The answer is He is sad and regretful.
Rochester, from the novel Jane Eyre, is a hateful character. He is stern, ugly, rude and morally ambiguous. He locked his wife in the attic while he spent his time travelling, and as he found in Jane a woman different than the others he had met before--someone who could "tame" him--he wanted to be with her despite being married. But the fire in Thornfield Hall, that left him blind, made him realize that his previous behavior had been harmful to Jane:
<em>"I did wrong: I would have sullied my innocent flower—breathed guilt on its purity: the Omnipotent snatched it from me. [...] Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death. His chastisements are mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever. You know I was proud of my strength: but what is it now, when I must give it over to foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness? Of late, Jane—only—only of late—I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere. (3.11.248)"</em>
