Jane Eyre Compare and Contrast With Movie

¶ … 1847 Novel and the 1973 Film

The novel Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte in 1847. Although the novel is widely considered a classic, and is therefore presumed to be timeless in terms of its characters and themes, when a contemporary filmmaker wished to adapt its themes for present day audiences, there were certain aspects of the work that demanded changes, not in plot but in thematic emphasis and visual depiction. First of all, the religious themes of the novel were toned down. Bronte's religious concerns were presumed to be of less interest to modern audiences. Secondly, the passion between Jane and Mr. Rochester was made much more explicit in the film. When a viewer sees a romance on screen, the unspoken thoughts in the characters mind must be turned into a picture. In prose, Jane's doubts about Rochester's love sound more real. Lastly, the contrast between book and film is evident in the physical characterization of the two main romantic protagonists. Jane Eye and Mr. Rochester, we are told by Bronte, are neither conventionally handsome, but are drawn together because they have similarly fiery souls, while the actors who play them are much more conventionally attractive.

The novel Jane Eyre begins and ends with strong religious thematic overtones. The book opens with Jane being sent away to a brutal religious school. Before she leaves, the school's overseer, Mr. Brocklehurst tells Jane that bad children will go to hell if they do not reform. When she resolves, "I must keep in good health, and not die." Mr. Brocklehurst exclaims that she may die, "I buried a little child of five years old only a day or two since." He hypocritically praises how the children are kept at his school, even though he keeps his own children in finery. "My second daughter, Augusta, went with her mama to visit the school, and on her return she exclaimed: 'Oh, dear papa, how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood look, with their hair combed behind their ears, and their long pinafores, and those little holland pockets outside their frocks -- they are almost like poor people's children! and,' said she, 'they looked at my dress and mama's, as if they had never seen a silk gown before.'" (Chapter 4 http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/4/) The hypocrisy is not only in the contrast of Mr. Brocklehurst's own girls wearing silks in while the pupils starve, but that the pupils are admonished to feel like they are sinners, just because they are unwanted and perhaps most in need and deserving of God's love.

In the book, Mr. Brocklehurst is an advocate of a 'bad' religion that terrifies rather than sustains life, which Bronte condemns. Ultimately, the pious friend of Jane, Helen Burns, will die because of the poor treatment she receives at the school, despite her religion. Later, at the end of the novel, Jane's religious suitor will also die, and a reference to him forms the end of the book: "No fear of death will darken St. John's last hour: his mind will be unclouded, his heart will be undaunted, his hope will be sure, his faith steadfast." (Chapter 38 http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/38/) Although St. John is a good man, Bronte suggests that Jane's religion of inner (if not outer) defiance to the school's code, in contrast to Helen's submission, and her love of Mr. Rochester rather than accepting an unloving marriage of duty with St. John, is more life sustaining and thus a better religion.

The movie is less focused on religion, however, than the physical details of the poor life at the school, such as the children's suffering of coughing fits and the poor rations. The religious hypocrisy is less evident, rather the tortures of the school, like Jane having to wear a placard that says she is a liar, is more in evidence.

Later, the relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester seems to develop more quickly, in the balance of the film, and to have more screen time then in the book where Jane and St. John have a more lengthy debate about the best way to live. Jane asks for guidance from God, not from man, in her decision: "My spirit," I answered mentally, "is willing to do what is right; and my flesh, I hope, is strong enough to accomplish the will of Heaven, when once that will is distinctly known to me. At any rate, it shall be strong enough to search--inquire -- to grope an outlet from this cloud of doubt, and find the open day of certainty." (Chapter 36 http://www.online-literature.com/brontec/janeeyre/36/) She rejects St. John and at first Rochester after asking God to tell her what to do and what is right in her soul.

The film is faithful to the book in terms of its romantic plot structure. However, in terms of time, it spends far more attention upon Rochester's and Jane's relationship. In the book, Jane is shown thinking her thoughts, musing about her loneliness. But because Mr. Rochester's presence is always there, the romance between the two of them seems to begin sooner on screen than it does in the book. In the book, Jane only grows aware of Mr. Rochester's feelings after he impersonates a gypsy fortuneteller at a party, and tells the heiress Blanche Ingram who is pursuing him that she will not marry Mr. Rochester. Although this same even occurs in the film, because of Mr. Rochester's apparent fixation upon Jane Eyre throughout the earlier part of their meeting, her doubts about his love seem less credible.