From the Attic to the Screen: An Adaptation of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

Jane and Antoinette is an adapted screenplay from the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Rhys\u27s novel, written nearly one hundred years after the publication of Jane Eyre in 1847, functions as a prequel to the original text. I develop the two stories into one, cohesive narrative for the screen. The adaptation process includes close analyses of the texts, both independently and in relation to one another. I viewed all film or television adaptations of the two novels and read critical analyses of these adaptations. I also studied adaptation theory and applied those principles to the discipline of screenwriting. This thesis includes a brief preface, which frames the social contexts of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea at the times that they were written. The preface also describes characteristics of film adaptations and my decision-making process. As per traditional screenplay formatting, the premise, synopsis, and script then exist together as an independent work. A bibliography is included at the end. The screenplay is a culmination of the research I conducted and my own creative process. I extract key elements from each novel without attempting complete fidelity to either text. This creates space for the collaborative authorship of Brontë, Rhys, and I to share in Jane and Antoinette