Ext. A midsummer dawn. Thornfield the grounds

ROCHESTER

Will you listen to me?

JANE

I must listen to myself -

ROCHESTER

Will you hear reason?

JANE

Let me go -

ROCHESTER

Because if you won't I'll try

violence.

Jane instantly stops resisting. She looks at him with utter

shock. He is above her.

ROCHESTER (CONT'D)

I could bend you with my finger

and thumb; a mere reed you feel

in my hands.

Jane neither moves nor speaks.

ROCHESTER (CONT'D)

But your eye; resolute, free. What

ever I do with this cage I cannot

get at you. And it is you, soul,

that I want. Why don't you come of

your own free will here, to my

heart? Oh come, Jane, come -

JANE

(CRYING OUT)

God help me!

All the life seems to go out of Rochester. He lets Jane go.

She pulls herself away from him. She stands. He remains,

his face buried.

She goes to the door. Rochester turns his eyes to her.

ROCHESTER

You have never called me by my

name. My name is Edward.

Jane cannot speak it. She turns away.

Jane Eyre adapted by Moira Buffini March 2008 101.