His form was of the same strong and stalwart contour as ever: his port was still erect, his hair was still raven-black; nor were his features altered or sunk: not in one year’s space, by any sorrow, could his athletic strength be quelled, or his vigourous prime blighted. But in his countenance, I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding – that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe. The caged eagle, whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished, might look as looked that sightless Samson.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 37. In the past Rochester has compared Jane to a caged bird. But now their situations are reversed. Jane is free and Rochester is blind and has lost one of his hands. While his physical image is the same, she notices a change in his face following the injuries he received and the devastation of his house. Jane describes him as looking “fettered” and uses a bird metaphor to compare him to a “caged eagle” – still powerful but now weakened. She likens him to the blind Biblical hero Sampson, showing that he is still a strong, attractive man to her.