Navigation of key scenes
[the Proposal] [After the storm] [Seeing Bertha] [the Wedding] [the truth] [Farewell]

(Jane is walking along the road to Thornfield)

JANE (voiceover)
I was going back to Thornfield. But how long was I to stay there? Not long I was sure. I had heard from Mrs. Fairfax in the interim- the party at the Hall had dispersed and Mr. Rochester had departed for London to make arrangements for his wedding to Miss Ingram.

(Jane sees Mr. Rochester sitting by the stile writing. Mr. Rochester sees her.)

ROCHESTER
There you are.

JANE (voiceover)
Well he's not a ghost but every nerve I have is unstrung.

ROCHESTER
Come on! If you please. Is this Jane Eyre coming from Millcote on foot? Oh yes, just one of your tricks not to send for a carriage and come clattering home like a common mortal. Oh no, you must steal in, just as if you were a dream or shade. What the deuce have you done with yourself this last month?

JANE
I have been with my Aunt, sir, who is dead.

ROCHESTER
A true Janian reply, good angels be my guard. She comes from the other world, from the abode of people who are dead and tells me so here alone. If I dared I'd touch you to see if you are substance or shadow. Truant. Truant. Absent from me a whole month and forgetting me quite, I'll be sworn.

JANE
I might as much the same as you sir. I thought you were in London?

ROCHESTER
I was, I suppose you found that out by second sight.

JANE
Mrs. Fairfax wrote to me.

ROCHESTER
Did she inform you what I went there to do?

JANE
Oh yes, sir. Everyone knew your errand.

ROCHESTER
You must see the carriage Jane, and tell me if you think it won't suit Mrs. Rochester exactly. She'll look like Queen Bodicea leaning back against those purple cushions. I only wish I was a trifle better adapted to match with her externally.

JANE
Will you let me pass sir?

ROCHESTER
No, not till you give me a charm, elf as you are, or a philtre to make me a handsome man.

JANE
It would be pass the power of magic sir.

ROCHESTER
Smiles Pass Janet, and stay your weary little wandering feet at a friend's threshold. (opens the stile gate)

JANE
Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. Strangely glad to get back again to you, wherever you are is my home- my only home.

(Jane walks quickly away and cut to Adele rushing up to Jane in the front hall of Thornfield)

JANE
(picks up Adele) Oh such a weight!

ADELE
Ma petite maman anglais.

(Mrs. Fairfax comes down the staircase)

MRS. FAIRFAX
Once the ladies left poor Adele was at a loss. She's bothered the life out of me, "When is Mademoiselle returning?" Every minute of the day.

JANE
Well I'm home now Adele.

ADELE
Exactement.

JANE
Oh speak English child. We shall begin our lessons again tomorrow.

ADELE
Sophie..

(Adele and Jane are in the classroom)

JANE
And so Arthur Wellesley became the Duke of Wellington.

ADELE
But I like better Napoleon. Because he was French.

JANE
He was Corsican really. Now Adele I want you to write a short essay. Compare these two men and remember.

ADELE
But it's too difficult.

JANE
No, it's not. You must learn to apply yourself.
(voiceover)
A fortnight of dubious calm succeeded my return. Nothing was said of my Master's marriage and I saw no preparation for such an event. There was no journeying backward and forward to Ingram Park. True, it was twenty miles off but what was that distance to an ardent lover?
(Jane is sitting in the garden under a tree)
I began to cherish hopes I had no right to conceive. Never had Mr. Rochester been kinder to me and alas never had I loved him so well.

(Mr. Rochester enters the garden and Jane does her best to hide by putting the tree between herself and Mr. Rochester. Mr. Rochester walks past and stops by a bush)

ROCHESTER
Jane, come and have a look at this fellow.

JANE (voiceover)
Could his shadow feel?

ROCHESTER
Look at his wings. He reminds me of a West Indian insect. One doesn't often see so large and gay a night rover in England. Ah, he's flown. (Jane turns to go) Stay, turn back. It's a shame to sit in the house on so lovely an evening.

JANE (voiceover)
Though my tongue is usually prompt enough at answer, there are time when it sadly fails me.

ROCHESTER
Come. The sun is setting as the moon rises.
(The walk for a bit and then enter the enclosed garden)
Jane, Thornfield is a pleasant place is it not?

JANE
Yes sir.

ROCHESTER
And I suspect you've become attached to it.

JANE
Yes.

ROCHESTER
As you've become attached in some degree though I don't comprehend it, to that foolish little girl Adele, and even to simple Mrs. Fairfax.

JANE
In different ways I have an affection for both.

ROCHESTER
Pity, it is always the way. No sooner have you got settled in a pleasant resting place then a voice calls out to you to rise and move on.

JANE
Must I move on sir?

ROCHESTER
I believe you must Jane.

JANE
Well sir, I shall be ready to move when the order comes.

ROCHESTER
We made a bargain did we not? You requested that when I married Miss Ingram, Adele should be sent to school and you allowed to leave.

JANE
Then you are going to be married.

ROCHESTER
Very soon Miss Eyre. You're not turning to look after more moths are you? That was only a ladyclock child flying away home. And I promised I would find you a new post.

JANE
Yes sir, you did.

ROCHESTER
Well, I've heard of a place that will suit. It is to undertake the education of the five daughters of Mrs. Dionysius O'Gall of Bitternutt Lodge, Connaught, Ireland.

JANE
Tis a long way off sir.

ROCHESTER
No matter, a girl of your sense will not object to the voyage or the distance.

JANE
Not the voyage, but the distance. And then the sea is a barrier.

ROCHESTER
From what Jane?

JANE
From England sir. From Thornfield, and.

ROCHESTER
Well?

JANE
From you sir.

ROCHESTER
It is a long way, and I'm sorry to send my little friend on such weary travels. But if I can't do better, how is it to be helped/ Are you anything akin to me do you think Jane?

JANE (voiceover)
I could risk no sort of answer.

ROCHESTER
Because I sometimes have a feeling, especially when you are near to me as you are now, it's as if I had a string under my left ribs tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel should come between us, I'm afraid this cord of communion will be snapped and I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you'd forget me.

JANE
That I never shall.
(voiceover)
Impossible to proceed.
(aloud)
Oh I wish. I wish I'd never been born nor come to Thornfield.

ROCHESTER
Because you're sorry to leave it?

JANE
Because I love it. Because I've lived properly here. I've not been trampled on, not been petrified. I've not been buried with inferior minds, I've talked face to face with what I reverence and delight in. With an original and a vigourous and expanded mind. I've known you Mr. Rochester and now I see the necessity of departure and it's like looking on the necessity of death.

ROCHESTER
Where do you see the necessity?

JANE
Where? You sir have placed it before me in the shape of Miss Ingram, your bride!

ROCHESTER
My bride? What bride? I have no bride!

JANE
But you will have.

ROCHESTER
Yes I will, I will.

JANE
Then I must go, you said it yourself.

ROCHESTER
No you must stay.

JANE
I tell you I must go! Do you think I could stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I'm an automaton, a machine without feelings? Or do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you and full as much heart! If God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth I would make it as hard for you to leave me as it is for me to leave you.

ROCHESTER
Jane!
JANE
No! I'm not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities nor even of mortal flesh. It is my spirit that addresses your spirit, just as if both had passed through the grave and stood at God's feet equal- as we are!

ROCHESTER
As we are. (kisses her) So Jane, so. (kisses her again)

JANE
Yes so, sir, and yet not so for you are a married man or as good as one and wed to one inferior to you, whom I do not believe you truly love. I scorn such a union therefore I am better than you- let me go!

ROCHESTER
Where Jane? To Ireland?

JANE
Yes, anywhere. I have spoken my mind and I am free.

ROCHESTER
Jane, be still don't struggle so, like a wild frantic bird.

JANE
I am no bird. No net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you!

ROCHESTER
And your will shall decide your destiny! Jane, come back to me!

JANE
Never. I am torn away now and I cannot return.

ROCHESTER
But I summon you as my wife. It is you only I intend to marry.

JANE (voiceover)
I thought he mocked me.

ROCHESTER
I offer you my heart and my hand.

JANE
Your bride stands between us!

ROCHESTER
My bride is here, because my equal is here. And my likeness. Jane, will you marry me? (pause) You doubt me?

JANE
Entirely, sir.

ROCHESTER
You've no faith in me?

JANE
Not a whit.

ROCHESTER
Am I a liar in your eyes? Little skeptic you shall be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None. What love has she for me? None. I caused a rumour to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed. Such sudden coldness when we next met. I could not, I would not marry her. But you. you strange, almost unearthly thing. I love you like my own flesh. You, poor, and obscure, and small, and plain as you are. I entreat you to accept me as a husband.

JANE (voiceover)
His earnestness and incivility began to give credit to his sincerity.

ROCHESTER
You Jane, I must have you for my own. Say yes quickly.

JANE
Mr. Rochester let me see your face. Turn to the moonlight.

ROCHESTER
Why?

JANE
Because I want to read your countenance, turn!

ROCHESTER
There. Read on. Only make haste for I suffer. Oh Jane, you torture me.

JANE
How can I do that? If you are true and your offer real.

ROCHESTER
It is.

JANE
My only feelings to you must be gratitude and devotion. They cannot torture.

ROCHESTER
Gratitude? Jane, accept me quickly. Say Edward, give me my name, "I will marry you."

JANE
Do you truly love me? Do you sincerely wish me to be your wife?

ROCHESTER
I do.

JANE
Then sir, I will marry you.

ROCHESTER
Edward.

JANE
Edward.

ROCHESTER
My little wife. Come to me entirely now, make my happiness, I will make yours. hug God pardon me, and man meddle not with me, I have her and will hold her.

JANE
There is no one to meddle sir. I have no kindred to interfere.

ROCHESTER
No, that is the best of it. You happy, Jane?

JANE
Yes sir.

ROCHESTER
It will atone. Is there not love in my heart and constancy in my resolve. It will expiate at God's tribunal. I know my Maker sanctions what I do. (kisses Jane) For the world's judgment I wash my hands thereof, for man's opinion I defy it. (lightning and thunder flash) The weather changes. We must go in. I could have sat with thee all till morning, Jane.

(More thunder and lightning flash as Jane and Rochester rush out of the garden. Cut to Mrs. Fairfax coming downstairs to the entrance hall while the clock chimes twelve. Jane and Rochester come in)

ROCHESTER
Hasten to take off your wet things and before you go goodnight. Goodnight, my darling.

(They kiss and Mrs. Fairfax looks aghast. Jane goes to the stairway and sees her.)

JANE (voiceover)
Explanations will do another time.

(It is now the next day and Adele enters Jane's room while she is still asleep)

ADELE
Knocks Mdlle Jeanette?

JANE
Oh is it late?

ADELE
No it's early, but I must tell you (commences speaking French)

JANE (voiceover)
And she told me that the horse chestnut tree with the seat around it at the bottom of the garden had been struck by lightening in the night and half of it split away.

ADELE
.and Mr. De Rochester is up already and says I am to have no lessons this morning.

(Jane enters the schoolroom and sees Mr. Rochester standing by the window)

ROCHESTER
Jane, I've decided. You must give up your governessing slavery at once.

JANE
Indeed sir, begging your pardon, I shall not.

ROCHESTER
You will not?

JANE
No sir, we should go on as before.

ROCHESTER
As before? As thus? (goes up and kisses her) Jane you look blooming and smiling and pretty. Is this my pale little elf?

JANE
It is Jane Eyre sir.

ROCHESTER
Soon to be Jane Rochester. In four weeks, not a day more.
JANE (voiceover)
The announcement made me giddy. A feeling stronger than joy stunned me. It was, I think, almost fear.

ROCHESTER
You blush, now you're pale, Jane. Why?

JANE
Because you gave me a new name, Jane Rochester.

ROCHESTER
Yes, Mrs. Rochester, young Mrs. Rochester, and you must be attired in satin and lace. This morning I wrote to my banker in London to send me some jewels he has in his keeping. In a few days I shall pour them into your lap, for every attention, every privilege shall be yours, as I would accord a peer's daughter if about to marry her.

JANE
Oh sir, never mind jewels. Jewels for Jane Eyre sounds unnatural and strange. I would rather not have them.

ROCHESTER
I will myself put the diamond chain around your neck.

JANE
Sir please, don't address me as if I were your captive beauty for I am not. I am your plain Quakerish governess.

ROCHESTER
You're a beauty in my eyes and I shall make the world acknowledge you.

JANE
But then you will not know me, sir. I shall not be your Jane Eyre any longer.

ROCHESTER
Oh no, you shall be Jane Rochester.

JANE
Oh, an ape rather in a harlequin jacket, a jay in borrowed plumes.

ROCHESTER
And after we are married (kisses her) in the church below yonder, I shall waft you away to regions nearer the sun- to France, to Italy. All the ground I've wandered over shall be retrodden by you. My Jane, my bride. Ten years since I flew through Europe half-mad with hate, rage, and disgust as my companions. Now I shall revisit it, healed and cleansed, with a very angel as my comforter.

JANE
laughs I am not an angel, and I will not be one till I die, I will be myself. So do not send for jewels or satins, I will not wear them.

ROCHESTER
You refuse?

JANE
Absolutely.

ROCHESTER
Hmmm.

JANE
Ah, that will be your married look, I suppose sir. Or after six months. I have observed in books written by men that period assigned as the furthest to which any husband's ardour extends.

ROCHESTER
Humph! Distasteful. And like you again.

JANE
So is that how you will appear if I ask you a favour? As your wife.

ROCHESTER
Who talks of favours? I've offered you favours.

JANE
But not of my choosing sir. May I ask one now?

ROCHESTER
What you changeling?

JANE
There, you are less than civil now and I like rudeness a great deal better than flattery. This is what I have to ask- why did you take such pains to make me believe you wished to marry Miss Ingram?

ROCHESTER
Is that all? Thank God it is no worse. It may make you indignant Jane, and I've seen what a fire spirit you can be- you positively glowed in the cool moonlight last night. when you mutinied against fate and claimed your rank as my equal.

JANE
Of course I did. But to the point- Miss Ingram?

ROCHESTER
I feigned courtship of her, because I wished to render you as in love with me as I was with you. I knew jealousy would be my best ally.

JANE
Excellent. Now you are small, not one whit bigger than the end of my little finger. Was it not a burning shame and disgrace- did you think nothing of Miss Ingram's feelings?

ROCHESTER
She has none, save pride, and that needs humbling.

JANE
Yet, won't she feel forsaken and deserted?

ROCHESTER
On the contrary, she deserted me did she not on hearing I might not be as wealthy as she had supposed.

JANE
Oh you have a curious, designing mind Mr. Rochester.

ROCHESTER
Matched to yours, you said so.

JANE
But your principles are in some points, eccentric.

ROCHESTER
They've not been trained as yours have Jane, they may have grown a little awry for lack of attention.
(They kiss again.)
Have you anything else to ask? It is my delight to be entreated and to yield.

JANE
Yes, sir.

ROCHESTER
So prompt?

JANE
Please communicate your intentions to Mrs. Fairfax. Well she saw me with you last night in the hall. She was shocked sir.

ROCHESTER
laughs Did she think you'd given the world for love and thought it well lost?

JANE
I believe she thought I had forgotten my station sir, and yours.

ROCHESTER
Station? Your station is in my heart Jane. And on the necks of those who insult you now or hereafter. I shall enlighten her. (leaves)

JANE (voiceover)
I saw that I could not allow him or myself to descend into a bathos of sentiment. I determined to show him in the ensuing weeks all the more rugged points in my character, that he might know fully what sort of bargain he had made while there was yet time to rescind it. Nor would I bear to be dressed like a doll by Mr. Rochester, to sit like a second Danae with the golden shower falling daily around me. I resolved to write to my Uncle John in Madeira who had been informed that I was dead. If I had the prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester a fortune, be it ever so small, I could better endure to be kept by him now.

(In Jane's bedroom. Mrs. Fairfax is helping Jane try on her wedding gown)

MRS. FAIRFAX
There. I declare Miss Jane you look almost pretty. Mr. Rochester may be proud of his bride after all. Try the veil.

JANE
Oh it is too fine. I should have preferred a square of plain lace.

MRS. FAIRFAX
But it was worn by Mr. Edward's mother and her mother before her.

JANE
That only serves to make it too solemn an object for such as I.

MRS. FAIRFAX
What nonsense. You may wear it with head held high. Have you not won him against all odds?

JANE
It's like a dream. I cannot believe it.

(It is nighttime and Jane is sleeping. Someone enters her room with a candle and looks on Jane laughing softly. She then tries on the veil.)

JANE
Sophie? Sophie what are you doing?

(The mysterious woman tears the veil. Then she holds the candle to Jane's face and she gets a glimpse of her. Jane faints. And the woman leaves laughing. Cut to a new scene where Jane is talking with Mr. Rochester)

ROCHESTER
And these dreams weigh on your spirits now, Jane, now I am with you? Little nervous subject, forget visionary woe and think only of real happiness. Do you love me Jane? Repeat that you do.

JANE
I do sir, I do with my whole heart.

ROCHESTER
Look wicked Jane. Coin one of your wild, shy, provoking smiles. Tease me, vex me as you have these last weeks, tell me you hate me, do anything but move me.

JANE
I will tease you and vex you, sir, to your heart's content, when I have finished my tale.

ROCHESTER
I thought you told me all. I thought I'd learned the source of your melancholy in a dream. There's more? I'll not believe it. I warn you of incredulity beforehand.

JANE (voiceover)
His disquietude, his apprehensive impatience surprised me. Was I looking for comfort where there would be none?
(aloud)
I awoke from my dream of Thornfield as a dreary ruin and a light dazzled my eyes. Daylight I thought, no a candle, Sophie has come in. But then a form emerged and my blood crept cold in my veins. "Sophie?" I cried. But it was not she, nor Leah, nor Mrs. Fairfax. No, not even that strange woman Grace Poole.

ROCHESTER
It must have been one of them.

JANE
No sir, I solemnly assure you. It seemed a woman, tall with thick dark hair, her face. I wish I could forget that savage face. She took my wedding veil and placed it over her head.

ROCHESTER
Then? Then what did she do?

JANE
Removed the veil once more and rent it in two parts. Then she came towards me, thrust the candle close to my face; her lurid visage flamed over mine. For only the second time in my life, I became insensible from terror.

ROCHESTER
Great God. Who was with you when you revived/

JANE
No one but the broad day sir.

ROCHESTER
The creature of an over stimulated brain.

JANE
Oh no sir, the thing was real.

ROCHESTER
As your previous dreams? Is Thornfield a ruin? Am I leaving you without a tear, a kiss, a word?

JANE
Not yet.

ROCHESTER
Am I about to? (clock chimes) There, the clock announces the day, which is to bind us indissolubly. And once we are united there shall be no recurrence of these mental terrors I assure you.

JANE
It was no mental terror, sir. For there on the carpet in full daylight was the veil torn in two.

ROCHESTER
My darling. I thank God that if anything malignant had come near you last night, it was only the veil that was torn. To think what might have happened. Now, it was half dream, half true. A woman did, I doubt not enter your room, tear your veil, and that woman was Grace Poole.

JANE
Oh no sir.!

ROCHESTER
Yes it was she! In a state between waking and sleeping you ascribed to her a goblin appearance, different from her own. Her hair, her black face.

JANE (voiceover)
But I had not referred to the blackness of her face.

ROCHESTER
I see you would ask why I keep such a woman as Grace Poole in my house and I will tell you. (kisses her) When we've been married a year and a day. Are you satisfied Jane? Do you accept my solution of the mystery?

JANE
It seems the only possible one sir.
(voiceover)
Satisfied I was not, but to please him I answered with a contented smile.
(aloud)
It is something of a relief sir.

ROCHESTER
Could you not share Adele's bed tonight? It is no wonder that the incident has made you nervous. Promise me to go to the nursery.

JANE
I shall be glad too.

ROCHESTER
And fasten the door securely on the inside. And now no more somber thoughts. Chase dull care away Janet. The wind has fallen, it's a lovely night.

JANE
The night is serene, and so am I.

ROCHESTER
And tonight you will not dream of separation and sorrow but of happy love and blissful union.

(In the church. A pair of legs enter while the ceremony is being performed.)

VICAR
These two persons present come now to be joined, therefore if any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined let him now speak or else hereafter now forever hold his peace.

MR. MASON
Now.

BRIGGS
No, he may yet himself recant.

VICAR
I require and charge you both as you will answer at the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all hearts should be disclosed that if either of you know of any impediment why ye may not lawfully joined together in matrimony ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured that so many as coupled together otherwise than God's word doth allow are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful.

JANE (voiceover)
He paused. As the custom is.

BRIGGS
The marriage cannot go on. I declare the existence of an impediment.

ROCHESTER
Proceed.

VICAR
I cannot proceed without some investigation of the charge of impediment.

ROCHESTER
The objector had his opportunity, he did not take it. He's been enjoined to hold his peace forever. Proceed.

VICAR
I cannot Mr. Rochester.

BRIGGS
I waited sir, lest you might yourself recant.

ROCHESTER
Proceed!

BRIGGS
The ceremony is quite broken off. I'm in a condition to prove my allegations, an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists.

VICAR
What is its nature? Perhaps it can be explained away?

BRIGGS
It cannot be. It simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage. Mr. Rochester has a wife now living.

JANE (voiceover)
He disavowed nothing.

ROCHESTER
Who are you?

BRIGGS
My name is Briggs, a solicitor of Essex Street London.

ROCHESTER
And you would thrust on me a wife?

BRIGGS
I would remind you of her existence, sir. Which the law recognizes if you do not.

ROCHESTER
Favour me with an account of her. With her name, her parentage, her place of abode.

BRIGGS
Certainly. (reads) "I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October AD 1821, Edward Fairfax Rochester of Thornfield Hall, Yorkshire, was married to my sister Bertha Antoinetta Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta Mason, his wife, a Creole at the Church of St. Paul, Spanish Town Jamaica. The record of the marriage will be found in the Register of that Church. A copy of it is now in my possession." Signed Richard Mason.

ROCHESTER
That, if a genuine document, may prove that I have been married. But it does not prove that the woman mentioned therein as my wife is still living.

BRIGGS
She was three months ago. I have a witness to the fact whose testimony even you sir, would scarcely controvert.

ROCHESTER
Produce him. Or proceed to hell sir.

BRIGGS
He is here. Mr. Mason? Have the goodness to step forward.

ROCHESTER
You. what have you to say?

MR. MASON
Please, Rochester.

ROCHESTER
The devil is in it if you cannot answer distinctly. I demand again Dick. What have you to say!?

VICAR
Sir, do not forget this is a sacred place. Are you aware sir, whether or not this gentleman's wife is still living?

BRIGGS
Courage. Speak out.

MR. MASON
She is now at Thornfield Hall, I saw her there last April. I'm her brother.

VICAR
At Thornfield? Impossible! I am an old resident of this neighborhood and I've never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at the Hall.

ROCHESTER
No, by God, I took care that none should hear of it.

JANE (voiceover)
He held counsel with himself. Formed his resolve and announced it.

ROCHESTER
Enough! Wood, close your book! John Green leave the church, there'll be no wedding today. Fate has outmanouevered me, or providence checked me. I'm little better than a devil at this moment, and deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God even to the quenchless fire and deathless worm. What this lawyer and his client say is true. I am married but to what kind of wife you shall see directly. Bertha Mason by name, sister of this resolute personage. Cheer up Dick, never fear me, I'd as soon strike a woman as you. My wife is mad, gentlemen. And she came of a mad family, idiots and maniacs through three generations. I found out after I wed the daughter for they were silent on family secrets before. Oh, I went through rich scenes. Briggs, Wood, Mason I invite you all to visit Mrs. Poole's patient and my wife. You shall see what sort of being I was cheated into espousing, and judge whether or not I had a right to break the compact. This girl knew no more than you of the disgusting secret. She thought all was fair and legal and never dreamt she was going to be entrapped into a feigned union with a defrauded wretch. Come. All of you!

(The party enter the hall where the servants, Mrs. Fairfax, and Adele are waiting to congratulate them.)

ROCHESTER
To the right about every soul! Away with your congratulations. Who wants them? Not I. They are fifteen years too late! Mason!
(The enter the hallway leading to the third story staircase)
Did you never hear rumours Wood? Some said she was my bastard half-sister, others my cast off mistress. (They enter the room outside Bertha's room) You remember this place Mason? She bit and stabbed him here. Good morrow, Mrs. Poole.

GRACE POOLE
Morning sir.

ROCHESTER
How are you and your charge today?

GRACE POOLE
We're tolerable sir, thank you. Snappish, but not `rageous. Be careful sir, she sees you, you'd better not stay.

ROCHESTER
You must allow me a few moments Grace.

GRACE POOLE
But sir.

ROCHESTER
You must allow me!

GRACE POOLE
But take care sir.

MR. MASON
We'd better leave her.

ROCHESTER
Go to the devil!

GRACE POOLE
Take care! I..

BERTHA
You lie! You say you take me home. (attacks Rochester)

ROCHESTER
Grace! (Grace and Mr. Rochester succeed in getting Bertha tied to a chair) That is my wife. Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know. And this is what I wished to have, this young girl who stands so grave and quiet at the mouth of hell. Compare them! Then judge me, priest of the Gospel and man of the law! And remember with what judgment you shall be judged. Go now. I must shut up my prize. (Bertha starts laughing)

(Briggs aids Jane downstairs with Mason bringing up the rear)

BRIGGS
You, Madam, are cleared of all blame. Your Uncle would be glad to hear of it, if indeed he still be living when Mr. Mason returns to Madeira.

JANE
My uncle? What of him, do you know him?

BRIGGS
Mr. Mason does. Mr. John Eyre has been the Funchal correspondent of his house for some years.

MR. MASON
We deal in Madeira wine, madam. Your uncle received your letter concerning your contemplated marriage to Mr. Rochester while I was staying with him.

BRIGGS
Mr. Mason was on his return to Jamaica but had stopped to recover his health.

JANE
And you revealed the true state of matters to him?

MR. MASON
I did.

BRIGGS
Whereupon your Uncle implored Mr. Mason to prevent the false marriage, being himself on his last sickbed. Mr. Mason referred to me and I used all dispatch. I am thankful that I was not too late as doubtless you must be too.

JANE (voiceover)
Was I? As yet I could not tell.

MR. MASON
Were I not morally certain your Uncle will be dead before I return, I would suggest that you should accompany me.

BRIGGS
I suggest Miss Eyre remain in England until she can hear further from or of her Uncle.

JANE
Yes.

BRIGGS
Have we anything else to stay for?

MR. MASON
Oh no, let's be gone.
(Briggs and Mason leave, the Vicar comes downstairs.)

VICAR
I shall await Mr. Rochester in the library, Miss Eyre.

JANE
By all means.

VICAR
Accept my sympathy Miss Eyre.

JANE
Thank you.

(Cut to Jane's bedroom where the wedding dress is laid out on the bed and the camera is panned over luggage ready and labeled and Jane standing by the window)

JANE (voiceover)
I was myself still, without obvious change. Yet where was the Jane Eyre of yesterday? Where was her life? Where were her prospects? My hopes were all dead, struck with a subtle doom such as in one night fell on all the first-born of Egypt. I looked on my cherished wishes. They lay stark, chill corpses that could never revive. I looked at my love- it shivered in my heart like a suffering child in a cold cradle.

(Now in the library with the Vicar who seems exasperated and Mr. Rochester)

VICAR
I wish you good day Mr. Rochester

ROCHESTER
Be damned to you Wood, you saved man of God.

(Back in Jane's bedroom, with Jane looking at her reflection in the mirror on her toilette table)

JANE (voiceover)
I wrestled with my own resolution- to leave Thornfield. Oh I wanted to be weak.
(aloud)
Let another help me.
(voiceover)
But conscience turned tyrant, held passion by the throat. I perceived I was sickening from inanition. Neither meat nor drink had passed my lips that day.

(Jane opens the door and Mr. Rochester walks in to the room)

JANE (voiceover)
My head swam. I almost fell. (Rochester catches Jane)

ROCHESTER
You come out at last. I've been waiting and listening yet not one movement have I heard nor one sob. Five minutes more of that death-like silence and I should have forced the door. A white cheek, a faded eye and no trace of tears. I suppose then your heart has been weeping blood. Come.

(Jane and Rochester are in the library and Rochester has just given Jane a glass of wine)

ROCHESTER
Not a word of reproach Jane? Nothing bitter? Jane, I never meant to wound you thus. Will you ever forgive me?

JANE (voiceover)
I forgave him at that moment, yet not in words, not outwardly. Only at my heart's core.

ROCHESTER
You know me to be a scoundrel Jane?

JANE
Yes sir.

ROCHESTER
Then tell me so! Roundly, sharply.

JANE
I cannot, I am tired and sick.

ROCHESTER
I can read your thoughts. You intend do you not, to make yourself a stranger to me?

JANE
All is changed about me sir, I must change too. Adele must have a new governess.

ROCHESTER
Adele shall go to school, we've settled that already, have we not? I settled that. I shall shut up Thornfield Hall, nail the front door, board the lower windows, and give Mrs. Poole two hundred pounds a year to live here with my wife as you all term that fearful demon.

JANE
Sir, you speak of her with hate, it is cruel, she cannot help being mad.

ROCHESTER
Jane, my darling, you misjudge me again, it's not because she is mad that I hate her. If you were mad, do you think I should hate you?

JANE
I do sir.

ROCHESTER
Then you're mistaken and know nothing about me, nothing about the sort of love of which I am capable. Your flesh is as dear to me as my own. Your mind is my treasure. And if it were broken it would be my treasure still.

JANE
Did you never once feel the same towards your wife?

ROCHESTER
Never. I was deluded, hoodwinked. By her, her family, my brother and my own father. My father, Jane, was an avaricious, grasping man. My elder brother too. Did you ever hear anything of them?

JANE
Mrs. Fairfax told me your brother died.

ROCHESTER
mirthless laugh But not before he connived together with my father to provide me with a fortune and a wife. My father could not bear to break up the estate. Instead he sent me, how green I was, to Spanish Town, Jamaica. There was my chosen bride, imposing, beautiful. With thirty thousand pounds her dowry. Bemused by lies- they told me her mother was dead, not locked in an asylum- I married her. Dutiful to my father's careful wishes. And then. on our honeymoon I learned the truth. Saw it in her eyes, heard it in her voice, experienced it in her violent, vicious contradictions. For four years I endured her, Bertha Mason the true daughter of an infamous family, diseased, lunatic. In the interim my brother died, my father also. I formed a plan, it was that or suicide Jane, to return here with my lunatic burden, to confine her with due attendance here. To which I did. Ten years followed. I traveled, first cursing all mankind; then seeking the solace my foolishness and others falsehood had denied me. I did not find it until. you were walking in Hay Lane. I rode past you without a thought. I had no presentiment of what that quiet little figure would be to me. I did not know it even when my horse stumbled. You came to my aid. It was as if a linnet had hopped to my foot and proposed to bear me on its tiny wing. I was surly, but you did not go. I was to be aided, and by that small hand. And aided I was. I demand that aid again Jane.

JANE
I would give it gladly, sir.

ROCHESTER
You can, you can.
JANE
How?

ROCHESTER
Jane we are packed and ready. Nothing holds us save dull convention. You shall be Mrs. Rochester, both virtually and nominally I shall keep you as long as you and I live.

JANE
No.

ROCHESTER
You don't love me then? It was only my station and the rank of wife that you valued. Now you find me disqualified to be your husband you recoil from me.

JANE
I do love you, more than ever. But I must not show or indulge the feeling and this is the last time I must express it. I must leave you Mr. Rochester.

ROCHESTER
Oh Jane, you must be reasonable, or in truth I shall go mad!

JANE
If I were to live with you as you desire, I should then be your mistress, a thing owned by you. And that I will not be, both for my sake and for yours.

ROCHESTER
Jane, I'm not a gentle tempered man. Do you truly mean to go one way in the world and leave me to go another?

JANE
Oh I do.

ROCHESTER
(kisses her) Do you still mean it?

JANE
Yes.

ROCHESTER
(kisses her again) Still?

JANE
I do!

ROCHESTER
Jane this is bitter. Wicked. It would not be wicked to love me.
JANE
It would be to obey you.

ROCHESTER
But what shall I do Jane? Where shall I turn for a companion? For hope?

JANE
Do as I do- trust in God. Believe in heaven and hope to meet again there. Farewell.

ROCHESTER
Jane, you condemn me to live wretched and to die accursed!

JANE
No! No! God bless you! Direct you, solace you, and reward you well for your past kindness to me.

ROCHESTER
Jane! (Jane dashes off) Jane! Jane!

(The coach has left Jane at Whitcross)

JANE (voiceover)
The coachman had set me down at a place called Whitcross, some sixty miles from Thornfield. He could take me no further for the twenty shillings I had given him. And I was not possessed of another penny in the world. It was only now I realized that in my distress, I'd left the few belongings I had brought with me on the seat. I was destitute and quite alone.