Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason can be compared and contrasted easily by showing the way they act in various situations in the novel. There is also a significant difference between how they were raised and how they met Mr. Rochester. Jane was known as the girl who had many things to say but never voiced them. Bertha, on the other hand, would let everyone know what she was feeling by her actions. Both Jane and Bertha had some of the same feelings about how their life was at that time.
Jane was raised with her cousins by her aunt Mrs. Reed. While spending time at that residence, Jane was abused by her cousin John Reed. After finally fighting back with him, she was sent to the Red Room, where her uncle died. Bessie, the nurse that Jane took a liking to, would often visit her with food to eat. Mrs. Reed decided that it would be best if Jane was sent to Lowood, a religious boarding school for orphans.
During Jane’s time at Lowood, she experienced the cold winter, a lovely spring, and horrible deaths. Many of the girls at Lowood had gotten ill with an infection from the harsh cold weather and semi-starvation, including her only close friend Helen. Jane was lying in the same bed as her and wrapped around Helen as she took her lasts breaths and passed away. Jane also tells how after fifteen years, Helen’s grave gets a marble tablet that has her name and the word “Resurgam”.
As time passed, Jane became a teacher at Lowood and decided that she wanted more in life than what she was doing on a daily basis. Jane wrote an advertisement for her services in the local newspaper. After a while, Jane was contacted by the head servant at Thornfield Hall, Mrs. Fairfax, to be the governess of Adele Varens. When Jane arrived at Thornfield, she got to se...
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...conclusion, Jane and Bertha were both at once point connected to Mr. Rochester weather it be mentally and physically or on purpose by someone else. Jane grew up in a unhappy way but didn't let what had happened in the past completely take over her life. Bertha had troubles from the beginning and end up unhappy and insane causing her to end all of it. Both women have gone through challenging things from having mental diseases to finding out that the man that they love has a skeleton in the closet. But in the end Jane finally found the happiness that she needed in her life.
Works Cited
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Signet, 1991. Print.
Griesinger, Emily. “Charlotte Brontë’s Religion: Faith, Feminism, and Jane Eyre.” “Christianity and Literature. 58.1 (2008) Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
. N.p.. Web. 20 Feb 2014. .
Independence, the capacity to manage ones own affairs, make one’s own judgments, and provide for one’s self. Jane Eyre herself is a very independent woman. Throughout her life she has depended on very few people for very little. Charlotte Brontë wants the reader to learn that independence can open many doors of possibilities.
At the beginning of the novel while Jane is living under her aunt, Mrs. Reed, she is treated disrespectfully and cruelly. She accuses Jane of being deceitful and a troublesome girl in front of Mr. Brocklehurst, the master of Lowood School. Jane is so hurt by this accusation that she cannot stop herself from defending her well being, and she stands up to her aunt. She knows she is being treated disrespectful and has much more self-worth than ...
The Novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte took a surprising twist when Bertha "Mason" Rochester was introduced. Bertha leaves a traumatizing impression on Jane’s conscious. However, this particular misfortunate event was insidiously accumulating prior to Jane’s arrival at Thornfield. Through Bertha, the potential alternative dark turn of events of Jane’s past are realized, thus bringing Jane closer to finding herself.
Given the background of Victorian motherhood, the nourishment, teachings, and support from the mother are never really present in Jane’s life. Placing other women in her life are able to fill the void where her mother would have been, but never fill the void as a mother really would.
Jane had a testing childhood at the hands of her aunt Mrs Reed and her cousins. She lived with the Reed family until ten years of age and during these ten years she was bullied and unloved. Jane was then sent away to Lowood School she appeared excited to leave Gateshead, yet once at Lowood she experienced more ridicule and a hard school life. Nevertheless she did find friendship in Helen Burns, although this friendship was short lived as Helen died during a breakout of typhus, through their short friendship Helen had shown Jane that life at Lowood could be bearable; she was also the first friend Jane ever really had.
...ugh in the end Jane and Mr. Rochester do get married, Jane is an emotionally battered character who has to look deep inside of herself to do what is best for her. This happens to people every day. They are hurt by dishonesty and deceitfulness. It can ruin their lives unless they make the commitment to be honest with themselves and those around them.
Bertha had a big effect on Jane future. Since she is still legally married to Mr. Rochester and Jane couldn’t move forward and be happy. The significance of Bertha is that she has an effect on some people. The things she does either brings people goes or farther apart. Jane has been disappointed multiple times and she just has to move forward. Jane doesn’t let certain things get to her. She thinks about them but doesn’t go crazy that she starts to worry. Jane has experienced things that have really shaped the person she has become.
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
This feeling intensifies when Mr. Brocklehurst arrives to take Jane away to Lowood School. Her aunt is pleased to see her go, but manages to influence Jane's life even after Jane is settled in at the charity school, by informing Mr.
Life at Lowood is extremely harsh, the pupils are very often given inedible meals, horrific clothing, and extremely cold conditions. It is through miss Temple and Helen that Jane receives her first taste of love and acceptance.
After Jane’s initiation stage of dealing with death and abuse she went on to deal with it and coped with her differences. After years of Helen’s death Jane went on to teaching and became a teacher for two years at Lowood. Once she got tired of teaching she went on to become a governess and highered her social class and met an older wiser man, Rochester. Rochester fell in love with jane almost immediately and always tried to win her over. He always tried to buy Jane expensive gifts but she would always refuse showing that she was independent and did not have to rely on others. Jane dealt with her suffering by overcoming her obstacles from before and proved to those who doubted her that she was the bigger person and was capable of more than everyone thought. Instead of Jane moving backward and trying to return back to innocence, she kept moving forward to learn from her initiation
Jane next lived at Lowood. This institution was anything but a true family unit. However, Jane sought out people to care for and who would care for her in return. Helen Burns and Miss Temple became very close to Jane. In ways like the mother of the typical family served as a moral guide and a nurturer, so too did Helen Burns, and to a certain extent Miss Temple.
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, is the story of Jane, an orphan girl with a harsh upbringing. During a time when women were condemned for learning more than custom pronounced necessary, Jane becomes educated intellectually, socially, and spiritually. In the course of growing up she travels to many places as she battles to learn more about herself and about the world. In the following paragraphs you’ll see how Bronte establishes that money and power do not make a person. Mrs. Reed, Mr. Rochester, and Mr. Brocklehurst all reflect this, they are not nice or perfectly content people. She demonstrates that general education is more important than wealth.
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...
When Jane is shunned by Mr. Brocklehurst in front of the entire Lowood population, Helen is the one person that does not immediately judge Jane. In fact, she makes her feel more comfortable in a place that is filled with punishment and hypocrisy. Though Lowood does not truly feel like home, Helen is able to provide Jane with not only all the compassion she needs as well as support and respect. This is one of the first loves Jane experiences on her journey and it allows her to become more open to the love she finds in her future endeavors.