#zelah clark

[lawrenceofbessarabia]

i'm only four episodes in but timothy dalton in the 1983 jane eyre adaptation is so slept on. i don't want a comically physical rochester or a perpetually angry one, i want a moody rochester with a weird sense of humour and a soft side he makes only a token attempt at concealing, and ol' timmy sure delivers.

plus have you seen the man?? "oh he's too pretty for rochester" POPPYCOCK. too many readers assume rochester must be butt-ass ugly but to me, the way rochester is described in the book, hold on let me dig out the quote, makes him sound like he belongs on the cover of GQ:

"I knew my traveller with his broad and jetty eyebrows; his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair. I recognized his decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty; his full nostrils, denoting, I thought, choler; his grim mouth, chin, and jaw—yes, all three were very grim, and no mistake. His shape, now divested of cloak, I perceived harmonized in squareness with his physiognomy: I suppose ​it was a good figure in the athletic sense of the term—broad chested and thin flanked; though neither tall nor graceful."

keep in mind that at the time of the book's writing, the English ideals of beauty, even for men, emphasized even, harmonious features and in general a much softer, more feminine, look than what we consider hot in the twenty-first century (you can see this reflected in the long, elegant silhouettes that were popular for menswear at the time, notable for their sloped - not padded! - shoulders).

so no shit a craggy-jawed manly-man hunk like rochester would not have been considered conventionally attractive in early 19th century (i say this bc the jury is out on whether Jane Eyre is set in the 1810s or the 1830s) England.

but that doesn't mean rochester can't, or that he shouldn't be ruggedly handsome! in every interaction between jane and rochester she is practically salivating over him while pretending like she isn't. some of that attraction is definitely due to his singular personality but we cannot pretend that little miss repressed isn't also physically attracted to him. i think zelah clark in the 1983 adaptation does an excellent job of portraying the tension between wanting to jump your hot clever employer's bones and keeping to your moral principles about emphatically NOT doing that, while also allowing for some subtle mutual flirting.

[susiehunsecker-remade]

jane eyre (1983) + jane and rochester holding each other :)

[kwistowee]

JANE EYRE (1983)

[adobongsiopao]

Some newly discovered promo photos of "Jane Eyre" 1983 version starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton from BBC Photo Archive website.

[coffeeandcinema]

Jane Eyre (1983). dir. Julian Amyes

[leche-flandom]

I was watching the 1983 Jane Eyre and I thought that Aunt Reed looked like Mrs. Musgrove from the 1995 Persuasion. So I looked it up and noticed this piece of rudeness:

Excuse you IMDB, that is the just another angle of the very pretty Timothy Dalton and the back of Zelah Clarke's head.

[fragile-teacup]

Today, I found myself thinking about the superb 1983 BBC adaptation of ‘Jane Eyre’, starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton. I looked it up, and somewhat spookily realised that the first episode aired exactly 40 years ago tomorrow! I remember teaching the novel to rapt Year 9s and showing them this production. Ah, those were the days!

[phireads]

[heatherwindle]

A few more new sketches - inspired by Jane Eyre .With Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton as Mr Rochester.

Hope you like them? 

[adobongsiopao]

I wonder if "Do you find me handsome?" line from Mr. Rochester was deliberate or accidental joke from the author herself.

[noelle666]

Tried to draw my Noelle von Valancius. As I said in this post my character is close to Jane Eyre and in my childhood I had only one Jane Eyre portrayed by Zelah Clarke, so I used her as a reference (kind of).

I don't know how many times I've seen this particular adaptation. I think as many as LOTR: I think, I only need to hear sounds or voices from it without seeing it and I could tell what exactly happens on screen.

[susiehunsecker-remade]

almost done with jane eyre 1983 and it's like. timothy dalton is THE perfect rochester to me. this is the rochester to end all rochesters aside from the fact that he's way too hot to be playing him but at this point i can't really expect anything else. i love how stern and commanding he talks while never losing any of the charm that draws in jane. but it's killed by the fact that zelah clarke's jane is way too amicable and dispassionate (and. also not that interesting of an on screen presence sorry girl) to match any of the insane shit he does so it just kills most of the chemistry and makes me feel really bad for jane. like girl that man is a menace do not listen to that psychic voice that's the mold talking. she is simply too normal for dalton's rochester i'm afraid. jane eyre only works as a romance if jane is just as much of a freak as rochester anything else and it's just sad

[literatureismyentirepersonality]

Jane Eyre 1983! Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adaptation this obsessively faithful to the plot (so far as I remember). I loved that the servants always got in a comment on absolutely everything, I loved Zelah Clarke as Jane, and I even liked Dalton’s acting as Rochester, even if he was far too pretty.

(I will never be able to get over the stupidity of all the scenes discussing how ugly he is when he is sat there being played by a succession of the prettiest men on the planet)

Andrew Bicknell gave everything that I wanted in St. John Rivers; I got to see the fortune-teller scene (could have been camper, but whatever) — this has to be the adaptation for me, even better than 1996. In terms of individual actors though, Ruth Wilson and George C. Scott are still my favourites.

[adobongsiopao]

Zelah Clarke, Timothy Dalton and Andrew Bicknell as Jane, Mr. Rochester and St. John from "Jane Eyre" 1983 version.

[coffeeandcinema]

Jane Eyre (1983). dir. Julian Amyes