A Passionate Adaptation of a Classic Novel”
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” A passionate adaptation of a classic novel” Jane Eyre: From a politically charged novel, to a passionate love story En passionerad version av en klassisk roman Jane Eyre: Från en politiskt laddad roman, till en passionerad kärlekshistoria Therese Kruse Fakulteten för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap English 15HP Supervisor Johan Wijkmark Examiner Anna Swärdh 2016-12-03 Abstract The novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, is very appreciated and famous. It has been adapted several times into different media, such as films, musicals and theatres. In this essay I will compare the novel with Cary Joji Fukunaga’s film adaption from 2011. I will compare the characters Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester and examine how they are portrayed, and I will also discuss the difference between Mr. Brocklehurst in the novel and in the film. I argue that the characters and some of the situations are adjusted to fit a modern audience. I also argue that the film is a romanticized, de-politicized version of the novel. Many of Jane’s reflections upon life, love, class, gender and so on are less developed in the film and the film is more of a love story than a story about a young woman’s life in the Victorian era. 1 The Victorian Era was a brilliant era for literature, and many of today’s most famous novels were written at that point in time. More and more female authors wrote novels and were published, although they often needed to use pseudonyms to hide their true identity and their true gender. The general view on women in the Victorian Era did not allow women to write, or at least not to expect their work to be as appreciated and famous as men’s work could be. That is why the three Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Anne and Emily, differ from other authors. They wrote several novels hidden behind pseudonyms and their work came to play a very important role for literature, at that time as well as ever since. They were admired for their honesty, and they often wrote about women in society from different angles. Some people regard their work as the first feminist novels. In this essay I will focus on the very famous and beloved novel Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, the eldest of the three sisters. Charlotte Brontë based what she wrote on her own, and her sisters’, experiences and lives, and this was also the case in the writing of Jane Eyre. There are several similarities between Charlotte Brontë and the main character Jane Eyre. To mention a few, they both attended a school for girls, as well as worked as teachers and governesses (Teachman xiii). That is why many assume that Charlotte Brontë based the novel on her own life. The novel is a fictional autobiography about Jane, a woman in the Victorian Era. Jane grows up as an orphan girl, who lives with her Aunt Reed that is married into the family. Jane was treated badly by her cousins and by her aunt through her childhood, and was early on sent to a charity school for girls. She stayed there for eight years before she starts to work as a governess at Thornfield Hall. Mr. Rochester is the head of Thornfield Hall and it is there that she meets him and falls in love with him. The novel is about romance, passion, gender, class, morals and politics. It is considered a romantic or gothic novel since it contains some horror and gothic elements. The main character struggles through life with a wish to reach independency and equality to other members of society. She needs to live a life that she is satisfied with. Over the years, Jane Eyre has been adapted into various media several times. There are many film adaptations, radio shows, plays and musicals that interpret the novel. It has also inspired many other authors in their writing and is one of the most appreciated novels that have ever been written. The latest film adaptation is made by Focus Features in 2011. It is directed by Cary Fukunaga, with a screenplay by Moira Buffini. The main characters, Jane and Mr. Rochester, are played by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. The aim with this essay is to compare the original novel and the film adaptation from 2011 with each other to show how they differ in certain key respects. I will make a comparison between the two main characters Jane and Mr. Rochester to demonstrate how their characters have changed and been adjusted from the novel to the film. More specifically, I will examine how the film’s selection of material as well as casting and the changing of minor characters are all aspects that contributed to the altered characterization of the main characters. Since the novel not only is about love and passion, but also about politics and morals, I will look closer at those issues as well and show how 1 these issues are given less emphasis in the film. With a basis in this comparison, I will argue that the film offers a modernized and romanticized version of the story whose focus is more on love and passion. My suggestion is that this is the result of the film being adjusted to a modern and contemporary audience. Before I move on to the main argument, it is important to explain the role of women in the early 19th century. When Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre, men and women had very different positions and options in life from today. Debra Teachman mentions a few examples: Women were supposed to be subordinate to men and they were expected to obey them, both in the laws of nature and in the laws of God. They were not allowed to own their own property, to be in charge of their own money if in a marriage and they were legally possessions of their husbands. Men were considered to know what was best for their women, both in families and for hired women (Teachman, 14). Today this is something that many women in the Western world cannot relate to. There still exists a hierarchy and we still have not attained total equality between women and men, but today women can have what profession they want, they can choose whether they want to get married or not and for what reasons, they can own their own money and their own property without men having a legal right to decide over them. Marriages today in the Western world are not made for practical reasons, but more often of love. It is hard to imagine a world where women had no rights at all, and their only choice was to marry someone rich or to work for someone rich. In the novel, the main character, Jane, deals with several of issues that we might not relate to today. She is an orphan girl which provides her with very few and limited options in life. She has no relatives or other people to rely on. Throughout the whole novel there are male characters that try to take charge over her life and to decide for her. Even though some of them are not actually evil, they believe that they have the right to do so. This is of much importance in the novel, though it is downplayed in the film. I will start this analysis by making a character comparison between the novel Jane Eyre and the film Jane Eyre. In the novel, Jane Eyre has a strong personality and provides many reflections about life and her role in society. She thinks about how her being a woman prevents her from living her dreams, even prevents her to have dreams at all. To Jane, independency is very important and she needs to be able to stand on her own and to take care of herself without being dependent on someone else. When she was young, she was dependent on her aunt since her parents were dead. She was reminded of this early in her childhood, when her elder cousin John, cognizant of the reigning social order, treated her as if she was worth nothing because of Jane’s need for others to help her survive. In one situation, he tells her, “You are a dependent, mama says; you have no money, your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals that we do, and wear clothes at our mama’s expense” (JE, 5). Even though Jane is only a child, she does not accept this behaviour and she hits John back. As a result, she is locked up and punished. This scene is kept in the film version, which 2 shows the audience early on that Jane is not acting the way she is expected to considering the circumstances, that she is dependent and not considered as a family member. But the older Jane becomes, the less of this powerful personality is kept in the film. The following quote is an example of Jane’s thoughts in the novel that are lost in the film. This speech is considered to be the most openly feminist speech in the novel (Brennan, 50). Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making pudding and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.