#Jane Eyre goes with action movies like Jane Austen goes with zombies

[hellolittleogre]

Dusting off the Archives

Before the Magnificent Seven-Jane Eyre AU there was another unfinished Jane Eyre AU- the Eagle-Jane Eyre AU. I did not come up with this genius idea, it of course comes from Passion and Profession by Demon Rum.

Under the Cut: A Jane Eyre/ the Eagle crossover where Marcus is Rosamund Oliver and Esca is the Reverend St.John Rivers (occasionally channeling Maurice and a teetotal Brideshead Revisited).

Uncle Aquila is Mr Oliver and Marcus is sent to him in Morton when he is twelve and his mother has remarried and his stepfather does not want him around. She’s sent him away to protect him. St.John is maybe eleven or younger, they meet on the moor when St.John admires Marcus’ horse. His family’s financial difficulties has just started and all their horses have been sold, including Esca’s pony. Marcus shares the horse with him and they spend a magical summer on the moors before Marcus has to go back to school.

St.John eventually goes to Cambridge, makes friends with a group of young students, among them Amis Leash, a young student who is also going to be a priest.  They have a very close friendship, walking arm in arm, sleeping in each other’s beds, leaning heads on laps etc and St.John realises he is in love. Immediately tries to cut all emotional ties to Leash without disrupting their friendship too much. He is equally unhappy about the possibility that Amis might love him back as if he does not. Amis becomes engaged and is genuinely in love with his fiancé. They graduate and Amis marries and St.John understands that he loves his wife and spends the night in the church sincerely thanking god for sparing his friend’s soul from the same taint that his own carries. He feels profound relief and joy at the same time as being torn apart, his greatest fear was his feelings being requited.

St.John returns to Morton and the parish there, he yearns for glory and power. Meanwhile Marcus has become a soldier and lost the use of his leg in the war. Uncle Aquila/Oliver comes to ask St.John to come and talk to him and lift his spirits during his convalescence and when St.John declines he promises a donation to the church and school and effectively buys his services. 

Esca comes to talk to Marcus, who is very low. By this point St.John has schooled himself out of compassion and is very cold, made from marble. If Esca, with his horrible soul can live righteously then anybody should be able to do it, and he has no compassion for anyone who falters.

He tells Marcus: “God does not give us more than we can bear and he has made you strong.”

 Slowly, slowly they fall in love, each subtly responding to the presence of the other, St.John flushes and kindles and becomes more compassionate, less marble but understands his emotions and refuses to let them rule him. Declines the invites Marcus makes him, even when he is obviously stupidly in love. Marcus is much more oblivious to his own emotions and can’t understand why Esca treats him like his dearest friend one moment and so cold the next, and his refusal to extend their intimacy.

Jane Eyre arrives to Morton. A variation of the scene at the school where she realises that S.t John/Esca is in love with Rosamund Oliver/ Marcus. Esca can sense her shrewd eye seeing him but also that she understands him and his wish to live better and more gloriously than his circumstances. Jane Eyre inherits the money from here Uncle and finds out that St. John and his sisters are her relatives and shares her good fortune. When his sisters no longer has to teach he decides to go where his soul is not chafing at the bit, and become a missionary for the glory of God. Esca fails to persuade Jane to marry him, in the last minute she turns away from him and he mourns that she has gone to live in sin with Mr Rochester. 

When Marcus hears that Esca has decided to travel the next month without taking leave of Marcus he goes to the church in Morton and confronts him They fight it out in the church and Marcus lays out his emotions and demands that Esca answer him. St.John answers that he loves him but for the sake of their very souls he has to go or act on his feelings. It is precisely because he loves Marcus that he has to leave him. To his view it  would have been better if they had not spoken and not acknowledged their feelings. 

“So you do love me?” Marcus asks,the joy on his face cutting Esca like a knife.

“Like my soul is melted with yours.” Esca answers him

They kiss until St.John declares that they absolutely cannot. And then they kiss some more. St.John declares that they can never see each other again, if they see each other again they will only fall into sin, the physical rendering must be complete and total.  

“Every contact with me taints your soul, that I love so dearly.” he tells Marcus, who clings Esca, holds him and begs him to stay but he is like stone and can’t be swayed.

St.John leaves the next day, sees Marcus from the train, he’s riding along the tracks on a hill.

St.John goes to Kolkata, is a complete failboat, he finds that nobody wants to convert. Builds a school in a rural district, takes up the abolitionist cause, catches malaria and dies. 

Or nearly dies, on his deathbed Esca has a vision of being safe and sound with Marcus. The missionary reinforcement arrives and finds him nearly dead underneath the cross in the church. They take him back to Kolkata and then as soon as he is even slightly recovered they stick him on a boat to England (nobody likes St.John, he has a stick permanently up his ass and he makes everyone else look bad). Esca gets better when the weather becomes cooler but his health is ruined forever and he can never go back. He arrives back at Morton earlier than anticipated  and instead of waiting for the carriage he decides to walk, which is a bad idea. Halfway home he collapses on the moor and is found by Marcus out on a ride. “How did you find me?” he asks, he had asked his sisters not to tell anyone he was coming home.

“Didn’t you call me?” Marcus answers. “For the past six months I have heard your voice every morning calling me out of the house to ride the moor.”  Marcus puts him in front of him on the horse and they ride to the house, they snuggle. Esca is content, his soul is whole.

“I left a part with you and man cannot live without his soul,” he tells Marcus.

After his relapse on the moor Esca must convalesce, he finds out through gossip under his window that Marcus is likely to get married to a local lady, when Marcus visits and is surprised by his chill he makes a stilted reference to this. 

“I should not presume, and on the whole it is better for you” he says and Marcus laughs and assures him he is not getting married. They talk and kiss. St.John suffers qualms but the flesh is weak after like five years of pining. Now God has given him joy and he would be ungrateful not to take it. Marcus makes him see that they are not put on the earth to be unhappy and all creatures must exist as God made them. St.John writes to Jane to apologize for being an ass.

And then they are happy gay Yorkshire farmers.