Jane Eyre Bertha In The Attic

The incident of the madwoman in the attic is probably the most famous in jane eyre and it has given rise to innumerable interpretations and symbolic readings.

Jane eyre bertha in the attic.

The 1966 parallel novel wide sargasso sea by jean rhys serves as a prequel to brontë s novel. For example bertha mason could represent the horror of victorian marriage. The woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination. It is the story of mason from the time of her youth in the caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to england.

In the madwoman in the attic they cast bertha as a passionate untrammelled woman who acts out jane s darkest most secret desires. The madwoman in the attic bertha mason. Bertha mason is a fictional character in charlotte brontë s 1847 novel jane eyre. Bertha mason rochester s first wife was a beautiful creole woman from jamaica who rochester married years ago before she had a mental breakdown and naturally had to be locked in the attic.

She is described as the violently insane first wife of edward rochester who moved her to thornfield hall and locked her in a room on the third floor. The madwoman in the attic. The madwoman in the attic the most well known and problematic character in jane eyre is rochester s first wife who is almost always referred to by her maiden name of bertha mason. The descriptions form a bestial image of bertha in the reader s mind even though there is no concrete proof.

The madwoman in the attic bertha has become especially famous in literary criticism because her situation supplied the title and central theory of a major 1979 book of feminist criticism sandra gilbert and susan gubar s the madwoman in the attic. In jane eyre the character of bertha mason serves as an ominous representation of uncontrollable passion and madness. Jane hates rochester dolling her up like a princess so bertha. Rochester into a stereotypical byronic hero.

The real life attic that was the inspiration for a section of jane eyre where mentally ill character bertha mason is confined before she commits suicide is now open to the public. Rhys s novel re imagines brontë s devilish. Originally read as the novel s. Her dark sensuality and violent nature contrast sharply with jane s calm morality and it is no surprise that bertha s presence at thornfield is a key factor in transforming mr.

How mad was bertha mason in jane eyre. Bertha mason s madness.