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Jane Eyre

Present Progressive Tense

Date: Jul 18 2011

Grammar: Present Progressive Tense

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Intro

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Jane Eyre is an unusual heroine. She isn’t especially pretty, she’s poor, and she has no friends. She isn’t flashy or wild. She doesn’t even have cute clothes.

Nonetheless, the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is one of the most famous and beloved books in English literature. And the new movie version of Jane Eyre has been praised as a powerful adaptation of the classic novel, with the lead actress giving the most dynamic performance Jane Eyre has ever seen. Hear Amy and Ella talk about Jane Eyre and what makes a good movie adaptation of a novel.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Amy

Ella

Amy: Are you a fan of movie adaptations of classic novels?

Ella: I think I am. I like it better than comic book adaptations. But I feel like with the movies it’s really hard to keep it true to the books because there’s so much detail.

Amy: I am a sucker for movie adaptations of books, like I have to just see them even though I often end up being disappointed. But being an English major, I just…I just feel compelled, I have to go see my favorite books brought to life. But I saw one recently that I actually thought did an amazing job, and that was Jane Eyre.

Ella: Yeah, I saw that too. It was pretty good. How did you feel about it being true to the story line?

Amy: I think when you’re adapting a book, the most important thing is that you stay true to the sort of feel or atmosphere of the book, and I thought that that movie did an incredible job of that. Like it totally captured the weirdness and the spookiness of the novel.

Ella: Definitely.

Amy: Did you like the story?

Ella: I did. This was kind of a big deal when it first came out because it was the first female character in which she wasn’t a damsel in distress.

Amy: And she’s…the character of Jane Eyre is sort of…in a way she’s kind of hard to love, because she’s not very pretty, she’s poor, she doesn’t have any friends. But I thought the actress did an amazing job of making her interesting and likable in spite of that.

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Discussion

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Amy and Ella both saw the new movie adaptation of Jane Eyre. Amy likes to watch film adaptations of classic novels, even though she’s often disappointed by the film versions of her favorite books. But Jane Eyre is an exception. Amy thinks it’s an excellent adaptation of the book. She says the movie did an especially good job of capturing the atmosphere and feelings of the book.

Ella enjoyed Jane Eyre as well. She thinks the character of Jane Eyre is interesting, because she was one of the earliest strong woman characters in English literature. She doesn’t act like a damsel in distress. That makes her a great heroine, even if she isn’t very beautiful or remarkable.

What qualities do you think make a great hero or heroine?

Comments

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Whitney S

Colombia

Nice! This kind of lessons always get me to watch the movies they talk about :D

It happened the same with ‘Hannah’ and you were right, it is a good movie ;)

julia09

China

It’s a beautiful story

sofree

China

approachable

An-china

Germany

I’ve seen it—nice movie and nice novel.

And I think to improve English level, to read the novel is better;0

I will take my time to read it.

LittLe PrinCess

Saudi Arabia

movie adaptation of novel is really makes novels more interesting .. i interest in watching such movies which keep the same atmosphere of the novel… but reading novel has a special fun

sunny1314

China

I’v never seen such a film

But it could be really good , i’m going to have a look at it.

dkattleya

Indonesia

Could be tough, pretty or handsome, success, wise, all the good things that make people admire the character or could be someone who is spoiled, self center, making good income even though she’s not smart enough (Darcy in Somthing Blue) that make people not to like the character. Too bad i have not read Jane Eyre and make me want to read it though :)

kgggglll

China

i hope someday i can be so happy like Jane Eyre.

This book is the first English book I read btw.

mshare

Saudi Arabia

the feelings i mean the true feeling that can be done perfectly by the performer ,,its so kind of an ambiguous thing that you don’t know it or can’t be explained ,,, every movie or act consists of many components which each one complete another ,,, i have seen a lot of movies ,some of which were extremely incredible .