The titular heroin of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel Jane Eyre has been portrayed by a lot of women over the years. In some ways, she’s simpler than her romantic interest, Mr. Rochester, and can be reduced to just a “good girl.” She’s an innocent governess who nearly gets tricked into bigamy but stands up for her principles and through a twist of events, gets a happily-ever-after ending anyway. But Jane is more complicated than that — she’s an abused child, she’s a scholar and a teacher, she’s an artist, she’s passionate, she’s spiritual (but questions mainstream Christianity), and she’s incredibly strong-willed and independent. And she’s described in the book as plain-looking with a slight, strange fey appearance. The sharpest onscreen versions of this character cast a quirky actor who can show all this boiling right under the surface of the supposedly meek governess.
Virginia Bruce in Jane Eyre (1934)
Joan Fontaine in Jane Eyre (1943)
Mary Sinclair in Jane Eyre (1949)
Katharine Bard in Jane Eyre (1952)
Daphne Slater in Jane Eyre (1956)
Joan Elan in Jane Eyre (1957)
Sally Ann Howes in Jane Eyre (1961)
Ann Bell in Jane Eyre (1963)
Susannah York in Jane Eyre (1970)
Sorcha Cusack in Jane Eyre (1973)
Andrea Martin in “Jane Eyrehead,” season 2, episode 6, SCTV Network (1982)
Watch it here:
Zelah Clarke in Jane Eyre (1983)
Charlotte Gainsbourg in Jane Eyre (1996)
Samantha Morton in Jane Eyre (1997)
Ruth Wilson in Jane Eyre (2006)
Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre (2011)
Who’s your favorite onscreen Jane Eyre?
Wilson, yeah, but Morton, and Hinds, are still my faves, for their skills and their fidelity to the book.
Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens……….the scene in his bedroom, where she has put out the fire on his bed in the middle of the night………then she is wrapped in a blanket and they are standing SO close together………I hold my breath every time, so intimate but so pure………gorgeous!
OMG! I laughed really loudly when I saw the photo of Andrea Martin. Didn’t even need to see the skit. But my favorite was Morton & (dishy) Hinds.
Zelah Clarke, no contest! :)
I agree with the Zelah Clarke version being the best. Not just for costumes, but overall. Timothy Dalton is also my favorite Rochester, no one else comes close.