint, quiet, grave and simple...and when one asks you a question, or makes a remark to which you are obliged to reply, you rap out a round rejoinder, which, if not blunt, is at least brusque."
             Instead of being in...