Lycée George-Sand La Châtre

Thanks to the english class, we have seen two different versions of the classic love story by Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre.

The first version starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt is directed by Franco Zeffireli. The second starring Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens is directed by Susanna White.

Before comparing these two versions, here is a little summary : Jane Eyre is a young orphan girl who is hired by Mrs Fairfax as a governess for the master’s daughter, Adele.

Later, she falls in love with her master and it is their incredible love story that we are going to follow.

 But even if the story is the same in both movies (of course !), we can see some definite differences between the two of them.

First, the main character Jane Eyre has got a different personality.

In Franco Zeffireli’s version : Jane is superficial, without a sense of humour and seems to be less smart than the description made of her in the novel. In her relationship with Mr Rochester, she seems dominated and not really passionately in love. On the other hand, the character played by Ruth Wilson is much more interesting and she seems really clever. Mr Rochester is also much more "macho", funnier and he seems more deeply in love with Jane.

What’s more, the settings are different too.

There is a gothic element in the setting of the second version, as the scenes are darker, whereas the lighting of the first version is brighter.

The background music also makes a difference. The music of the first version is soft unlike the second version, which is loud and has many mystery elements. Some scenes of the second version are a bit scary. For example, when Jane is about to sleep, she hears the sound of a woman screaming and laughing. When Jane is going to open the door, we don’t know what she will discover behind. But the sounds make us think of a ghost or a crazy woman, which arouses our curiosity.

Furthermore, the narrative technique used to tell the story after Jane leaves Mr Rochester and meets her cousin St. John in the second version is a flashback, which is more vivid than the flat description of the first version.

Finally, all of us have preferred the second version because of the characters and the landscape which are really beautiful.

 By Justine, Emeline, LongKi