Jayston didn’t look like Heger! So...?

A few days ago, I had a somewhat... vehement exchange of comments with someone at 'YouTube' about Michael Jayston and his performance as Edward Fairfax Rochester in "Jane Eyre (1973)". That exchange of comments has lead me to believe that the time has come for me to lay out what I think is a misinterpretation of the findings - divulged elsewhere by our good friend 'e_spanou' - about the man who really was the model of Edward Fairfax Rochester.
Now, according to those findings, that man was Constantin Heger. (For the sake of the argument, I will simply take it for granted.) But that doesn't mean that Rochester is a mere replica of Heger: why? Because Heger was a XIX century Belgium teacher and Rochester was a XIX century British landlord.
First and foremost, Heger was Belgium and Rochester British. (In passing, the Heger family had its origins in the Palatinate, in Germany.) British and Belgium cultures are very different from each other. That is most obvious in humour: there is virtually nothing in common between British and Belgium humour, with the possible exception of the Brusselian (hence Flemish...) zwanze - and that just because it has a vague resemblance with the English practical joke.
Humour is of the utmost importance in this matter because there are lots of humour in the novel, mainly in the dialogues between Jane and Rochester, viz., when they have their two first lengthy dialogues, when she asks him for a leave of absence, when she returns from Gateshead to Thornfield, when he makes his proposal to her (oh, yes!...), when they have their trip to Millcote, even when she comes back to him at Ferndean...
Why so much of this humour was discarded by the directors and screenwriters of all screen and TV versions of Jane Eyre - all but one: "Jane Eyre (1973)"!... - is beyond my comprehension. Yes, that may have sold more VHS and DVD copies on the market; but no, that didn't do due justice to the novel - and to Rochester...
If the character of Edward Fairfax Rochester was a mere replica of Constantin Heger, Charlotte Brontë would have never written the amusing lines we read in the novel he says about "sprites and elves", "men in green", "pricked pride", "penknives under ears", "pyramids of Egypt", "niggardliness", "truancy and absence", "butterflies flying away home" and so on, because no Belgium would have said (as no Belgium says) that kind of lines: they are alien to Belgium culture in general and Belgium humour in particular; they are British. (At best, some of them are Irish; but, for now, I will leave them all as British - though not without begging my humblest pardon to the great people of Ireland!...).
The idea that "Rochester IS Heger" seems to me to be a rather dangerous oversimplification of one of the most complex literary subjects I have ever know: that idea ultimately means that Rochester is a XIX century Belgium teacher who owns land in England... I honestly think that even 'e_spanou' agrees with me that it would be far more accurate to say that Rochester is a XIX century English landlord with several of the most notable physical traits and some of the most significant moral traits of a certain XIX century Belgium teacher Brontë met in Brussels in 1842 (and that still taking for granted that Heger really was the model of Rochester...).
This brings me back to Michael Jayston and his performance as Edward Fairfax Rochester in "Jane Eyre (1973)". The only consistent remark I have been reading about him is that Jayston didn’t look like Heger. However, back in 1973, most people (including me...) thought that his character was based on Arthur Bell Nicholls, the man who became Charlotte Brontë's husband in 1854. That Jayston resembles him very much is a fact that anyone may confirm by checking the photos of Nicholls uploaded, for instance, in "Charlottes Verheiratung mit Arthur Bell Nicholls" (http://www.bronte.brain-jogging.com/arthur.htm).
For what is worth (not much, I suppose...), I am of the opinion that Michael Jayston matched physically with Arthur Bell Nicholls - and psychologically with Edward Fairfax Rochester. Working from a script which is, by far, the most faithful to the novel, Jayston delivered what anyone in good faith acknowledges as the most complete portrait there is of Rochester on screen.

João Pedro

"You're not turning to look after more moths, are you?..."