Characterization: Jane/Off

       Over the years Nicolas Cage has played both heroes and villains, but in the 1997 classic "Face/Off", he plays both. In the film, we find Sean Archer, a government agent portrayed by John Travolta, whose son was killed in a terrorist act by Castor Troy, Nic Cage. Sean takes on the face of Castor in a plot to bring down a terrorist group. However, Castor who was believed to be dead but was merely in a coma, wakes up and takes Sean's face. Sean soon discovers that Castor has his face and they cannot be switched back, due to the deaths of the only doctors who can do the procedure. After a long series of events involving several shootouts and a funeral, Sean is finally reunited with his face. This film is heavy on characterization, it has to be due to having two actors play two of the same characters. At the beginning of the film, Sean is an angry FBI agent who is obsessed with capturing Castor Troy, but at the end of the film, we see that Sean has let go of his son and can finally move on with his life. In Jane Eyre, Rochester is a similar character to Sean Archer. When we first meet Rochester, he is a cold man who believes that since happiness is denied to him, he has "a right to get pleasure out of life: and [he] will get it, cost what it may"(138-139). He doesn't really care about what he has to do to be happy, he does not seem to have very good morals. But, as the story progresses, we see that Rochester is actually quite a good man. At the end of the story, when he and Jane are sitting together, he says: "Of late Jane--only--only of late--I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief prayers they were, but very sincere"(454). He knows then that he had done wrong and he strongly regrets everything he had done wrong in his life. Rochester was finally able to ask for forgiveness, just as Sean has been able to let go of his son. In a way, both men grew quite a bit during their stories.