Hi Pearl,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and questions. From your post, I'm not sure whether or not you watched the web series Emma Approved, but some of the deviations from the original novel are based on the plot as created by the web series. For example, the fact that it was Jane, rather than Frank, who decided to keep the relationship secret, and her reasons for it, are directly from the EA show. What I tried to do with my own writing was explore the thought process that led her to that decision.
Another specific plot point that came from the EA show was that Jane revealed to Frank the owner of the Boxx restaurant, which was potentially a more significant issue than in the novel (when she revealed Dr. Perry's plan to buy a carriage) because Jane and her colleagues had signed non-disclosure agreements. So in this instance, she made a greater error than in canon. In addition, since it was her decision to hide the relationship in EA, she also made a greater mistake than in canon, where Jane was simply going along with Frank's decision.
As for the breakup, that is both true to the novel and the show. In ch. 50 of Emma, Frank writes to Mrs. Weston the full story of his relationship with Jane, and he reveals that there was a period of time in which they had in fact broken up immediately following the Box Hill incident ("she dissolved [the relationship]," he writes). He also describes going to her and pleading for her to take him back, which she does. ("A great deal of very reasonable, very just displeasure I had to persuade away.")
At the end of the EA show, Jane and Frank remain broken up, which I think is appropriate--modern Jane has many more options than her canon counterpart and can rightly hold Frank to task for his poor behavior much more than can novel!Jane. (The show ends right at the beginning of ch. 22 of my story--Jane has finally responded to one of Frank's messages and they're going to talk further, but the results of that further conversation remain unknown). However, I liked them as a couple, and I wanted to see if I could delve into the process of bringing them back together, while helping them address some of the character flaws that came between them in the first place.
As for Jane's meltdown in ch. 30, I see it as her having a crisis moment after a stressful day, after what has been a very stressful year. She has been through a lot of very difficult transitions and circumstances in the last year--losing her job in London, Diggy's hate letter, her roommate's marriage (which, while a joyful event, meant a big change in Jane's support system), moving back to the U.S., a very challenging job situation with Emma which she eventually quits, the tension between her and Frank and their painful breakup, having her reputation smeared in the media, and the difficulties of getting her foundation off the ground. Add to that Jane's intensity about succeeding, and the feeling that's she's failed quite a bit in the last year with two jobs not working out and her attempts to create her own charity encountering so many obstacles.
In addition, there is her dream to work in Sierra Leone and the tragedy that the Ebola crisis is posing. When I started writing this story, the Ebola crisis wasn't prominent news in the U.S. media. I chose Sierra Leone and the children's orphanage there as a connection for Jane because a program like this has offices in my community and I know some of the people involved. It seemed like a good fit for Jane, because on the show she is portrayed as caring about human rights, caring about Africa, and because in both the novel and show she is an orphan herself. In addition, the particular program I know about also has offices in Oxford, UK, where Jane went to school (again, something established by the show). When the Ebola crisis became well-known, I realized that it would hit Jane much harder than it would, say, someone like me, because of the fact that she had lived in that country and knew and cared about many people there. On this day when she learns about her grandmother, she was already very emotional about everything happening in Sierra Leone. Thus, on top of everything else she's been through in the last year, she hits a breaking point.
Regarding her grandmother's kidney disease: In the show, we are told that Maddy stopped working for Emma's dad in order to take care of her mother, who was ill. Maddy also often talks about her mother, making her sound like a very spunky lady. I came up with kidney failure as her main illness because it is one which would require Maddy to be at home a lot (her mother would need to be transported to and from dialysis several times a week) but is also one that wouldn't incapacitate her so much that she wouldn't be able to go to church, have dinner with friends, give sage advice to her granddaughter, etc. As far as kidney transplantation, Mrs. Bates may very well be on a transplant list, but people can linger on such lists for years until a good match becomes available to them. (I have a relative with renal failure, so I'm speaking from experience here).
Thanks again for your comment, and I hope this addresses some of your questions. Feel free to provide any additional feedback you have.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment and questions. From your post, I'm not sure whether or not you watched the web series Emma Approved, but some of the deviations from the original novel are based on the plot as created by the web series. For example, the fact that it was Jane, rather than Frank, who decided to keep the relationship secret, and her reasons for it, are directly from the EA show. What I tried to do with my own writing was explore the thought process that led her to that decision.
Another specific plot point that came from the EA show was that Jane revealed to Frank the owner of the Boxx restaurant, which was potentially a more significant issue than in the novel (when she revealed Dr. Perry's plan to buy a carriage) because Jane and her colleagues had signed non-disclosure agreements. So in this instance, she made a greater error than in canon. In addition, since it was her decision to hide the relationship in EA, she also made a greater mistake than in canon, where Jane was simply going along with Frank's decision.
As for the breakup, that is both true to the novel and the show. In ch. 50 of Emma, Frank writes to Mrs. Weston the full story of his relationship with Jane, and he reveals that there was a period of time in which they had in fact broken up immediately following the Box Hill incident ("she dissolved [the relationship]," he writes). He also describes going to her and pleading for her to take him back, which she does. ("A great deal of very reasonable, very just displeasure I had to persuade away.")
At the end of the EA show, Jane and Frank remain broken up, which I think is appropriate--modern Jane has many more options than her canon counterpart and can rightly hold Frank to task for his poor behavior much more than can novel!Jane. (The show ends right at the beginning of ch. 22 of my story--Jane has finally responded to one of Frank's messages and they're going to talk further, but the results of that further conversation remain unknown). However, I liked them as a couple, and I wanted to see if I could delve into the process of bringing them back together, while helping them address some of the character flaws that came between them in the first place.
As for Jane's meltdown in ch. 30, I see it as her having a crisis moment after a stressful day, after what has been a very stressful year. She has been through a lot of very difficult transitions and circumstances in the last year--losing her job in London, Diggy's hate letter, her roommate's marriage (which, while a joyful event, meant a big change in Jane's support system), moving back to the U.S., a very challenging job situation with Emma which she eventually quits, the tension between her and Frank and their painful breakup, having her reputation smeared in the media, and the difficulties of getting her foundation off the ground. Add to that Jane's intensity about succeeding, and the feeling that's she's failed quite a bit in the last year with two jobs not working out and her attempts to create her own charity encountering so many obstacles.
In addition, there is her dream to work in Sierra Leone and the tragedy that the Ebola crisis is posing. When I started writing this story, the Ebola crisis wasn't prominent news in the U.S. media. I chose Sierra Leone and the children's orphanage there as a connection for Jane because a program like this has offices in my community and I know some of the people involved. It seemed like a good fit for Jane, because on the show she is portrayed as caring about human rights, caring about Africa, and because in both the novel and show she is an orphan herself. In addition, the particular program I know about also has offices in Oxford, UK, where Jane went to school (again, something established by the show). When the Ebola crisis became well-known, I realized that it would hit Jane much harder than it would, say, someone like me, because of the fact that she had lived in that country and knew and cared about many people there. On this day when she learns about her grandmother, she was already very emotional about everything happening in Sierra Leone. Thus, on top of everything else she's been through in the last year, she hits a breaking point.
Regarding her grandmother's kidney disease: In the show, we are told that Maddy stopped working for Emma's dad in order to take care of her mother, who was ill. Maddy also often talks about her mother, making her sound like a very spunky lady. I came up with kidney failure as her main illness because it is one which would require Maddy to be at home a lot (her mother would need to be transported to and from dialysis several times a week) but is also one that wouldn't incapacitate her so much that she wouldn't be able to go to church, have dinner with friends, give sage advice to her granddaughter, etc. As far as kidney transplantation, Mrs. Bates may very well be on a transplant list, but people can linger on such lists for years until a good match becomes available to them. (I have a relative with renal failure, so I'm speaking from experience here).
Thanks again for your comment, and I hope this addresses some of your questions. Feel free to provide any additional feedback you have.