When your favorite novels have been adapted into much-lauded films, how do you decide who to picture as you read?
Like loads of bloggers, I am thoroughly enjoying the Jane Eyre challenge on Goodreads. I read the classic in high school and highlighted it to pieces. Nearly ten years later, I'm relishing the re-read, wishing the F would linger longer between stops, particularly since the appearance of Mr. Rochester. I've always been a sucker for brooding men with tragic pasts and lacerating wit, but Rochester is in a league of his own in terms of literary sex appeal. Which brings me to my current dilemma.
Charlotte Bronte is very clear when it comes to describing the physiognomy of Mr. Rochester. "He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow" and he is decidedly not a "handsome, heroic-looking young gentleman." In fact, Bronte goes on to tell us he has a "decisive nose, more remarkable for character than beauty" and "full nostrils, denoting...choler" as well as a body that is "neither tall nor graceful."
Frankly, Mr. Rochester doesn't look anything like swoony, chiseled Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds), or like William Hurt, who played him back in the '90s. My dilemma is this: while I find Bronte's Rochester to be attractive in his own way, Fassbender is ridiculously handsome. As I read, should I be picturing the authentic Rochester, or the much dreamier actor of the upcoming adaptation?
When you read Pride and Prejudice, do you imagine Colin Firth, Laurence Olivier, or Matthew MacFayden? Do you see Olivier as Wuthering Heights' Heathcliffe, or are you partial to Ralph Fiennes? Maybe you stick with the descriptive text and imagine your own amalgamation. Your own Darcy, your own Rochester. Either way, I would love to know who you picture. Enlighten me in the comments?
I mostly just picture myself in all those roles.
Posted by: Dave | March 01, 2011 at 02:50 PM
"His broad and jetty eyebrows, his square forehead, made squarer by the horizontal sweep of his black hair."
I needed that laugh. For it I am in your debt, Mr...Rochester-Eicke?
Posted by: Kayleigh George | March 01, 2011 at 03:03 PM
I can't explain why I always picture John Rhys-Davies (from his Indiana Jones days) as Rochester. Colin Firth is definitely Darcy.
Posted by: Gabrielle | March 01, 2011 at 06:51 PM
Colin First, definitely, for Darcy. I'm going to have to wait and see how Michael Fassbender does in the role to decide...
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