Orson Welles credited as playing...
Edward Rochester
- Edward Rochester: Are you always drawn to the loveless and unfriended?
- Jane Eyre: When it's deserved.
- Jane Eyre: I should never mistake informality for insolence. One, I rather like; the other, no free-born person would submit to, even for a salary.
- Edward Rochester: Humbug! Most free-born people would submit to anything for a salary.
- Jane Eyre: Do you think I can stay here become nothing to you? Do you think because I'm poor and obscure and plain that I'm soulless and heartless? I have as much soul is you and fully as much heart. But if God had gifted me with wealth and beauty, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you. There, I've spoken my heart, now let me go...
- Edward Rochester: Jane, Jane... you strange, almost unearthly thing. You that I love as my own flesh.
- Jane Eyre: Don't mock me now.
- Edward Rochester: I put my requests in an absurd way. The fact is once and for all, I do not wish to treat you as an inferior, but I've baffled through varied experiences with many men of many nations and roved over the globe while you've spent your whole life with one set of people in one house. Don't you agree it gives me the right to be masterful and abrupt?
- Jane Eyre: Do as you please, sir. You pay me 30 pounds a year for receiving your orders.
- Blanche Ingram: [as she and Rochester emerge from the house into the garden:] It is a beautiful place, your Thornfield.
- Edward Rochester: As a dungeon, it serves its purpose.
- Blanche Ingram: Dungeon? Why, it's a paradise!
- [Rochester grunts. Blanche goes on:]
- Blanche Ingram: Though of course, if one lived here, one would really have to have a house in London, wouldn't one?
- Edward Rochester: [dry:] Unquestionably. And a little apartment in Paris, perhaps a villa on the Mediterranean.
- Blanche Ingram: How delightful that would be! But Thornfield would always be there, as a retreat from the world. A green haven of peace and... and love.
- Edward Rochester: Love? Who's talking of love? All a fellow needs is a bit of distraction. A houseful of beautiful women every now and then to keep him from brooding on his woes -
- [chuckling:]
- Edward Rochester: peering too closely into the mysteries of his heart.
- Blanche Ingram: That is, if he has a heart. And sometimes I wonder, Edward, if you really do have one.
- Edward Rochester: [unperturbed:] Have I ever done or said anything to make you believe that I have? If so, I assure you it was quite unintentional.
- Blanche Ingram: Are you never serious?
- Edward Rochester: Never more than at this moment, except perhaps when I'm eating my dinner.
- Blanche Ingram: Really, Edward, you can be revoltingly coarse sometimes.
- Edward Rochester: [not as a question:] Can I ever be anything else.
- Blanche Ingram: Can you?
- [She lays a hand on his arm and draws him around to look at her]
- Blanche Ingram: Would I have come to Thornfield if you couldn't?
- Edward Rochester: Ha, that's a very nice point, Blanche. Would you, or would you not? We'll begin by considering the significant facts of the case. Mr. Rochester is revoltingly coarse, and as ugly as sin...
- Blanche Ingram: [interrupting:] Edward! I...
- Edward Rochester: [light and cheerful, all through:] Allow me, my dear Blanche - I repeat, as ugly as sin. Secondly, he flirts sometimes, but is careful never to talk about love or marriage. However - this is the third point - Lady Ingram is somewhat impoverished,
- [she gives him a sharp look]
- Edward Rochester: whereas the revolting Mr. Rochester has an assured income of eight thousand a year. Now in view of all this, what is the attitude that Miss Blanche may be expected to take? From my experience of the world, I'd surmise that she would ignore the coarseness, et cetera, until such time as Mr. R is safely...
- Blanche Ingram: How dare you!
- Edward Rochester: [laughing outright] Now now now, no horseplay!
- Blanche Ingram: I've never been so grossly insulted in all my...
- Edward Rochester: [quite cheerful] Insulted? My dear Blanche, I merely paid you the enormous compliment of being completely honest!
- Blanche Ingram: Mr. Rochester, you are a boor and a cur!
- [He watches as she stalks off. Fade to black. Fade up: the Ingram party is riding away from Thornfield]
- Edward Rochester: Sometimes I have a queer feeling with regard to you, Jane. Especially when you're near me as now. It's as if I had a string somewhere under my left rib, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in corresponding corner of your little frame. And if we should have to be parted, that cord of communion would be snapped.
- Edward Rochester: Jane, what you see may shock and frighten and confuse you. I beg you not to seek an explanation. Don't try to understand. Whatever the appearance, you must trust me.
- Edward Rochester: You're afraid of me. You wish to escape me. In my presence, you are hesitant to smile gaily or speak too freely. Admit that you're afraid.
- Jane Eyre: I'm bewildered, sir, but I am certainly not afraid.
- Edward Rochester: Hurry. We must have him off. I've tried so long to avoid exposure. I shall make very certain it doesn't come now.
- Edward Rochester: Let us sit here in peace, even though we shall be destined never to sit here again.
- Edward Rochester: Whatever happens, do not move from here. Whatever happens, do not open a door. Either door.
- Edward Rochester: You're my little friend, Jane, aren't you?
- Jane Eyre: I like to serve you, sir, in everything that's right.
- Edward Rochester: But if I asked you to do something you thought was wrong, what then?
- Edward Rochester: Jane, I want you to use your fancy. Suppose yourself a boy, a thoughtless, impetuous boy indulged from childhood upwards. Imagine yourself in some remote, foreign land. Conceive that you there commit a capital error, one that cuts you off from the possibility of all human joys! You're in despair. You wander about vainly seeking contentment and empty pleasure.
- Edward Rochester: Take a candle with you. Leave the door open. Sit down at the piano. Play a tune.
- [Jane plays]
- Edward Rochester: Enough! You play a little, I see, like any other English schoolgirl. Perhaps rather better than some, but not well.
- Edward Rochester: Excuse my tone of command. I'm used to saying, ''Do this,'' and it is done. I cannot alter my customary habits.
- Edward Rochester: Do you play the piano?
- Jane Eyre: A little.
- Edward Rochester: Of course. That's the established answer.
- Edward Rochester: Miss, Eyre, I'm not fond of the prattle of children As you see, I'm a crusty old bachelor, and I have no pleasant associations connected with their lisp. In this house, the only aIternative is the prattle of a simple-minded old lady which is nearly as bad. Today, I feel disposed to be gregarious and communicative, and I believe you could amuse me.