Twilight and Jane Eyre

Even though I've been wrapped up in teaching my fan fiction class and writing Pinned but Fluttering, I have had a few story ideas floating around.


I've written parts of some, and others remain stuck on a Post-It in my writing journal. 


But my first non-Twilight fan fic idea came to me the other night. Lately I've been reading some pretty darn angsty fan fics with Edward in some rather sad and anxiety-provoking situations (like The Blessing and the Curse by The Black Arrow, The Diva Diaries by KivaRaven, An Angry Man by katinki, etc.), I thought about his literary predecessors, including another angst-ridden Edward: Edward Fairfax Rochester. 


So I'm seriously considering expanding my Twilight fan fiction repertoire with a one-shot of Edward Rochester awaking to find Jane gone on the day after their almost-wedding. 


I can almost place a Robert Pattinson, aged by 15 years, in the role of this Edward, one equally haunted by his past sins and tied to a dark mystery in which he drags a young, innocent girl into because of the depth of his love. Only Edward Cullen leaves his Bella while Jane leaves Rochester...but both for what they believe is the "right" reason.


Jane and Bella, and their stories, definitely parallel each other. Both raised in unusual circumstances, Jane an orphan and Bella parenting her own parents, Jane and Bella are rather strong-minded in some ways, yet their teenaged romanticism colors their world greatly. They're young, innocent, trusting girls who are drawn to dark, angsty men who conceal dangerous secrets and checquered pasts. After a climatic event in the story line, a separation ensues during which both women discover another possible love interest, Jane with St. John Rivers and Bella with Jacob Black. Both women's lives are in danger because of this relationship as Jane could easily die on the missionary fields of India where St. John intends for her to join him while Bella learns to love a werewolf. 


Supernatural forces (Jane hearing Rochester call for her, and Bella learning of Alice's vision of Edward's suicide attempt with the Volturi) bring the couples back together, Jane to a blinded and contrite Rochester, Bella to a contrite and apologetic Edward. Choices must be made regarding which love interest the women will choose, and of course they choose their angsty guys, marry them, and live happily ever after, children and all. 


And the two Edwards are so similar. They both possess sinful pasts that they are reluctant to share with their innocent teenaged loves, and both have a deep-seated self-hatred based on those pasts and on their perceived danger to their women. Once restored to their loves, both are appropriate contrite although Rochester has truly changed during the separation from Jane while Edward Cullen changed more before the separation. 


Both men are loners to an extent, have past romantic interests in Blanche Ingram and Tanya in Denali, neither truly worthy of the angsty guys, who inspire jealousy in their teenaged loves. Both men are altered greatly by the introduction of these pure, idealistic women who look past the ugliness in the men's lives (Rochester's physical ugliness and the ugliness of who Edward is as a vampire) and love them not only despite the men's flaws but perhaps because of them.  


As many parallels exist between Jane Eyre and the Twilight Saga, it seems a natural place to go, fan fiction-wise, to write from Rochester's POV when he discovers Jane gone, the pearls and other valuables left behind, and "right to prevail." Angst will heavily color Edward Rochester's thoughts as he realizes that Jane, friendless in their world, has left with nothing. 


So let's see if I can clear the time to write this one-shot soon, shall we? And yes, I hope to keep writing the Twilight stories I've started or jotted down the basic plot ideas in my notebook. So keep your eyes peeled....


On another quick note, on Wattpad Pinned but Fluttering passed 700,000 reads this week, and Evening Star passed 650,000 reads; in addition, my vote count for all of my works on Wattpad has passed 8000! So thank you to my wonderful readers--you are the reason I write and keep writing!!


With love and thanks,
~Cassandra :)