" 'Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform--I have the strength yet for that--if--but where is the use of thinking it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is irrevocably denied me I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may.'...'It is no devil, I assure you; or if it be, it has put on the robes of an angel of light. I think I must admit so fair a guest when it asks entrance to my heart.' " (139).
During a conversation between Rochester and Jane, many allusions to John Milton's epic Paradise Lost are made. In Paradise Lost, Satan's fall from heaven and the subsequent fall of man are depicted. Satan is furious at God for throwing him out of heaven and believes that he can only attain joy in life his own way as he thinks God will not accept him back. Rochester describes himself here in a similar fashion, comparing himself to Satan. Rochester states that happiness has denied him, like heaven being denied to Satan. Satan often feels marked for pain and suffering just as Rochester states that he feels cursed. Rochester, like Satan, aspires to attain pleasure in whatever way he can, no matter the cost. Rochester describes the thought of this idea could be like a deceiving devil disguised in angel's robes, much like the deceiver that the angel Satan really was. Rochester believes himself to be the same class of cursed sinner as Milton's Satan.