39 romantic male characters we’d love to date

Courtesy of Focus Features

Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre)

Mr. Rochester is literally no one’s first choice of a love interest. He locks his crazy wife away in an attic and then goes blind in a fire. He is temperamental and rude but when Michael Fassbender plays him, you forgive everything because wow, Michael Fassbender is nice to look at.

The thing about the novelization of Mr. Rochester is that he’s not that great. Yes, he’s one of our great Bronte sister love interests but he’s not really that amazing. If anything, Darcy is leagues above him. But when Michael Fassbender plays him? That’s something entirely different.

He brings a kind of adoration for Jane that lacked in other incarnations of the character. He loves her and he wants to be with her but can’t because of his marriage he was tricked into. Yes, he sucks in a lot of ways, but his character did have a terrible life. He was tricked into marrying a crazy woman so when he met someone he truly loved, he couldn’t legally marry her.

Granted, Rochester does try to marry Jane and not tell her he’s already married but still. He loves her and wants to be with her despite his circumstances and that’s something special.