compare and contrast the setting, costume and mannerism of the movie Jane Eyre with the present time
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Literary Setting for Jane Eyre Movies & TV Adaptions
However, a close reading of the novel shows that the story is not contemporary to when Charlotte Brontë wrote it. Even Wikipedia (not usually a bastion of precise scholarship!) hints at the literary truth by stating: “The novel is set somewhere in the north of England, during the reign of George III (1760-1820).” There’s no citation for this, and while I’ve poured over my Norton Critical edition of the novel, I can’t find an exact reference. However, I did find a reference that sets the novel in approximately the 1810s.
In Chapter XXXII, after Jane has left Rochester and Thornfield Hall and taken a post as village teacher, St. John Rivers gives her a book: “he laid on the table a new publication — a poem: one of those genuine productions so often vouchsafed to the fortunate pubic of those days — the golden age of literature.” Jane rhapsodizes about the prospect of reading this book as Rivers hands it to her and finally reveals the title: “While I was eagerly glancing at the bright pages of Marmion (for Marmion it was)…” And Marmion is a book of poetry by Sir Walter Scott published in February 1808. If the book is a “new publication,” it could be reasonably assumed to be no more than a year or two old, giving this transaction a date of 1810 at most.
This chapter of the novel takes place in November, and Jane has been away from Thornfield for about two years. She had worked as governess to Rochester’s ward, Adele, at Thornfield for about two years before that. Jane Eyre got the governess job after studying at the Lowood Institution for six years and teaching there for two years. She entered that school at age 10. So Jane Eyre should be age 18 to 22 during the main part of the the novel, and this part of the story should be set around the years 1806 to 1810 at the latest.
And I’m sorry to say, every movie and TV adaption of Jane Eyre gets this wrong! Still, some of them are very faithful to the rest of the novel’s text, so let’s take a look. I don’t claim to have seen every single one, but there are certain really, really good adaptions that I have seen and have opinions about.
Costumes in Jane Eyre Movies & TV Adaptions
Jane Eyre, 1934
Jane Eyre, 1934