Web Video / The Autobiography of Jane Eyre

"The world is wide. Full of hopes, of fears, of sensations and excitements, of adventure... If you have the courage to go after it. My name is Jane Eyre. Here goes nothing."

Jane Eyre is a lonely young woman who received her bachelor's in nursing, and decided to begin a second degree in childhood development. She has complicated family relationships and she feels trapped in her routine. She realized that there is much more to ask from life than what she had, and she decided for a clear and radical cut: new career, new home, perhaps even new Jane?

She starts vlogging, exploring herself and her life in the process. She's not your average avid vlogger and feels kind of awkward in front of camera, and she's not very tech-savvy to boot, but she loves filming. She has a passion for photography, and loves books, reading and tea. She is hired as a personal live-in tutor for Adele, a genius child. She likes her job, but something about the house doesn't feel quite right and she keeps recording slices of her life as a safety net to document what happened to her. She keeps asking for input from her viewers because she doesn't have any close friends or reliable loving family who could help her.

The Autobiography of Jane Eyre is a modernized Vlog Series adaptation of Jane Eyre, based on the original book and directly inspired by another Vlog Series adaptation, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which was based on Pride and Prejudice.

The series ran from February 28, 2013 to June 21, 2014 on YouTube, and was directed by Nessa Aref and written by Aref in addition to Christina Bialik, Alysson Hall, Ryan Bright, Chris Coutts, Courtney Christensen, and Kyle D'Odorico. Hall additionally stars as Jane Eyre.

The show's channel (presented as belonging to Jane) can be found here, and its official website can be found here. Additional transmedia content in relation to the show that was an important aspect of the narrative was distributed through social media accounts belonging to various characters.

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Viewer, Jane used these tropes:

• Abusive Parent: Mrs Reed is Jane's aunt, with whom she grew up. Jane's comments about her hint that she's emotionally abusive to her.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Adele Rochester, who works all the time for her futile homework assignment (though she's fond of learning), knows all about art forms of the twentieth century, speaks French and uses Latin in her tweets. She's very responsible, knows what she wants, and Jane says she kind of tutors herself. As is typical for precocious children, her family situation is complicated. She surely knows a lot, but sometimes has troubles to contextualize it and can come off as a weird kid. She's very nice to Jane, who is concerned that she doesn't have toys or play dates.
• After-Action Patch-Up: The scene where Jane saves Mr Rochester from burning alive in his bed is re-imagined as a mysterious accident with crashing of the glass. Mr Rochester's is bleeding severely and Jane, a certified nurse, has to remove broken pieces from the wound and she binds it. It's a very sweet scene.
• Age Lift:
  • A very minor one for Jane. Jane Eyre is 21. In the book, she was 18 when she went to live in Thornfield.
  • Grace Poole is significantly younger than either of her composites: Grace Poole was about forty and Mrs Fairfax was in her late fifties or sixties. A clearly case of Pragmatic Adaptation as the cast and crew appear to consist of several friends from school.
  • Mr Rochester is thirty-ish and his actor looks very young. The age difference between Jane and Mr Rochester was rather important, but the gap is still noticeable.
• All of the Other Reindeer: It's heavily implied that Jane was ignored, bullied or abused by nearly everybody all her life. She is a nice, slightly weird girl, yet she doesn't have any friends. Her step-family was horrible. Jane mentioned in episode 8 that she and Helen, her only close friend, were considered misfits at the Private School. She encountered some good teachers at university, but she didn't bond with any of them. When she comes to tutor Adele, it gets better, she's respected and Adele likes her, but it's not all great because the house is isolated, Grace is distant, the maid is not too fond of her, other servants probably don't have time to talk to Adele's teacher, and Mr Rochester appears intimidating... Poor Jane. In episode 20 "Confession", Jane openly talks about being bullied at school by kids and teachers.
• All There in the Manual: Episode 3. Jane left her mobile phone on the bus while she's on her way to start a new job which she found on Craigslist. The person who was supposed to give her a lift from the bus stop didn't show up, and she only wrote the contact information in her mobile, so she can't phone them. It's nearly midnight and the bus terminal is in the middle of nowhere with no people around. She beats herself up emotionally for not being cleverer about the whole situation, and she starts suspecting that she's in the wrong place. There was just time arrival mix-up. It was resolved only in the video description.
• All Work vs. All Play: The Rivers sisters share a downplayed version of these dynamics. Diana is the motherly straight-A grad student with all her priorities in order; Mary is free-spirited, whimsical, and impulsive. However, this trope is only used to contrast the personalities of the two sisters; one is not portrayed as being better than the other. Nicely epitomized in a snippet of episode 75, when Jane gives them each $100,000 – Diana wants to use the money to pay off her student loans; Mary wants to dedicate a room of her house to tights.
• Almost Kiss:
  • In "The King of Hearts" (episode 42), Jane and Edward are flirting and being cute together. He's trying to record her and snap a few photos. Jane gets close and they end up looking into each other's eyes very intensely. They almost kiss, but Jane pulls herself back. Edward has to take a few breaths to recover from the moment.
  • Jane and Simon almost-kiss twice in episode 87, to great suprise of Diana and Mary.
• Always Someone Better: Jane admires Lizzie Bennet (who started the video blog trend, and whom she finds a brave and admirable role model). Jane also says that her friend Helen was way better than she is at photography.
• Art Imitates Art: Adele, coached by Jane, drew several pictures based on famous paintings and art styles in episode 5.
• Back Story: Jane draws her past on white board and talks about it in episode 32 "Draw My Life". Her parents had an accident and she went to live with her kind uncle who unfortunately died soon afterwords. His wife disliked her. Her cousin John tortured Jane and cousins Liz and Joanna were passive. She was friends with Helen and they went to private school together. She mentions their mutual support and a two-member book club, Helen's illness and her studies. She also recollects what home means and concludes with her getting to the Rochesters.
• Bandage Wince: Mr Rochester winces when Jane starts removing pieces of glass from his wound and also when she cleans it with antiseptic.
• Berserk Button: Grace Poole is a weird one and not especially nice even on her good days. When Jane talks with her in episode 14, she was angry already, and when Jane asks about the accident, Grace goes all nasty on her. Luckily, Jane is no wuss and believes she's in the right to be asking questions, so she takes it well.
• Big Friendly Dog: Mr Rochester's dog Pilot is a Bernese Mountain Dog which is a breed of dogs that are generally extremely affectionate. Adele must be fond of him as she drew a beautiful picture of him. When Mr Rochester first appeared, he showed up with Pilot. Aww.
• Bookworm: Jane has many books and proudly shows them in her first video. She says she spends most of her money buying new books.
• Brainy Brunette: Jane says she has always been very good at school and considers herself a smart girl. She has dark brown hair and she's based on a very down-to-earth character.
• Bungled Suicide: Mr. Rochester's explanation of the nightmarish scream and mysterious accident number two from episode "Blood". Jane tries talking about it in episode "Mr. Mason". She thinks Mr. Mason tried to commit suicide and that Mr Rochester stopped him. Forgone Conclusion however makes it clear that it did not in fact happen.
• Call-Back: Mr Rochester, drunk and being a jerk, is messing with all his party guests, friends, acquaintances and clients (!). At one point he just grabs Jane who ran into him and he repeats a sentence she said about him in her vlog when she first met him. She has an instant Oh, Crap! and freaks out.
• Camera Abuse:
  • In episode "Grace Poole", Jane has troubles to set up her camera and start recording. She leans on it with close-up of her chest.
  • In episode "Consequences", Mr Rochester is seen turning on the camera with his face and hands fairly to the lens.
• Canine Companion: Mr Rochester apparently travels with his dog Pilot. He even tweets as Pilot.
• Character Blog: Jane decided to start a vlog and show what her life is like. She has a Facebook profile and Tumblr.
• Chekhov's Skill: Jane is a nurse, which was established in episode 1 and episode 2. She showed her competence when Mr Rochester had a minor car accident and sprained his ankle. It came really handy later in episode 13 "Crash" when Mr Rochester was mysteriously injured and was bleeding quite a lot. Jane fixed it really nice.
• Child Prodigy: Adele, Jane's student, is eight years old, and she nails art (both analysis and drawing), opera, ballet, Latin (intermediate courses), advanced marine zoology, applied physics, fencing and so on.
• Closer to Earth: The Hispanic maid, Susanna, who serves as an Only Sane Man and who mocks Jane for being impractical and having no social skills.
• Composite Character: By all appearances, intense Grace Poole, Mr Rochester's assistant, is a combination of scary and mysterious Grace Poole and Mrs Fairfax, who was kind and friendly.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the first Q&A video, Jane was asked by many people whether she had recovered her phone she lost on her way to the Rochesters. She had got her phone back, but Grace decided to recycle it and buy her a new smart phone.
  • In "A New Age of Aluminium", Warren reminds one party guest her memorable impression of "duck" from their previous party (episode "Charades"), though during the game he insisted that the word must be "goose". It was a cuckoo anyway. We find out the woman's name is Luisa "Lulu" Eshton.
• Cool Teacher: In episode "Blanche Ingram", Jane fondly remembers her former art teacher Miss Temple. She's also mentioned in episode "Draw My Life". In the novel, Miss Temple was a head teacher of Lowood school.
• Coordinated Clothes: In episode 21 "Hijacked", Blanche and Mr Rochester wear matching colours. Both Blanche's top and Mr Rochester's jacket are dark purple.
• Damned by Faint Praise: When Jane asks Grace about Mr Rochester (what he is like and whether he is easy to work for), Grace starts talking about his company and family. She also says that he's a man. Eventually she says he's great, but it doesn't sound too convincing. But one thing was really nice — Mr Rochester is a dog-lover.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jane.
  Jane: (showing her cousin's picture of his destroyed BMW) How could this happen to the contentious student body president we all know and love? (cut to John Reed's comment that says "Tht Tree cam outt a NoWhere!!!!!")
• Death Glare: Grace's look in episode 14. Intense two minutes! Combined with her rather nasty speech to Jane aka the "nanny person".
• Delicate and Sickly: In episode 8, Jane reminisces about her good friend from school, Helen, who had a cancer and died.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Jane doesn't know in detail all of what she wants. But it involves freedom and experience, and she wants it now.
• Dizzy Cam: From time to time, mostly when Jane shoots outside when she's on a stroll. For instance, episodes 1, 3 and 8 employed this trope.
  • In Episode 1, Jane went out and she was shooting outside in a park while walking. She also made a shot of crowns of trees from down to up and then she was slowly spinning the camera.
  • In Episode 3, Jane was stranded at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere, having lost her mobile phone. She was freaking out and shot several scenes while walking and running about, quite desperate. Combined with Jitter Cam.
  • Episode 8 had Jane shooting trees and panorama of the city, slowly spinning the camera.
• Does Not Like Spam: Downplayed example. Grace Poole says Mr Rochester has a mild aversion to uncooked tomatoes.
• Doting Parent: Mrs Reed heaps intense praise on her son John, a future stellar lawyer, in her letter to Jane.
• Drama Bomb: Jane finds out that Mr Rochester has found her videos in which she openly talked about him and his daugher, recorded people without their knowlegde and uploaded it on her vlog. She's distressed and thinks it means she's fired.
• Dramatic Irony: Most of the viewers are familiar with the story, so they knew that the man who nearly ran Jane over was in fact her employer, and naturally, they could cringe at her when Jane tried to calm herself down, saying: "It's not like I'm ever gonna see him again anyway." Oh, Jane! You don't even...
• Driven to Suicide: Implied with Mr. Mason. In episode 26 "Mr. Mason", Jane explains what happened the night when mysterious accident number two occurred and Mr. Mason was the one who was seriously injured, and Jane says he apparently hasn't been feeling alright. It's not stated explicitly, but Jane leaves a link to a suicide help web-page in her video description.
• Drives Like Crazy: The moment when Jane met Mr Rochester in the book — he fell off a horse on an icy road — is re-imagined as a minor car accident. Jane was standing in the middle of the road, and he nearly ran her over, so obviously she thinks he Drives Like Crazy, even though she admits she should have been more careful as well.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Mr Rochester, apparently. He is seen with a glass of scotch on his table in episode 10, and in episode 11 he says he finds it easier to drink than to regret. One of his tweets to his assistant reads: "Can you schedule a meeting for 2 hours from now and can you arrange a scotch?"
• Eagleland: Not quite, since the location is Canada, but Jane feels really bad about not speaking Spanish and displeasing the maid when not knowing how to pronounce her name, thus nicely subverting stereotypes about Latino maid/WASP people relationships. However, Susanna doesn't seem too pleased with Jane at the end of their first conversation.
• Eating The Eyecandy: In episode 13, Mr Rochester is visibly smitten with Jane. He was absolutely checking her out at the end before he left her room (where she took him only to treat his wound).
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: In episode 35, Liz introduces and later sings a song she wrote. It's called "I hate you, leave me alone".
• Face Cam: Jane sometimes shoots the entries for her vlog outside while walking, and she very often aims the camera at her face when she talks to her viewers.
• Face Palm:
  • In episode 3, Jane touches her face several times, close to total desperation, when she thinks she got lost and panicked.
  • Jane facepalms at the beginning of episode 5 when she's exhausted and experiences "it's at the tip of my tongue" as she spent the whole day talking French with Adele, and cannot remember the word for "fatiguée". When she realizes it's "tired", she covers her face in her hands.
  • In episode 9 "Phlegm", Jane is ill and feels very down. She rubs her face and is on the brink of tears, poor girl.
  • In episode 10, she touches her forehead in an exasperated gesture. It expresses how she's unsatisfied, lonely and restless. Also, it happened after an almost-collision with a car. People have a right to be upset after such experience.
• Family Business: Thornfield Exports has been owned by the Rochester family for decades. They provide high-quality aluminium products. Mr Rochester "inherited" the position of its CEO, and he's probably not too keen.
• Fancy Dinner: In Episode 12 "Dinner", Jane is invited to dine with Mr Rochester, Adele, and Grace Poole. They have a formal dinner every other Sunday together when Mr Rochester is at home. The viewers got to see just the events before dinner, so no faux pas is shown, but Jane is visibly nervous.
• First-Name Basis: Subverted; Rochester calls his employees "Jane" and "Grace", while they refer to him as "Mr. Rochester".
• Foreshadowing: Jane and Simon spend episode 63 ("Perception") discussing the medical condition of face blindness. Commenters familiar with the novel are bemoaning their surety that that’s a Chekhov's Gun for when Rochester is reintroduced.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Rivers sisters share a downplayed version of these dynamics. Diana is the motherly straight-A grad student with all her priorities in order; Mary is free-spirited, whimsical, and impulsive. However, this trope is only used to contrast the personalities of the two sisters; one is not portrayed as being better than the other. Nicely epitomized in a snippet of episode 75, when Jane gives them each $100,000 – Diana wants to use the money to pay off her student loans; Mary wants to dedicate a room of her house to tights.
• Fortune Teller: At the Thornfield party, Mr Rochester plays Pagliaccio, a fortune-telling clown. It's a reimagination of the scene in which Mr Rochester dresses himself as an old gypsy woman and tells fortune to young ladies, disguised and recognized only by Jane. Here everybody knows it's him.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Jane communicates with her viewers through commenting at the videos, on her Tumblr page or Twitter, and she also does "Q&A" sessions. In addition, Jane's actress Allyson Hall and others from the creative team sometimes offer their views and comments as well, either directly at the videos or on their social network pages.
• Friendless Background:
  • Jane had one true friend Helen who died of cancer when they were at school. She doesn't have any other friends of her age and her step-aunt's family was abusive. Poor Jane, in some of her vlogs her longing to have friends and any relationships is painful to watch.
  • Mr Rochester according to his daughter Adele. She says he doesn't have any friends except Grace Poole who takes care of him, and then few friends from school who come to visit. Also, there is Miss Blanche Ingram, but that's it.
• Friend to All Children: Jane, who finds kids "a gazillion times better than most adults".
• The Ghost:
  • Mrs Reed is in focus during the arc when Jane goes to see her and her two daughters. Mrs Reed is never seen onscreen though.
  • John Reed is talked about in the Reed household and eventually Jane reveals he was the biggest bully she had to face. He's not seen, only two of his photos. Though he survives, unlike his book counterpart who committed suicide.
  • Ricardo is a chef working at Mr Rochester's household. Jane often mentions him in his tweets but he's never seen.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Blanche begins to expect one in the episode "A New Age of Aluminium", but her hope is Doomed by Canon and naturally subverted. Mr Rochester says she demands his attention and speaks about a circle, nay, about a ring and rock on her finger. When she and people around expect him to pop the question and pull out an Enormous Engagement Ring, he gives her... a ring lolipop.
• Gratuitous Spanish:
  • Susanna-Maria Ramirez Gonzalez had some lines in Spanish. Commentators kindly provided translation before the official subtitles appeared. She's actually a native speaker.
  • Jane feels she angered Susanna when they first met and she tries to apologize to her in Spanish. She wrote a note with her sentence and learned a chunk by heart. She used some incorrect grammar and the pronunciation is all over the place, just as you would expect. Susanna is rather moved and accepts Jane's apology.
• Guyliner: Warren and E.D. wear eyeliner (and more make-up) for the party in "A New Age of Aluminuim". Warren jokes that it's insanely attractive for the ladies.
• Happy Dance: Jane is doing a happy dance — mainly waving her arms and singing quietly — when she tells her viewers that she's got a reply from a prospective employer, Grace Poole.
• Heroism Incentive: Inverted after Jane inherits a fortune and tries to give some of it to the reluctant Rivers siblings: she finally convinces Simon to take the money by pointing out how much he needs it to fund his mission to save sick kids in India.
• Home Sweet Home: In episode 1, Jane enthusiastically plans a big change in her life and wants to experience adventure. This is in stark contrast to episode 9 when Jane longs to go home... except she doesn't have any place like that. She finally has one in the last episode.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After Mary’s breakup, she she walks into the apartment and immediately starts drinking gin. When the conversation turns to Jane’s relationship with Rochester, Jane gets up and pours herself a very full glass of wine.
  Jane (as Mary storms into the house): Mary, are you all right?
  Mary: Um, well, no... you like gin, right?
  Jane: Not really.
  Mary: Oh, that's too bad, because either you or Diana is getting drunk with me, and Diana isn't home, so…
• Ice Queen:
  • Mrs Reed is the jerkish, harsh, Stealth Insult adept version.
  • Grace Poole is of the civil, probably very nice and well-intentioned, but emotionally unavailable, blunt and authoritative kind.
• Interclass Romance:
  • Rochester, the wealthy owner of a big export company, and Jane, his daughter's penniless tutor.
  • This is Simon's reasoning for refusing to pursue a relationship with Rose Oliver: even though she clearly likes him, he doesn’t feel like he can ask a rich, high-maintenance girl to "go without her Starbucks" so she can move to India with him.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Mr Rochester, Miss Ingram and Mr Danton are all Harvard graduates, though it's not established if they were all the students of the same year.
• Jerk Jock: John Reed is an irresponsible hard-drinking law student. According to his mother, he's respected by his teachers and popular with other students.
• Jitter Cam: From time to time.
  • Most of Episode 3 is shot in this style. Jane had lost her mobile and was freaking out because she thought she was stranded late at night in the middle of nowhere. She was walking and running, shooting an authentic entry for her fresh vlog.
  • For episode 8, Jane went for a long walk and shot some scenes outside. Trees, animals, herself while walking, a panorama of the city.
• Kids Are Cruel: The kids at Brocklehurst Private School treated Jane and Helen horribly, even though Jane doesn't complain about anyone in particular. She just hints that when Helen went through chemo, her classmates ridiculed her for losing hair, but the memory is too painful and Jane can't even finish the sentence.
• Language Barrier: It appears that Susanna, a maid at Mr Rochester's house, doesn't speak very good English besides few phrases. Subverted in Q&A2 when Jane finds out she speaks perfect English, but prefers to speak only Spanish in front of Grace Poole because she's too intense and Susanna doesn't want to get involved.
• Language Fluency Denial: Suzanna-Maria Ramirez Gonzalez pulls this tactic off successfully. She speaks only Spanish in front of Jane or Grace Poole. Grace genuinely believes she doesn't understand English and this way, she bothers her way less. Suzanna eventually reveals to Jane that she actually speaks perfect English.
• Last-Name Basis: Jane calls her boss Mr Rochester "Mr Rochester". He however cannot be bothered with Ms Eyre, and calls her Jane throughout their dialogue that Jane "inadvertently" recorded on her camera.
• Lens Flare: This natural light effect appears sometimes and it adds to unpolished, home-made feel of the vlog. For instance, it was present when Jane showed her viewers the sky through trees or the rose garden in episode 1. When Adele set up the camera for the dinner, there was light coming from the ceiling lamp.
• "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: Episode 71 becomes this, as Jane uses the videos to explain her past to Mary. This gives Jane a chance to reflect on what's happened while Mary acts as Audience Surrogate.
• Lovable Coward: Though dignified and generally very nice, Jane is easily scared. However, given the tone of the story and the orientation her suspicion has taken, she is probably Properly Paranoid.
• Love Confession:
  • Rochester drops one on Jane in episode 45, of the anguished variety. It leads to an immediate Relationship Upgrade.
  • Simon confesses to Jane he loves her in episode 86, although it's so buried in the scientific lecture he's giving her about the basal ganglia that it's easy to overlook or dismiss (that is, until he seals it with an Almost Kiss).
• Love Hurts: A major theme of the series. Unsurprising, given the tone of the original work.
• Madwoman in the Attic: Naturally. Rochester's mentally unstable wife, referred to only as M, is revealed to live locked away in a special clinic in the top of Rochester's house. True to the novel, she creeps around at night and tries to harm Rochester. She terrifies Jane when Jane leaves her camera on overnight and catches M (as an unidentified, shadowy figure) lurking over her bed while she's asleep.
• Masquerade Ball: The Thornfield rebranding event has elements of Masquerade Ball because many people are wearing silver masks and are hidden. Other people — mainly Warren and Mr Rochester wear circus make-over. They get drunk and go wild, mocking people and being quite cruel about it. Also, mysterious Benjamin Mason slips in.
• Meaningful Name: In episode 15, Adele talks with Jane about Miss Blanche Ingram. Blanche means "white" and Adele informs us that it's derived from "skin as white as milk" which was considered the ultimate mark of beauty. Blanche is very beautiful with very symmetrical features and a well-proportioned torso. And she always smells very nice.
• Metaphorical Marriage: Ed Rochester wants to be with Jane forever, and persuades her to have a symbolic wedding, with white dress and reception and all that stuff. Jane is thrown off balance a bit that he didn't ask her to marry for real, but she agrees to go through with it. Just before the ceremony, Jane finds out he's already married. His wife has serious mental issues and he doesn't want to (or can't) get divorced. Jane decides to leave him although it breaks her heart. She is able to empathise with him to a degree though.
• Ms. Imagination: Jane likes dreaming a lot. She likes wandering in a rose garden and pretends it's summer all the time. She likes playing, dancing and singing in empty houses.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Grace Poole says the house is decorated like a nightmare and it's obviously unnerving. She says she once found herself talking to the wall and thinking she was in England. England is a nod back to the novel.
  • The official webpage says Jane attended Brocklehurst Private School. Mr Brocklehurst was a mean and rich clergyman in charge of Lowood school in the book.
  • Mr Rochester's company is called Thornfield Aluminium Exports. In the novel, Thornfield Hall was Mr Rochester's fancy family estate.
  • Sophie Varens is listed as Senior vice president, Business Development & General Counsel who leads Sales and Services department of Mr Rochester's family firm. Sophie is Adele's nurse in the book and her biological mother's name is Celine Varens.
  • Jacob Carter works for Thornfield Exports and is Senior vice president, Health, Safety, Human Resources and Environment. In the book, Mr Carter was a surgeon who came to treat people in Thronfield several times.
  • In the video "A New Age of Aluminium", there is a song playing at the party for a dance number. The lyrics of the song come from the novel. It's a sentence Jane said during the gypsy indicent, which corresponds to the video. It's this one: "The eagerness of a listener quickens the tongue of a narrator."
  • In the book, Mr Rochester called Jane "Janet" and teased her about being a sprite or a fairy. In the vlog, Ed says that Jane has an alter-ego named Janet who has magical spells and armed with teacup of truth.
  • In episode 75, Diana (sarcastically) suggests Simon should join the Order of St. John, thus referencing his character's original name in the book.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: In episode 5, Jane persuades her student Adele, who is somewhat of a child prodigy in this version, to draw pictures. Some of them were beautiful and lovely, like a picture of Jane or a picture of Adele's dog Pilot. But... Mr Rochester is drawn on a mountain as a very distant figure, and the last image Jane shows is him with a big apple as his face.
• No Name Given: M (Rochester's mentally ill wife) for 33 episodes, until Grace reveals that her name is Beth.
• No Social Skills:
  • A rare non-Informed Attribute example. Jane is just as awkward in the vlog as in the beginning of the novel, and she screws up every single time she speaks to another human being. (She really improves over the series, though, as she gains more experience and confidence.)
    Jane: (about talking to the camera) First I'm awkward to people, now I'm awkward to inanimate objects too...
  • Simon, and in his case it's usually quite funny rather than painful. He's comfortable only around his sisters and the concept of small talk escapes him.
• Nostril Shot: Episode 3 had The Blair Witch Project vibes. Some of the angle taking Jane's face is from below and it was effectively creepy.
• Official Couple: Jane and Rochester. Most viewers know the source...
• Oh, Crap!: Jane has an off-screen Oh Crap when she realizes that the man she shouted at was actually her boss. She just stops talking... Downplayed disturbed facial expressions can be seen when she provides short comments on her video she recorded during her walk.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: Jane claims she has an old and broken camera. The glitches it creates in episode 13 and most subsequent episodes look very spooky. Combined with shadows and strange noises, her vlog very effectively captures gloomy elements of the Gothic novel.
• On a Scale from One to Ten: Johanna likes Jane's photographic portraits and decides to rate the men she sees. One is a hard seven, but another one is a three. It's implied to be Mr Rochester — in the book, Georgiana Reed disliked Mr Rochester when Jane drew him.
• Operation: Jealousy: In progress since episode "They're here", with a string of parties for which Jane is required. Blanche and E.D. seem awfully close in some episodes.
• Parental Substitute: Diana is seen to fill this role for her siblings, Mary in particular, and even on occasion for Jane.
• Parlor Games: Like in the book, Rochester's guests play a game of charades, though the game is much simpler and they are delightfully wasted. Jane is asked to record it on her cam. Mr Rochester tries to mime the word "Bride" — surely that was no accident — and Blanche in a white dress serves him as a living prop. Jane suffers and whispers "So this is happening," half in pain and half with snark.
• Percussive Therapy: Jane's theory about Mr Rochester's injury because she doesn't believe it was an accident. She thinks he might have been under pressure and might have released the tension by throwing a vase. Grace doesn't take this theory too well and Jane gets a dressing down.
• Perma-Stubble: Mr Rochester has visible facial hair in some episodes. It adds to his dark charms.
• Person as Verb: Person as adjective. Mr Rochester says it's very "Jane" of her to say that her aunt has passed away. "Be Jane" means that terrible things just seem to happen to her, that she's insanely unlucky but always ever so good-natured about it.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: This is a web series based on a Gothic Novel, so some changes were inevitable. In the book, Jane is an adult mature woman who is looking back on her life from her unhappy childhood, harsh and later kinder school days, her employment, and above all her mysterious love story. The narrative voice of the web series, which is Jane's vlog presenting events as they happen, is naturally changed. It started with Jane deciding to change her life and seeking new opportunities in life, and accepting to work as a live-in tutor. Her back-story is revealed in some episodes when Jane mentions her uneasy relationship with her abusive step-family or when she reminisces about her school days or her dear friend Helen who unfortunately died. Adele was changed from a normal and a bit shallow girl into a little genius as in modern days, a normal kid wouldn't need a tutor to keep her challenged. The fire in the house was substituted with a glass crash.
• Precision F-Strike: Susanna drops the f-word when she confronts Jane about her engagement in episode 47. It's bleeped out, but her lips (and the context) are quite readable. It's the only instance of major swearing in over 80 episodes of the series, and effectively serves to demonstrate how bizarre (and unhealthy) Jane and Rochester's relationship looks to the people outside the "bubble" where their feelings are so visible.
• Properly Paranoid: A rare protagonist example. There are weird things happening around Jane, and she can sense that.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Grace is angry and takes it on Jane in ep. 14. She gets almost furious with Jane because of her questions, and she yells at her. Nearly her whole speech is chunked into several threatening phrases with raising, questioning intonation.
  Grace: Are you suggesting that Mr Rochester, your employer? - makes sport of throwing decorative glassware? - in the middle of the night? - in his OWN HOUSE? - where his DAUGHTER sleeps? - because he needs to let off little STEAM - every once and a while?
• Race Lift: There are changes of white-to-non-white in order to diversify the cast. Also, the actors fit well to their characters. The story is set in present day Canada as opposed to 19th century England, so it makes sense, and it might also add new layers to the narrative.
  • Adele Varens was a white French girl in the book, while Adele Rochester has light brown skin, and her father Mr Rochester doesn't. It adds mystery as to who Adele's mother might be. It turns out that her mother is "M," the equivalent of Bertha Mason.
  • Grace Poole looks as if she was of Asian origin.
  • There are several servants in Thornfield, but their race is not mentioned and they are very likely British; Sophie was Adele's French nurse. In this web series, we have Susanna-Maria Ramirez Gonzalez, a Hispanic maid. Another person from the staff who is mentioned but not seen is a chef named Ricardo, also very likely of Hispanic origin.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": In Q&A 2 when Jane answers a question whether she sings. No, she insists that her singing voice is good enough only for showers and cars.
• Red Herring: Episode 8 was Mr Rochester tease. Most viewers knew book Jane met him when she was walking to the post office, and when Jane announced she had a weekend off and planned to take a walk, many got hopeful and excited. However, she really went to take some photographs and talked about her late friend Helen.
• Related in the Adaptation: In the novel, Adéle is the daughter of one of Rochester's past mistresses, Céline Varens, and while Rochester may or may not be her father, he doubts it and doesn't acknowledge her as his daughter, just his ward. Here, she's explicitly Rochester's daughter, and her mother is his mentally ill first wife "M.," the equivalent of the novel's Bertha. Instead of Bertha's genetic madness, it was postpartum depression, and resulting drug addiction, that caused M.'s mental breakdown.
• Relationship Upgrade: Jane and Rochester go from "unrequited pining after each other" to "let's get married" in the space of under a minute, in episode 45.
• Running Gag:
  • Early episodes seemed to mention Adele's new extra curricular activities one after another. Usually there was at least one new course per episode.
  • Mr Rochester tease. Damn it, the viewers wanted to see his face, but several episodes showed him in obscure camera angles.
  • Jane likes tea. A lot. A lot a lot. Call that obsession. It was a set up for a joke with multiple cups hoarded in her room or Adele's cute remark about tea getting stuck behind your teeth.
• Say My Name: Mr Rochester likes saying Jane's name a lot. It's very clear especially in episode "Consequences".
• Self-Deprecation: Jane, subtly yet constantly (for instance denying that she is as deep and mysterious as her hobbies make her seem, when her videos prove that and attributing her accomplishment to other people's work). This is always, though realistically, shown as an habit which appears for real, well-depicted reasons.
• Setting Update: Jane is a girl living in modern-day Vancouver and she's got a degree in nursing, but decided to become a live-in tutor. The story takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the surrounding area.
• Ship Tease:
  • Jane and Rochester get heaps of it before their actual Relationship Upgrade, too. There were close-ups of their hands almost-touching, him teasing her and trying to talk to her etc.
  • Simon and Rose. Assuming the adaption stays faithful to the original novel, it's not going to pan out, but the creators are doing their level best to make the viewers wish they would.
• Shirtless Scene: Downplayed in episode 11. Mr Rochester has loosened his shirt and a tie, and he has rolled up his sleeves, revealing his mysterious tattoo. Fangirls approve.
• Shrinking Violet: Jane is a quiet girl who doesn't have much friends. It's quite unusual that such a girl would start vlogging and sharing her life with the internet. She considers it a challenge and a brave thing to do, and she would like to find help or advice from her viewers.
• Shout-Out:
  • Jane Eyre is a fan of Lizzie Bennet's vlog The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. It's more than a Shout Out, as Word of God states those two women share a fictional universe. Jane watching LBD appeared in the very first episode and she said it was her inspiration to start vlogging.
  • Jane proudly shows off her books in episode 1, and they are numerous. Examples include Romeo and Juliet, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist or Harry Potter (twice! a boxed set and one separate book).
  • Episode 5 alluded to several painters. Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, and Vincent van Gogh (not mentioned, but one picture was clearly inspired by his style and looked a bit like The Starry Night). Adele's last picture looks a lot like The Son Of Man by René Magritte.
  • When asked by her viewers what kind of music she likes, Jane says she is into She & Him.
  • In Q&A #1, Adele mentions Tosca and converses the opera's trope. Then she sings an aria.
  • Adele talks about Hans Christian Andersen's fairy-tale "The Little Mermaid", but she has never seen the the Disney version.
  • Episode 8 "Duck Pond" had a reference to The Catcher in the Rye. Made most obvious when Jane responded to a viewer's comment ("Where do ducks go in the winter, Jane?").
  • Jane and Mr Rochester are both fans of Game of Thrones and especially the books A Song of Ice and Fire. They discuss it in episode 11. In "Q&A 3", Jane gets asked what character from the universe she would be. She says she was like Arya when she was little, but now she sees herself as Jon Snow. Mr. Rochester disagrees and says that she's Daenerys.
  • Jane tweeted that she was reading 419 by Will Ferguson. She later recommended it in Q&A2.
  • On her Twitter, Jane mentions she was watching Singin' in the Rain.
  • In episode 13, Jane mentioned that her reading had turned out scary. On her Tumblr, she specified that it had been The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
  • In episode 13, Mr. Rochester picked up one of Jane's books from the shelf and was flipping through its pages. Confirmed to be The Begum's Millions.
  • When Jane gets inquisitive about the mysterious accident, pissed Grace calls Jane Nancy Drew and suggests she start a mystery novel group.
  • Q&A2 abounds with book references, because viewers were asking a lot about Jane's taste in books.
    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Jane's ultimate favourite book because it was the first book she really loved. (This book is also later referenced in episode "Confession" as a book that Helen lent her when they became friends.)
    • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is rated as the most thought-provoking book. It's about culture clash of refugees in California.
    • The Twilight Saga got Jane's worst rating. She tries to be diplomatic and says that to each their own, but she has a problem with the main relationship.
    • The best plot in the Fire and Ice series is, according to Jane, A Clash of Things.
    • Jane says she put down a quote from Aristotle. Provided by Adele.
  • In "Confession", Jane mentions The Bible and the concept of turning the other cheek and loving other as you love yourself.
  • In episode "Charades", one of the clues was a film or book, six words, there is flying, something with eggs and birds and nests, none of the words is goose... They couldn't figure it out, but Jane says in the video's description that she's pretty sure it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
  • Jane sometimes post pictures or GIFS from Coraline and Corpse Bride on her Tumblr.
  • Adele tweeted that she and Jane were going to watch The Sound of Music. Later, Mr Rochester in one video started to sing "Aug Wiedersehen, good night"...
  • Jane posted a reference to The Smiths on her Tumblr.
• Sinister Subway: Jane visits the bus version, but it is still very creepy. She gets off at the bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and she feels lost and even trapped because it's late at night and she lost her mobile, so she can't contact anybody.
• Small Reference Pools:
  • Subverted in episode 5 "Critical Examinations of Art". Jane teaches Adele about modern art styles and important painters, and Adele made pictures in these styles with crayons. At first they are pretty standard like Picasso's cubism, abstract art, Gustav Klimt, or Vincent van Gogh, but she also painted her dog in pointillism, and her last picture looks like it was inspired by painting The Son of Man by surrealist René Magritte (a man whose face is obscured by an apple).
  • Jane makes references to lots of books of various kinds, both old classics and new ones, popular old and new fantasy books, as well as brand new books. Some of them are well-known and referenced often, some are current crazes and some of them are rarely ever mentioned.
• Spicy Latina: Susana Maria Ramirez Gonzalez, a maid at Rochester's house. She's bothered that Jane cannot pick up her clothes for washing. She is very pleased and looks excited when Jane is nice to her, but displeased when Jane doesn't understand her name in Spanish. She first appeared in episode 7.
• Strictly Professional Relationship: Jane tries to control the feelings she has for Mr Rochester, but she's not fooling anybody.
  Jane: So, Mr Rochester's coming back. Great! I am awaiting the return of my employer with the limit of emotions acceptable for professionalism.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality:
  • Jane is adorable and quite sensitive, but she refuses to make a fuss about it. She doesn't want to tell anyone about very personal things. She shows her sweet and kind side mostly to Adele because she loves children and is very fond of her little student.
  • Simon. True to the original novel character, he is externally stoic, pragmatic, and unemotional; however, as the series progresses, we see him show affection to his sisters and even genuine empathy for Jane. By the time of his proposal to Jane, we see him go so far as to lose his temper.
• The Topic of Cancer: Mrs Reed has a brain tumour and is dying.
• Trademark Favorite Drink: Jane is Canadian, not British, but her love for tea is one of the creators’ ways of paying homage to the story’s English roots (much as in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries). In her first video, Jane says she drinks immense amounts of tea, and says she's probably made entirely of Earl Grey, chamomile and mint. Her tea habit comes up in dozens of episodes – in one, she tries a new chocolate mint flavor and jokes about how she’s "going wild". She is seen using it as a coping mechanism both when she is sick and when she is feeling especially emotional. In episode 82, when she’s upset about the funding being cut to the daycare where she works, Jane lampshades her affection for this trope:
  Jane: I don't think even tea will help this time.
  (teakettle begins whistling offscreen)
  Jane: Well, I mean, it's worth a try.
• Translation by Volume: In "Cleaning House", Grace Poole tries speaking ultra-clearly and samewhat loudly using just words and not forming a full sentence and adding one gratuitous "por favor" when she instructs two maids not to clean Jane's room. Little does she know that Susanna and the other maid understand and speak perfect English. The girls just deliberately mess with her because this way, she will bug them less.
• Turn the Other Cheek:
  • Like in the book, Jane doesn't take revenge on her aunt and cousins. She just refrains several times before she starts explaining things which would probably cast them in a very bad light, and only mentions that she felt bad about some issues she had when she was a child, that her aunt isn't too warm when replying to her letters, and that she boasts too often about her son.
  • In episode "Confession", Jane openly speaks about being bullied and how Helen helped to deal with it. She mentions her religious faith and cites this concept word for word.
• Unexpected Inheritance:
  • Rochester is revealed as having been a beneficiary of this trope in his backstory: his brother was supposed to inherit Thornfield, but died suddenly, leaving Rochester as the sole owner and CEO of a large and profitable company.
  • Jane’s uncle whom she has never met dies suddenly and leaves her three million dollars.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Jane Eyre and her older boss E.D. Rochester. In episode 11, their hands keep getting really close and they are almost touching. In episode 13, Mr Rochester is visibly smitten with Jane, and grateful to her for her gentle care when she takes broken pieces from his wound and treats his bleeding arm. Jane probably likes him too already, but her feelings are more mixed because he has a kid, is her boss and is obviously troubled with something serious.
• The Unreveal: Viewers who read the book were really looking forward to Jane meeting Mr Rochester. First teasing appeared in episode 8 when Jane went for a walk as they met outside in the book, but Jane was only shooting her walk. She really met him on her next walk in episode 10 but he was shown only for a brief moment from a big distance, and then his legs and funky socks were seen: Jane let her camera running while she was examining his sprained ankle. In episode 11, Jane accidentally let her camera on while he was talking to her about her photographs, and the angle was really tricky: it revealed his torso, arms with a tattoo and hands, and then half his face. In episode 12, Adele tried to record their formal family dinner, but unfortunately, she aimed the camera at her father's back. In episode 13, Mr Rochester was dragged into Jane's room because Jane wanted to treat his serious wound. She was filming an entry for her diary and her cam was on. It looked like the viewers would be torsoed again and would see just his body up to his neck or nose, but actually, Jane made him sit down, and his face was finally revealed.
• Unreveal Angle:
  • When Jane first talks to Grace Poole, she accidentally records their dialogue because Grace came to Jane's room when she was shooting an entry for her vlog. However, Grace's face is out of the angle.
  • When Mr Rochester first appeared, they showed him only from a big distance, Jitter Cam style, and then a great attention was paid to his injured leg and funky socks. In the following episode, the angle of Jane's cam was aimed at his torso and arms, and we got a lots of close-up of his hands. Episode 12 showed his head from the back and the audience nearly saw his profile when he turned his head.
• Vlog Series: Of the realistic variety. It's filmed using webcams and handy cams and the events are presented as though it was really happening in real life.
• V-Sign: Warren forms a V sign in episode "Hijacked" (ep. 21) when he takes Jane's camera and shoots an impromptu video with Blanche. He pretends to snap a selfie.
• Wham Episode: How much the viewership was actually affected varies based on who knew what was coming from having read the book, but several episodes still qualify.
  • Episode 45 wherein Rochester whips out an Anguished Declaration of Love and he and Jane get together.
  • Episode 56 in which we find out Rochester is already married, to his first love who is addict and mentally unstable, living in a separated part of the house with special care, unbeknowst to most people, notably Jane and Adele.
  • Episode 83 when Simon invites Jane to come to India and proposes to her out of nowhere.
  • Episode 88 when we find out Rochester has been bankrupted and in a car crash.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Adele was forced to grow up quickly and she doesn't act like a child. Jane thinks she's cultured and educated a bit weirdly for a kid and admits Adele's more knowledgeable than her in some subjects. When Adele is informed that her father is leaving for a year and did't say goodbye, Jane says Adele's handling it too well and is not concerned at all, which is not normal behaviour.
• Worst. Whatever. Ever!: In the sidebar comment on her video, Jane, who just escaped a very frightening situation, discovers that there is dust on her lens, causing her to declare it officially the worst day ever.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • In episode 9, Jane has caught cold and is really sick, which also triggers her homesickness. All the more sad because she doesn't really have her home. The house feels empty and isolated, she doesn't have anybody to talk to; she misses university, but concludes that it was just a room also.
  • After the truth about Rochester's wife comes out and she leaves Thornfield, telling both Rochester and herself that she can't stay, no matter how much she wants to.

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