The particularity of these novels is the use of the “double” or “second self”. This is a literary mean “to represent hidden or repressed aspects of the main character’s identity” .
Bertha Mason is presented through the eyes of Jane and Rochester. She has no voice of her own unlike Jane, she is hidden in the text in the same way she is hidden in the attic. Bertha chooses to enter the story in the darkness planning to burn Rochester in his bed to rip Jane’s veil and to set fire on Thornfield and then to commit suicide.
Jane on the other hand, she is presented through her own words, her action Jane is a “quaint, quiet, grave and simple in Rochester‘s eyes”. Jane’s character is developed throughout the novel all the suffering and the cruel treatment
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Although Bertha and Jane are clearly contrasting characters, it is important to note similarities in both their lives. Bertha is literally trapped in the mansion while Jane is trapped in a world ruled by male dominance. They share this restlessness, the urge to move,”to walk along the corridor backward and forward” …show more content…
Jane grew up to discover that in the patriarchal system men are the “ruling gender in all spheres“ and rebellion has a high price and in order to live in tranquility she needs to let go of her worries and ease her thoughts just like Helen’s view of life: “revenge never worries my heart, degradation never too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low; I live in calm looking to the end “ .
On the other hand, Bertha is represented as strange wild animal, “a hyena”, “a lunatic” and a madwoman. Rochester was ”not sure of the existence of one virtue in her nature. Neither modesty nor benevolence. Nor refinement in her mind or manners” , he adds that [ he]“found her nature wholly alien to [his]her tastes obnoxious to [him] , her cast of mind common, low, narrow and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger”, what a pygmy intellect she had “
Charlotte Bronte utilizes the character of Bertha Rochester to interrupt Jane’s potential happy ending with Mr. Edward Rochester. Bertha is announced by Mr. Briggs as a way to stop the wedding and it also shows how hopeless Jane’s situation is. “That is my wife “said he. ‘Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to have,’” (312) and “’I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout,’” (312) are quotes that express Mr. Rochester’s reasons for trying to remarry while he already has a wife, meanwhile showing his disposition towards said wife. Had Mr. Briggs and Mr. Mason not been present for the ceremony, Jane may have lived happily in ignorance. Due to Bertha’s involvement however, Jane could never truly call herself Mr. Rochester’s wife. She says, “’Sir, your wife is living: that is a fact acknowledged this morning by yourself. If I lived with you as you desire—I should then be your mistress: to say otherwise is sophistical—is false.’” (323) This quote shows that as a result of Bertha’s exposure, Jane refuses to marry Mr. Rochester. The influence that Bertha’s brief debut had on Jane’s life was significant enough to hinder the growth of her relationship with Mr. Rochester.
Jane Eyre finds her own image in St. John Rivers as they share several similarities in their moral determinations. After learning of Bertha Mason’s existence, Jane Eyre refuses to stay in Thornfield, fearing that she might lose her self-respect if she would give into Feeling, or “temptation” (447). The Feeling demands her to comply with Rochester’s entreaty, asking “Who in the world cares for you [Jane]? Or who will be injured by what you do?” (4...
Because Jane is the narrator, the reader is given a biased point of view that St. John’s character is unfavorable. Throughout Jane’s life she has had oppressive male figures dominate her life, such as John Reed and Mr. Brocklehurst; thus, Jane can conditioned herself to be apprehensive when confronting men. After gaining her physical and emotional strength back, Jane studies St. John’s character. Jane’s first impression of St. John is pessimistic, she states “Had he been a statue instead of a man, he could not have been easier”(Bronte 329). By comparing St. John to a statue the reader is forced to see St. John as someone who is cold and rigid. Jane sets up the perception that St.John is disconnected from human feelings. Jane also presents a biased view of men when she first meets Rochester, who later becomes her husband. Furthermore, Jane’s first impressions of Rochester are also negative. Upon first being introduced to Rochester, after he asked to see her, Jane comments, “But it appeared he was not in the mood to notice us, for he never lifted his head as we approached. . . There was something in the forced stiffed bow, in the impatient yet formal tone, which he seemed to further expresses”(Bronte 111). Upon meeting Rochester for the fir...
Another important journey Jane makes is from Gateshead back to Thornfield having visited her aunt Reed on her deathbed. By then Jane realizes that she loves Rochester. A key theme is raised here, Jane fierce desire to love and to be loved. She feels alone and isolated when she has no friends around her. This is a sharp contrast compared to other characters’ search for money and social position.
Bertha and Mr. Rochester were set up and pressured into marrying each other. Mr. Rochester claims that isolating Bertha in a secret room is a justifiable act because of her mental instability. However, The Bertha that the reader gets to see exhibits an accumulated maniacal rage as a result of her imprisonment. Jane describes her as a savage woman. The very sight of her when she attacked her brother or when she ripped the wedding veil traumatized Jane. However, Bertha impacted more than her safety. When Bertha is revealed to be Mr. Rochester’s wife, Jane finds out that despite the love she and Mr. Rochester have for each other; Jane can be nothing more than a mistress because it is illegal to divorce an insane women who is not in control of her actions.
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.
In conclusion, Jane Eyre’s painstaking journey to find a sense of acceptance, affection, and family was finally completed, attaining the things she yearned. She eventually discovered everything she was searching for through Mr. Rochester, forgetting her agonizing past and looking to what was ahead. As Jane looked for many different alternatives to make her feel as if she was complete, she found that Mr. Rochester was the only one who could make her feel
With the death of Bertha, Jane is now able to live with the man she loves. Bertha's death precedes a successful union between Rochester and Jane. When they are finally reunited, they are equal (Showalter 122). When Rochester and Jane finally get together, their relationship succeeds due to the fact that he has learned how it feels to be helpless and how to accept the help of a woman (Showalter 122).
While isolation may help some with different processes of healing, or finding one’s self, it can also be quite maddening to be solitary for long periods of time. Since humans are social creatures it is imperative that we have some form of positive interaction with other humans. Bronte again examines her theme of solitude but from a darker perspective as she creates her character the estranged Bertha Rochester, wife of Jane’s love interest Mr. Rochester. Bertha is described rather negatively physiologically and behaviorally throughout the novel: “The maniac bellowed: she parted her shaggy locks from her visage, and gazed wildly at her visitors. I recognized well that purple face, --those bloated features…the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat violently, and laid her teeth to his neck: they struggled” (Bronte 71). Bertha was supposed to have lost her mind shortly after Mr. Rochester and she married, yet the fact that Mr. Rochester locked her in a room (while understandable since mental institutes at the time were nothing but torture chambers) did not aid in her health or betterment. Solitude can drive people to extremes, and while she is locked in that room she is described in a more monstrous and animalistic way than she is when out of the room as she “removed [Jane’s] veil from [her] gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on
In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë clearly demonstrates the relationship between sexuality and morality in Victorian society through the character of Bertha Mason, the daughter of a West Indian planter and Rochester's first wife. Rochester recklessly married Bertha in his youth, and when it was discovered shortly after the marriage that Bertha was sexually promiscuous, Rochester locked her away. Bertha is called a "maniac" and is characterized as insane. Confining Bertha for her display of excess passion reinforces a prevalent theme in Jane Eyre, that of oppressive sexual Victorian values. Bertha's captivity metaphorically speaks on the male-dominated Victorian society in which women are inferior and scorned for acts of nonconformism.
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...
Despite Rochester’s stern manner and unhandsome appearance, Jane still finds herself falling in love with him. During her first encounter with Rochester Jane describes him
At the beginning of the novel, Bronte presents Jane as a lonely, yet independent and intelligent child who faces difficult hardships at a very young age. At Gateshead, Jane is greatly mistreated by her family members which result in her attending a school for orphaned children called Lowood. Although Jane's life at Lowood is an improvement compared to life at Gateshead, she still feels as though she belongs elsewhere. Jane sends out an advertisement for a wanted governess after six years of living at Lowood and soon begins working at Thornfield Hall where she begins teaching a young French girl Adele Varens. Upon arriving, Jane is informed by the housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax that the owner of Thornfield Mr. Rochester travels often and has lived through a troubled life. After many months have passed at Thornfield Jane finally meets Mr. Rochester and he takes a great secretive interest in her. The relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester is the first non-abusive relationship Jane has with another man in the no...
Jane’s initial struggle begins as she is brought up by her aunt. Jane is living in an upper-class household and is being treated as a person of the lower-class. Jane would be antagonized on a daily basis by the Reed children. As an outcast, Jane realizes at an early age how much class affects the behavior of people in society. Jane would be punished by Mrs. Reed regularly, which may have fueled her rebellious nature. A specific example would be when Jane was sent to the “red room” by Mrs. Reed as punishment for fighting with her son. This was the room where Mrs. Reed’s husband was found dead. This shows that Mrs. Reed had absolutely no respect for Jane as an individual as Mrs. Reed knew that Jane believed that the room was haunted. This event also shows that Mrs. Reed does not respect her deceased husband, as she abandoned the room after he was found.
Jane Eyre ends only after a succession of unlikely (and frankly hideous) circumstances come to pass, transforming the lives and psyches of Jane and Rochester beyond their stoic realism. However, because Jane and Rochester are such believable characters, the events that wrack their mortal lives are taken in stride by both the characters and the reader, although the grap...