Jane Porter (Tarzan)

Jane Porter
Early depiction by J. Allen St. John from The Beasts of Tarzan (1st edition, 1916)
First appearance	Tarzan of the Apes
Last appearance	Tarzan's Quest
Created by	Edgar Rice Burroughs
Information
Aliases	Jane Clayton, Lady Greystoke
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Spouse(s)	Tarzan (husband)
Children	Korak (son)
Relatives	Prof. Archimedes Q. Porter (father) Meriem (daughter-in-law)
Nationality	American/English

Jane Porter (later Jane Clayton, Lady Greystoke) is a major character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's series of Tarzan novels and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly film.

Jane, an American from Baltimore, Maryland, is the daughter of professor Archimedes Q. Porter. She becomes the love interest and later the wife of Tarzan, and subsequently the mother of their son Korak. She develops over the course of the series from a conventional damsel in distress, who must be rescued from various perils, to an educated, competent and capable adventuress in her own right, fully capable of defending herself and surviving on her own in the jungles of Africa.

She first appeared in the initial Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes (1912), then later reappeared in:

Jane also appeared in a minor role in the non-Tarzan novel The Eternal Lover (1925), the events of which take place chronologically between The Return of Tarzan and The Beasts of Tarzan.

Additionally, Porter is the narrator-protagonist in Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell, a 2011 novel authorized by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. to commemorate the centennial celebration of Tarzan. Maxwell's novel is a free adaptation of the original story, contradicting it on numerous points of the story.

Early Tarzan films portrayed Jane Porter and (occasionally) her father faithfully to the portrayal in the novels. The 1932 sound film Tarzan the Ape Man and its sequels changed the character's name to Jane Parker, portraying her as English rather than American and making her and Tarzan the adoptive parents of an orphan they named "Boy". In addition, the name of Jane's father in the first film is James Parker. Remakes of the 1932 film, (Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959) and Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)) reprised this portrayal as well as that of her father. Maureen O'Sullivan, who portrayed Jane Parker opposite Johnny Weissmuller in the 1932 film and its first few sequels, was the most famous screen Jane. In more recent Tarzan films, starting with Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), the character is once again Jane Porter, and her father Archimedes Q. Porter, and both once again Americans (with the exception of Disney's animated Tarzan (1999), which again represents both as English).