Jane Eyre

I did go and see Jane Eyre on the weekend. (I went by myself on Saturday night and looked a bit tragic. I go and see movies by myself, I just usually avoid doing so on a Saturday night, but I badly wanted to see this one that day, without having to go through the diary consultation thing and wait weeks till someone was available to come along.) I loved it! It was perhaps owing to the mood I was in, and the fact that I was sitting there solitarily, but I found it very moving and cried away.

I’d spoken to a fellow on Friday night at a friend’s gathering (a fellow who went to see Jane Eyre by himself – how extraordinary is that?) who told me that they thought Jane’s character was rather cold. Perhaps because I've read the book and know Jane more deeply I didn’t think so, though there were times when she was oddly silent towards Mrs Fairfax. But as someone who is not so outwardly effusive, and doesn’t relish being considered unfeeling as a result, one of the things I particularly love about Jane Eyre is that it portrays and demonstrates love and passion in someone not given to gushing or hysterics - and what is so appealing, to me, about Rochester and their relationship, is that Rochester can see into and appreciate this in Jane.

Ben has given his two cents worth here (and I stole his picture) and I agree with Simone, that in leaving the elements of Jane’s faith out of the story, it doesn’t make so much sense that she decided to leave. And while I don’t believe that Jane should have married St John, the movie didn’t show much at all of what was grand in his character (qualities no longer valued perhaps), and the idea of his going to India, and of Jane accompanying him, comes completely out of nowhere and is gone in seconds.

Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke is still the best version of Jane Eyre, according to me (Zelah Clarke doesn’t quite suit me as Jane, however, as I couldn't see any of that mysterious elfishness, and I read this curious article on The Forgotten star of Jane Eyre in looking her up), so close to the book it's brilliant, though of course it's not so visually spectacular as more recent adaptations, but this one is quite fine in its way.

I think now it's time to read the book again.