MovieChat Forums > Jane Eyre (1973) Discussion > The 'Farewell' Scene..

The 'Farewell' Scene..

posted 18 years ago by MissPrez79
3 replies | jump to latest

It's been said many times, but Jayston is the best Rochester EVER! The farewell scene is truly heartbreaking. He wavers between pure frustration, anger, sadness, and love, and does it so well that you could almost cut the tention with a knife. You feel such sympathy for him, and yet you feel for Jane as well. The chemistry between the two is electric.
I get frustrated and upset just watching it - it's impossible to decide who I would side with in opinion. Edward has had such a sad and lonely life, searching for the right woman to love and love him in return. Jane has become his whole world, and he's about to lose her and he knows it. Poor man.
On the other hand, he didn't tell the truth, though he had his just reasons, and he did have other women that he was supposedly so devoted to. Why shouldn't Jane have doubts? Still, this is the love of her life, and she doesn't want to go. But she is strong enough to know that it's the right thing to do for the sake of her own soul.

"A firey hand grasped my vitals. Terrible moment, full of struggle, blackness, burning. Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved."

Oh! What a gut-wrenching choice to make. It almost brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.

[–] sophie_amundsen 18 years ago

I agree with all you have said. It is one of my favourite scenes. On another thread we were just talking about this scene, and (among other things) how they usually tone down Rochester's frenzy when he realises that Jane is leaving him. I did miss that in this version but the compensation came abundantly with the depth of feeling in other areas: in his narration of his past life, his inward struggles, his declarations of love.

I think most of the scene is done masterfully in this production but there are a few things about it which bother me. I don't like the close up on Jayston when he says 'I learned the truth.' It cheapens the moment, I think. And the revised ending could have been better. If you're not going to show him breaking down, then it is a good ending but the camera work could have enhanced the moment when he is left alone in the foyer, I think. Still, there is so much pathos in Jayston's voice and true feeling in his expressions that I overlook all of this, caught up in his acting- and Sorcha's as well.

***
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[–] domra 16 years ago

"And the revised ending could have been better." you wrote. During the first viewings of this adaptation I first thought that the novel's breakdown would not have fitted into this script because - in general - I do not find it so "theatrical" as the novel sometimes is. I had a hard time imagining Michael Jayston throwing himself onto a sofa, sobbing. But after seeing his breakdown in "Nicholas & Alexandra" (when he, as Nicholas, asks Alexandra for forgiveness for the abdication) I was convinced he would have performed Mr. Rochester's dispair beautifully.
Well, well, as one have to live with without the breakdown on the sofa, I find the exclamation of "Jane" three times being an intelligent re-writing because it corresponds with what Jane hears when she is with St. John.
/E 8-)

[–] Annamir 18 years ago

The "farewell scene" is very very close to how I imagined it, when I read the book at 16. I chuckle to think I knew Jayston only from "Tinker, Taylor . . ."'s resident bachelor spy-runner!

I suppose that if Jane offered to stay in touch via the lawyer, there'd be a glare! from R. But she doesn't know where she's going to live, anyway.

It is difficult to return to real life afterwards, but we must. :)