One cannot deny that in any literature, when they are made into a film, they tell the story from different perspective and include or eliminate some elements compared to the original novel. It is the same for Jane Eyre; the film revolves around the life of Jane, however, it is told from a very different way from Bronte’s style in the novel. Although the film followed the novel very well, perhaps trying to abridge the almost-450 pages masterpiece by Bronte was challenging. Personally, I thought that the movie was very shallow compared to the original piece.
First,
the film eliminated the entire relationship between Jane and Bessie. Although
it may not be the biggest bond in the novel, I felt as if her existence was
crucial to Jane’s childhood. It shows how her life was not always shunned from
light, and that someone cared for her, despite the adversities she needed to
handle during her residence in Gateshead Hall. Bessie was the person who
brought Jane up, and showed her what “love” was.
Second,
the image of St. John that I had acquired from the novel contradicted the one
from the movie. From the novel, I understood that he was rather a taciturn man
with cruel and hard personality – slightly going against the stereotypical
image of a religious missionary man. Bronte
describes him as follows.
“Mr. St. John — sitting as still as one of the dusty pictures on the
walls, keeping his eyes fixed on the page he perused, and his lips mutely
sealed — was easy enough to examine. Had he been a statue instead of a man, he
could not have been easier. He was young — perhaps from twenty- eight to thirty
— tall, slender; his face riveted the eye; it was like a Greek face, very pure
in outline: quite a straight, classic nose; quite an Athenian mouth and chin.
It is seldom, indeed, an English face comes so near the antique models as did
his. He might well be a little shocked at the irregularity of my lineaments,
his own being so harmonious. His eyes were large and blue, with brown lashes;
his high forehead, colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless
locks of fair hair.” (Jane Eyre)
However, in the movie, he did not appear to be as cold as
the novel emphasized. It could be seen that St. John was not as friendly as his
sisters from the way Jane Eyre drew him in the movie, but that scene was rather
pushed; she illustrated him as intense, but it was right after he rescued her
from brink of death – unlike the novel where Jane described his alienation
thoroughly, the sudden portrayal of St. John as such intense figure was rather
ironic.
Lastly,
the movie’s illustration of Jane and Rochester seemed very unrealistic to what
I would have imagined to be their relationship. They were very close in the
film; knowing that the story is based in Victorian Era, the intimacy between
the two seemed unrealistic. Furthermore, the chestnut tree in the novel is
significant in portraying their relationship, but in the movie, its value was
not exactly signified. For example, the quote below shows how the tree
foreshadows the disastrous conflict that awaits them ahead.
"The cloven halves were not
broken from each other, for the firm
base and strong roots kept them unsundered below; though community of vitality
was destroyed -the sap could flow no more" (Jane Eyre)
Despite the occasional differences,
the film was very accurate in many parts. They utilized many significant quotes
from the novel in a natural manner unlike the movie based on Shakespeare’s Paradise Lost. Additionally, the
portrayal of each character was very accurate. Rochester fit my image of the
character, which was passionate, attractive, and free from any “chains” that
binds people in society.
