Everyone has their favorite Jane Eyre adaptations, for sure. And not everyone will like this version. I disagree with your assessment but I always enjoy hearing other people’s interpretations! It’s interesting how people see and react in different ways based on experience. Thanks for sharing.

I heartily agree. I’ve watched most adaptations of Jane Eyre and I was captivated by the 2006 version. I’d never heard of Toby Stephens before this production and he will always be Rochester. I have watched hundreds of movies in my time but never have I watched anything that moved me so much as this story. Rochester goes through every scenario in the leaving scene he can think of searching for the one that will change her heart. Anyone who has had the person they love most walk away knows his agony.
When I think of couples in silhouette moments captured in film, one of the most famous was Scarlett and Rhett while Atlanta burned. Stephens and Wilson captured in silhouette and the passion on full display after the fire scene is mesmerizing. I was drawn in completely; I could feel myself standing in Jane’s place…breathtaking. And Toby Stephens’ profile is absolutely the most beautiful profile I’ve ever seen on a man…ever.
I read an article by a British columnist who groaned on about Toby Stephens being absolutely terrible casting choice. I don’t believe an actor ever made me swoon before.
Simply put, I love it.

After this experience, I was eager to see other adaptations hoping for more magic. Unfortunately, they all fell short due to Ms Wilson’s unattainable performance. I can’t imagine anyone as Jane Eyre like I can’t imagine anyone other than Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O’hara.

I know that Jane rejects Rochester’s kisses and embraces after she discovers he’s married. Of course, this is because of her deep principles and self respect, but it’s also because she doesn’t trust herself. She wants him in the same way that all young people in love want each other. That’s why she has the most terrible internal struggle and has to flee real temptation. We know Jane is a passionate woman. She is exactly like Rochester in this regard – her soulmate , and we know how physical HE is. She rejects marriage to the cold fish St John, saying that she would be “forced to keep the fire of [her] nature continually low”. She has erotic dreams of Rochester, and describes her lost life with him in terms of “delirious with his love” and “fevered with …bliss”.

I think it’s important to convey to a modern audience this side of Jane’s character. To many, Jane is just a prim and proper Victorian governess in a rather chaste book, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The novel is charged with sexuality. So I think viewers need to see the strong sexual bond that Jane has with Rochester, so that we can fully appreciate the enormous sacrifice she ultimately makes and the very great strength of character required to carry that through.

To that end, I think Sandy Welch’s treatment of the leaving scene is entirely justified. And fusing it with Jane’s sensual dreams makes it positively inspired!

I’d like to address your two complaints, if I may. Do you believe that the gypsy scene can be successfully screened? I doubt very much if it can. The few times I’ve seen it done I wasn’t convinced. It works on the page, but can’t be effectively transferred to the screen, in my opinion. I think Sandy Welch’s compromise of having a real gypsy act as the medium through which Rochester obtains information is so clever. We get to see just how desperate Rochester is for Jane to reveal herself, and just how ever-so-slightly bonkers he is! Lol. Yet Toby Stephens preserves his dignity intact!

Turning to the bedroom leaving scene, I used to be troubled by this. Then I reread chapter 32 of the book which describes Jane’s sensual dreams that she has about Rochester while she is in her cottage at Morton. She relates how she would awake in an empty bed and convulse with despair. Then I watched the bedroom scene in Jane Eyre 2006. The same awaking and crying with despair on her empty bed. Such a clever combining of the two scenes made possible because we are seeing this not chronologically but as a flashback from inside Jane’s tortured head. So, yes, this isn’t exactly how the leaving scene was written, but I would argue it captures like no other the essence of what Bronte wrote – the sensuality, arousal and despair.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I know! It’s ridiculous how many streaming services are popping up left and right. Unfortunately, that means more and more great content will be pulled from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. because each “company” will want their own copyrighted work for themselves. The problem is that people don’t want to or can’t afford all of these different streaming services. Still, I think it likely Jane Eyre won’t make it back to Netflix for quite some time. Shame really…