"'Your words have delineated very prettily a graceful Apollo: he is present to your imagination - tall, fair, blue-eyed, and with a Grecian profile. Your eyes dwell on a Vulcan - a real blacksmith, brown, broad-shouldered: and blind and lame into the bargain.'" (Bronte 626)
Mr. Rochester compares himself to Vulcan and St. John Rivers to Apollo. Vulcan was born deformed and thrown out of Olympus. He was a horrid looking cripple who was the god of fire and destruction. Apollo on the other hand, was a beautiful god who created many of the great things on earth, such as medicine and poetry. He was the god of the Sun. Bronte uses this metaphor to further describe the character differences in Mr. Rochester and Mr. Rivers. Though Mr. Rivers is a better man, and more attractive and beautiful, Jane chooses Mr. Rochester because she loves him. She will marry him and be happy despite his deformities.
http://www.roman-colosseum.info/roman-gods/
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