Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

INT. NIGHT. MOOR HOUSE - A BEDROOM

Dinah and Mary are gently taking Jane's soaking clothes

off; one at each side of her. Jane is distressed,

approaching a delirium. She resists them.

INT. DUSK. GATESHEAD - THE RED ROOM.

Jane is carried in and set down on a footstool by two

servants, Miss Abbot and Bessie - one at each side of her.

She is still resisting.

BESSIE

For shame, hitting your master.

MISS ABBOT

If you don't sit still you must

be tied down!

The fight goes out of Jane. She sits, defeated. Bessie,

young and plump, quickly wipes her bleeding forehead. She

has some compassion. Miss Abbot has none.

BESSIE

What we do is for your own good.

If you are passionate and rude

like this, your Aunt Reed will

send you away.

MISS ABBOT

You're worse than us servants. We

work for our keep; you do

nothing. Pray for forgiveness

Miss Eyre or something bad will

come down that chimney and fetch

you away.

The door slams. They are gone. Jane slowly grips the edge

of the stool. The room is chill, silent. Red walls and

curtains, murky in the fading light.

In front of Jane, a stone fireplace gapes like a mouth.

Beside it, a full length looking-glass in which her pale

reflection stares out. Behind her, a bed supported on

pillars of mahogany, hung with red.

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 9.

The piled up pillows and mattresses glare in cold white.

Jane's breathing is the only sound in the room.

A sudden gust sends rain pelting against the windows like

fingernails. A distant moan of wind seems to breathe out of

the black hearth. Jane reverts her nervous gaze to the

pitted mirror. Her eyes lock on the small figure trapped in

the mirror's visionary hollow; her white, bleeding face,

her eyes glittering with fear.

It is a phantom. The eyes are black, the skin a deathly

grey. Blood. Jane's breathing becomes choked with terror.

She can't get her breath. We hear blood rushing through her

ears. It sounds like the beating of great wings.

Slowly, a light appears over her. It may be something

shining in from outside. But to Jane it seems as if it is

surrounding her, enveloping her. The figure in the looking

glass opens its mouth. The scream, held in so long, finally

rips from Jane's throat.