Post by jzhangx3 on Nov 17, 2015 2:01:28 GMT
The role of women, especially in Victorian literature, is to show the contrasts between the angel and the monster. In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte starts a novel idea that women can actually be both angels and monsters at the same time, as angels and monsters are counterparts of each other. Aside from Jane Eyre, most Victorian novels ideologized the angel and condemned the monster side of women. People feared monstrous women because they demanded the sexual freedom that the Victorian double standard gave to men and prohibited to women and proved that those emotional and intellectual needs which people thought should be given just to the men in society, were also necessary and just for the development of a woman. In order to warn people against female independence and sexual liberty, referred to as "insubordination" in the reading, Victorian era writers often counterpointed angelic women with demonic madwomen. In Jane Eyre, both Jane and Bertha show the true side of women--that women can be, and usually are, both angels and monsters.
Before discussing how Jane and Bertha are both angels and monsters, it's important to mention some of the traits of each side of the spectrum. Angels are self-sacrificing, submissive to men, dainty, ethereal, passionless, virgins, and innocent/dependent. Monsters or whores, on the other hand, are selfish, independent, strong, intellectual, passionate, and sexual. Jane and Bertha are not just clear-cut, good or bad, characters. Bertha, specifically, went through a significant change from being an angelic figure as a child and adolescent/before she was married to Rochester, to being a monster after marriage with Rochester and after being locked up by him.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, the author explores Bertha's past. Bertha grows up in a world with little love, similar to Jane, but she deals with it differently from Jane: she is submissive, defenseless, and passionless (she doesn't argue against the system she lives in; she just deals with it). Because she has so little sense of identity, she does not know what would make her happy, and she is therefore dependent on her dysfunctional relatives. She is essentially powerless as she is "shipped away" from her family into a marriage with Rochester, in which both her and Rochester are unhappy and only communicate through sex, not love. Again, Bertha is in a situation where she is offered little to no love. However, she grows independent of love and seeks sex as a way to satisfy her desires, and Rochester is disgusted by how passionate and sexual she is; he believes that she should be submissive, innocent, and passionless, but that is the exact opposite of what Bertha is. In order to suppress the "monster"/Bertha, he literally locks her up, and through her monstrous actions, she shows the Victorian era woman's fear of being confined and restrained in a marriage, locked up and completely submissive to her husband. She warns Jane of what could happen if she married Rochester only on the basis of excess passion; as a result, she would lose respect for herself and ultimately be dependent on Rochester. Bertha, therefore, turned from an angel into a monster, whereas Jane was an angel and a monster at the same time, with Bertha representing her inner turmoils on issues of sex and passion and her prim and proper look on the outside representing an angel.
Before discussing how Jane and Bertha are both angels and monsters, it's important to mention some of the traits of each side of the spectrum. Angels are self-sacrificing, submissive to men, dainty, ethereal, passionless, virgins, and innocent/dependent. Monsters or whores, on the other hand, are selfish, independent, strong, intellectual, passionate, and sexual. Jane and Bertha are not just clear-cut, good or bad, characters. Bertha, specifically, went through a significant change from being an angelic figure as a child and adolescent/before she was married to Rochester, to being a monster after marriage with Rochester and after being locked up by him.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, the author explores Bertha's past. Bertha grows up in a world with little love, similar to Jane, but she deals with it differently from Jane: she is submissive, defenseless, and passionless (she doesn't argue against the system she lives in; she just deals with it). Because she has so little sense of identity, she does not know what would make her happy, and she is therefore dependent on her dysfunctional relatives. She is essentially powerless as she is "shipped away" from her family into a marriage with Rochester, in which both her and Rochester are unhappy and only communicate through sex, not love. Again, Bertha is in a situation where she is offered little to no love. However, she grows independent of love and seeks sex as a way to satisfy her desires, and Rochester is disgusted by how passionate and sexual she is; he believes that she should be submissive, innocent, and passionless, but that is the exact opposite of what Bertha is. In order to suppress the "monster"/Bertha, he literally locks her up, and through her monstrous actions, she shows the Victorian era woman's fear of being confined and restrained in a marriage, locked up and completely submissive to her husband. She warns Jane of what could happen if she married Rochester only on the basis of excess passion; as a result, she would lose respect for herself and ultimately be dependent on Rochester. Bertha, therefore, turned from an angel into a monster, whereas Jane was an angel and a monster at the same time, with Bertha representing her inner turmoils on issues of sex and passion and her prim and proper look on the outside representing an angel.
