Enduring Love Stories: Jane Eyre Revisted part 1

If you are a romance reader, you likely have read the book or seen a movie version of Jane Eyre. Maybe you were forced to read it in high school lit class. Maybe you missed it.  The storyline is a classic one, and many, many romance writers today like to use the plot line of Jane Eyre for Gothic or historical romances.  Why not, the storyline is brilliant. 

Recap:  For those who haven't experienced it in book or film form:  

Jane Eyre is an orphan girl, raised by an indifferent aunt who has three of her own children. Jane endures the abusive talk and behavior of not only the aunt, but also the aunt's son, who is slightly older than Jane.  He's mean to her, and brutal. Always conniving to get Jane in trouble with his mom by staging things so he attacks her and then when Jane stands up for herself and retaliates, the Mom accuses her orphan niece of harming her 'precious boy.'  Yeah, like a nine year old girl could actually bully a adolescent boy, but you get the picture--she's oppressed. 

 

One day, the conflict between Jane and her mean older cousin gets auntie so worked up she sends Jane to a nasty boarding school. It's a religious school, and it seems that dear auntie might have paid the cold and cruel headmaster on the sly to continue to punish and humiliate the poor girl. Jane is ostracized by all due to the underhanded headmaster's machinations. Our poor orphan girl is alone in the world, friendless, and without a bright spot to look forward to in life. She's beaten down in body and in spirit. She takes a job teaching at the school when she matures, continuing to reside in that bleak place as she has no other option. 

 

Jane and her new charge, Adelle

And then, wonder of wonders--Jane finds a teaching job far away from the horrible school. A teaching job as a governess in an isolated manor house in the English countryside.  It is here that she finds acceptance and friendship by the housekeeper, human kindness and some freedom. She will teach a little French orphan named Adelle, the ward of a rich man, Mr. Rochester.

 

Jane's employer, Mr. Rochester, is handsome, brooding, and mysterious. He's gone a lot, and when he's home, he's mostly in a foul mood. But, through their odd interactions, Jane falls in love with him. He's a mixed up guy, a true Gothic hero, tortured and prone to dark moods. Some times he's nice to her, other times, he's a bit peevish. Jane's heart is broken when he starts courting a very rich neighbor,  Blanche, and it looks like Mr. R will be marrying soon. Jane is convinced she will be dismissed and Adelle, Mr. R's charge, will be sent to boarding school by the soon to be new Mrs. Rochester. 

 

plain Jane hasn't a chance against beautiful Blanche

Strangely, the anticipated romance between Mr. R and Blanche never comes to pass. 

It turns out he's just toying with Blanche and parading her in front of Jane as a way to vex Jane, comparing Blanche to plain Jane. He does weird things, like summoning Jane to come and sit in the parlor with his guests when Blanche and her family are visiting, making Jane uncomfortable, as well as the guests, because, well--she's a servant. Love is simmering beneath his dark exterior. What is actually happening is he is comparing the quiet, sweet, but spirited Jane with the empty headed and vain society girl, Blanche. Mr. R finally confesses his love for Jane, citing he cannot live without her in his life. As things progress, Jane and Mr. R are set to marry. At the wedding,  a stranger shows up and tells all Mr. R can't marry Jane, he's already married. It's true. Mr. R  brings Jane and the wedding party back to the house and reveals to all his legal wife, a pathetic creature, crazy and violent, who is locked in a secret room upstairs in his Gothic manor hall with a keeper to manage her. 

Jane runs away. She's humiliated, emotionally devastated. She wanders the harsh moors for a time, begging for food at doors. A stranger finds her weakened from exposure and near starvation, and takes her home. He's  St. John, a Reverend. He has two sisters. They nurse her to health and help her out. She lives with them for a time and is given the example of a true home where kindness rules. St. John wants her to marry him and go to Africa with him to be missionaries. He sort of badgers her about it, making her feel it's her Christian duty and her calling to complete him. 

 

They almost marry, but our spirited heroine Jane comes to her senses, realizing she still loves Mr. R. with all her heart and does not love St. John. Nor does she find the prospect of poverty in Africa appealing.  She has haunting dreams of Mr. R calling out to her for help. She leaves the siblings and returns to Thornfield, the manor where Mr. R. lived.  She arrives to find the house is charred remains. A fire destroyed it. Upon questioning locals, she learns Mr. R. survived and is living nearby. The crazy wife died in the fire, as it was she who set the fire in the middle of the night in the first place. Mr. R. tried to save his poor wife, and was badly burned in the fire. He's become blind, it seems. Jane goes to him, and they have their happy ever after. They marry and have children. He gradually regains sight in one eye.

 

A timeless love story!  

Governess falls for stern single (she thinks) employer. Mysterious happenings (a haunting it seems) at the manor house make the man leave frequently and return in a bad mood. The two find love, and they are driven apart. But--in the end, the governess and the master are given a happily ever after. It's a Gothic tale of endurance, and hope. It's dark at the beginning, and has many dark parts, but love triumphs against all in the end. You can see why so many people would adore this dark romance, and why this romance trope (the lord and the governess)  has been used time and again by romance writers.  It is a classic. Rich employer with social status/poor governess with no one, not even family to help her.  It's ripe for dark things to happen. 

Will he take advantage of this poor waif? In the real world this would more than likely be the case. 

Will she be misled by him and give in to his dark desires?  Again, a real world outcome is that would unfortunately would happen, and often did as wealthy, powerful men could take advantage of female servants. The women had little recourse in those times, as they were 'ruined', and could not get a court to prosecute a rapist, especially a rich, titled rapist.  

But as romance readers, we have but one question----Will he rescue her? 

 

Perhaps not as gallantly or as passionately as we might prefer, as this was written in the nineteenth century, when men were more stoic and less touchy-feely as we like our romance heroes today---but yes--ultimately the couple end up rescuing each other from dark, painful pasts!  Ah, the magical, healing properties of true love!

This story has been so popular with the ages that there are several movie versions of it. Each generation seems to revisit it and give Jane and Mr. R  new faces.  My favorite version stars Timothy Dalton. He makes a delightfully dark and compelling Mr. Rochester. 

Dalton as Rochester in the 1980's

 

However, there are so many versions of the movie your head could spin. There is one with Dalton, above. 

And one with Ciarn Hinds as Rochester,

 

 

Then we have one with William Hurt as Rochester; 1996

And few others. I think I even recall seeing Liam Neeson in the role once, many years ago.  You get the picture, this story just does not go out of style. It's remade every decade, and with new actors taking up the role of the moody, broody heart-throb, Mr. Rochester.  The most recent, with Michael Fassbender continues the haunting drama of a a Gothic rich dude and the feisty governess he hires. 

The main part of the story, aside from the forbidden romance, is the spirit of Jane Eyre. She's not broken. She's learned to depend upon herself and this helps her survive in a bitter world where there are no hand outs and no compassion. She's mousy looking, true, but she is a strong woman.  You gotta love her for that.  

Next time, I'll reach a little more into the characters of this enduring story, and share some romance stories I've enjoyed based on this classic.  Until then, here is a delicious peek at the movie version;

Why We Love Mr. Darcy

Note the 'brood factor' of Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in A&E's Pride and Prejudice

When I was first introduced to Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy back in the 1990's, via the beautiful A & E presentation of Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth, I did not like him. Really, how many of us would swoon over a man who is so rude that he would speak openly about us with disdain at a local dance where our friends, family and our neighbors can hear his rude comments about our appearance? "She's not handsome enough to tempt me!"

And yet, we love Mr. Darcy.

For the uninitiated, here is a recap of Mr. Darcy's first interaction with our feisty heroine:
Small town girl, Elizabeth Bennett encounters Mr. Darcy at a local ball. She and her sisters are in attendance, and they are excited because there are some newer gentlemen in the neighborhood attending the dance. Mr. Bingley and his friend, Mr. Darcy. These two fellows are dashing, handsome and full of town polish, having just arrived in Meryton from London. Alas, poor Elizabeth overhears Mr. Darcy in conversation with his friend, and to her mortification, they are discussing her! She hears Mr. Bingley exhorting his proud friend to stop being such a prig and dance with the ladies. He even mentions Miss Bennett, as a suitable partner for a dance.  Our plucky Elizabeth cannot help but listen carefully now. But what she hears is enough to insult women throughout the centuries.

"She's not nearly handsome enough to tempt me!" Darcy replies. Further adding insult to injury, the bloke states emphatically that he is in no humor to dance with girls unfortunate enough to lack partners, thereby lumping Elizabeth in with among the wistful wallflowers. So what's the attraction to this ill mannered, spoiled, self important cad? Elizabeth has already set her heart against him at this juncture, yet we have just begun the classic love story.  As heroes go, he's not kind or gallant. He's nasty.

Yet we love Mr. Darcy.

 It gets worse. Mr. Darcy is good friends with Mr. Bingley, an affable young man of means who is attracted to Elizabeth's older sister, Jane. Darcy influences his friend to break off the association, thereby breaking Jane's heart as she is in love with Bingley. Elizabeth learns Darcy is behind this and she is livid with anger at him for his interference, for as she puts it, he has cruelly destroyed the hopes  and happiness of her sister. Darcy doesn't see it that way, he sees it as having saved his friend from a potentially bad union, and tells Elizabeth so with pride and self-righteousness.

After all this, there comes a a very infuriating marriage proposal from Darcy to Elizabeth Bennett. He slides into the parlor looking as if he's ready to lose his lunch in his hat, and pretty much tells her that against his better judgement, and despite her lowly connections in society, he has decided to make an offer for her hand in marriage. Elizabeth, and the rest of us, are properly appalled. The nerve of this guy, making her feel as if he's doing her a favor by lowering himself from his pedestal to marry her. She rebuffs him, of course. Wouldn't you?                                     

Ah, but don't forget our heroine is actually in love with him, despite his towering ego. He's handsome, rich (worth about a million, by modern equations) and swoon worthy. At this point, we should give Elizabeth a round of applause for not succumbing to the charm of his bankroll and ignoring his flaws. (Many a modern lass has lacked her resolve.) To be honest,  Darcy is a pretty package, all brooding, handsome, and ridiculously rich. Just needs a little help on the social front.

Or maybe he needs Zoloft for his social anxiety disorder. Why do I say this? Think about it, dear reader. How truly social is Darcy, at any event in the novel (or movie)? He's pretty much a sad, reluctant observer. He remains in the background silently brooding, looking as if he's sitting in the reception room waiting to be called into the dentist's office to have a root canal.

By his own admission, he states it is difficult for him to converse at social gatherings. Elizabeth chides him when he confesses by countering with the example of her piano playing. She says that the only reason she is not very good at it is because she does not practice, inferring that he must practice being social more if he wishes to become proficient at it. This statement is met with gaiety by Elizabeth's companion, Colonel Fitzwilliam, but Darcy himself appears mortified by her suggestion, and rightly so. It's sort of like telling someone who is afraid of heights to practice jumping out of planes in order to overcome their discomfort. This casts Mr. Darcy in a different light. He's not a jerk, he's just uncertain and clumsy on the social front, and the perceived insolence that he shows to the world is perhaps not insolence at all but a stoic feeling of torture at being forced into social engagements due to his position in society.

And so, we love Mr. Darcy! 

Aside from his brood factor, there are other redeeming qualities in our timeless hero. He cares enough about those in his social circle that he will interfere when he sees them making a mistake, or sees them caught up in disturbing circumstances that he can fix for them. When Elizabeth's little sister runs off with a man who is a terrible rake, ruining her reputation and that of her family, Darcy steps in behind the scenes to try to fix it. He searches for the couple, finds them, and forces the man to marry young Lydia, preserving the Bennett Family's reputation in society. He also secretly pays the bridegroom a huge stipend as a bribe to get him to agree to marry the girl, as he knows Mr. Bennett, Elizabeth's father could not afford to do so. All this is done in secret, but of course Elizabeth finds out he saved her family from social ruin and she can't help but fall even deeper in love with him. He is a true gallant after all. And, he rescinds his censure over Bingley marrying Jane, Elizabeth's sister. In the end, we have a double wedding, with sisters Jane and Elizabeth marrying for true love.

The love story of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett has been an enduring tale for two centuries. It was written by Austen in the late 18th Century, originally titled "First Impressions", aptly named as the misjudgements of a first impression change through the course of the story. It was rewritten in 1811-12 and then released as Pride and Prejudice in early 1813.  It was her second published novel, coming after the 1811 publication of Sense & Sensibility, but Pride and Prejudice has become the most beloved of her works.

Movie versions:
There are several movie versions of Pride and Prejudice, the previously mentioned A&E production that is a classic, being a faithfully rendered miniseries. This one stars Colin Firth as Darcy (See top Photo) and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth. This version follows the storyline of the book precisely and even the dialogue is word for word directly from the book. I highly recommend it.

Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Darcy

 If you want a quicker, shorter rendition, the big screen Theater release of 2005 with Kiera Knightly as Miss Bennett and Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy, is equally good, but the storyline is much more keenly focused on the lovers instead of the Bennett family intrigues that make the book so compelling. Still, it is a very good short version if you're looking for a quickie fix.

Elliot Cowan is Mr. Darcy in 'Lost in Austen'

  And last, but not least, is the brilliant comedy "Lost in Austen". This is the story of Amanda, who loves P&P so much, she literally gets thrust back in time to the take Elizabeth's place in the storyline. What happens is a clash of sensibilities as Amanda tries to fit into Regency culture. It's funny, and touching, and adds a wonderful modern twist on the storyline. Elizabeth Bennett goes into the future, exchanging places with Amanda in time. Elliot Cowan plays a stunning Mr. Darcy, complete with a serious brood factor that comes close to Firth's incarnation, and as Amanda puts it, a "Smoulder Alert".

In closing, I leave you with an extra chocolate truffle, being it is Mother's Day. Note Darcy's confession of social awkwardness here.  Sparks fly between Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennett in this 2005 offering.