I finally got the movie version of Jane Eyre watched. It was very good. I really like the way that the actors were cast in their roles. Rochester was perfect. At first, as I mentioned in class, I thought that the last few chapters really lost their charm. For some reason Rochester seemed more abrasive and grotesque than before (not only just because of the fire) and one of my least favorite part of the book (the part where Jane and Rochester are out in the woods by the brook and she is teasing him about St John) was really my favorite scene of the movie. It was charming and enchanting to see what a hold she had over him and how much she adored him. It really did seem believable that the whole thing could have happened and that they were well suited to each other. This would not have worked out so well had the movie not been so faithful to the book. Bronte was a master at making the plain and straight forward beautiful and admirable. I really was inspired by Jane's quiet spirit and calmness in the face of adversity. Of course this was carried to the extreme sometimes, but it was inspiring for the most part, and made for a really good read. I loved this book the most of all the ones we read this year. Oh, and I loved the drawings used in the film too! The way Jane was portrayed was believable. You really saw that she really was a good artist, not drawing some weird unbelievable cartoon-y type drawing that she was really obviously not doing herself. I think I'm a bit obsessed with that aspect because I'm an artist myself, so maybe it wasn't that awesome for anyone else. One big difference was how the whole first part of her life was really glanced over. The movie mainly focused on her time at Thornfield and afterwards. I don't think that it gave as much of a emphasis on Helen as it should have. To me, Helen was Jane's most influential acquaintance. She helped shaped all the passionate, strong willed-ness, into the strong, calm Jane of Thornfield. Mostly that was just passed over, although her "one friend" was mentioned as if to emphasis the importance there.