The Fictitious Life of Elizabeth Black | a notebook.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Jane Eyre - revision


Having now read (and loved) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë I understand that the 2011 film, which irritated me (although I loved the imagery!), really was an "interpretation" like so many films based on classics seem to be. So much was cut out, and parts were embellished. I also find that portrayals of Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester are often more tortured and gothic than they come across in the book. Rochester really isn't that broody. Although, my main gripe is that Rochester isn't supposed to be handsome - yet he is unceasingly presented as such. I guess they can't make someone attractive based on what they say and do instead of reliance on the physical. Which rather contradicts the whole point of the story - Jane, Rochester, and St John's characters altered, to my mind quite a bit. Ramblings of a mad woman I guess my notes to be - but not Bertha mad....
“You examine me, Miss Eyre,” said he: “do you think me handsome?”
I should, if I had deliberated, have replied to this question by something conventionally vague and polite; but the answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I was aware — “No, sir.”
From where do all these handsome Rochesters originate...?






"What fault do you find with me? I have all my limbs and features." - I will give the screenwriters props for that little in-joke though... Not for long...

Anyhoo, that's all for now from me.
But the topic will arise again, because Jane Eyre:


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