Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Alternate Versions of Jane Eyre: Film versus Book
It is a practical concept that much of the original story of a novel is omitted once it has been converted into a film. Jane Eyre is such an example; the film was synthesized so that it illuminated the more dramatic scenes in the book. As opposed to the novel, which expressed each stage of Jane's life (beginning as an adolescent at Lowood) in great depth, the filmmakers rather chose to revolve most of the events around the love between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. This was the central conflict. Personally, I preferred the complex vocabulary and structure that Charlotte Brontë uses. Reading and understanding the story in this way, though it is much more tedious, is a benefit to me in that it expands my skills as a writer.
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One difference I also noticed between the book and the movie is that although the movie does well in expressing the emotions felt by the main characters, the movie does not go into much detail about how they developed those feelings. I agree that the film focused mainly on the romance and conflicts between Jane and Mr. Rochester, and not so much on other models of love such as Blanche. In the book, Charlotte Bronte describes the marriage of Blanche and Mr. Rochester, which Jane is jealous of. One model of romance was left out completely -- Rosamond Oliver, St. John's original affection.
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