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Post by hopekim on Nov 18, 2015 22:56:10 GMT
Although both Jane and Bertha were confined to private "sphere", neither Jane nor Bertha fit the "Angel" mold or "whore" mold completely. in the madwoman in the attic packet it says that, "for many writers such as self-sacrificing an angelic woman became the paradigm of renunciatory Christian love," showing that an angelic woman should have been self-sacrificing and Christian to an extreme level. Jane, although Christian with her changing faith in God throughout the novel, is in no way self-sacrificing! She exhibits her strength when opressed by Mrs. Reed, Mr. Brocklehurst, and the negative connotation associated with being a woman in the 19th century. It also says that the "angel" mold should "look and act like a fragile creature" and be "passionless", which Jane is in fact not! Contrastingly, Bertha was depicted as a "demonic mad woman" and "refusal to be selfless as ultimately pernicious", a trait that we also find in Jane. Bertha's untold past also gives us a reasoning as to why she is however part "whore"
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pditzler
New Member
I'm here to analyze literature and be a cool kid, and I'm all done being a cool kid.
Posts: 16 
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Post by pditzler on Nov 20, 2015 1:06:35 GMT
Charlotte Bronte was definitely pushing the boundaries of social norms by portraying not only one unique and non-conforming woman character, but two. At the time, such ideas were rejected and frowned upon, because women and female characters were always supposed to be largely insignificant and easy to stereotype. Bronte had a large role in helping to evolve society's views on women. What's especially interesting is Jane's complexity as a main character who is struggling with issues that were rarely thought of for women at the time. However, since Bertha plays a less important part in the story, her background is less elaborated upon, and the reader can't know for sure Bertha's background that led her to becoming a "demonic madwoman". It is evident that she was not being treated well by Mr. Rochester in any case, because of his willingness to marry another woman and keep Bertha's existence a secret. From this, the reader can make assumptions that Bertha was helpless and trapped by the man who had brought her from Jamaica for marriage. As you said, women were considered whores for not being self-sacrificing or passionless, and the novel challenged this idea through Bertha by leaving open the discussion about what brought her to a mentally unstable state. Readers are meant to wonder if it was it for her secularism and sexual desire or if factors other than her personality led to her poor condition. Do you think Jane was entirely blind to the influence Mr. Rochester had over Bertha's sanity? Or did she just assume he was doing his best to care for an ill-mannered wife?
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Post by owenleber on Nov 21, 2015 21:50:04 GMT
I think that Jane was a smart girl, so she wasn't completely blind to the influence Rochester had over Bertha's sanity, and neither did she just assume he was doing his best to care for his ill-mannered wife. I think that Jane, in a way, thought she knew what was going on with Bertha. This would explain why she does not try to stray away from Rochester and try to be as completely independent as she wants to be. Because, in a way she fears ending up the same way that Bertha did. So I do think she had an idea of what was going on, because she wasn't stupid.
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Post by hopekim on Nov 22, 2015 23:13:20 GMT
Charlotte Bronte was definitely pushing the boundaries of social norms by portraying not only one unique and non-conforming woman character, but two. At the time, such ideas were rejected and frowned upon, because women and female characters were always supposed to be largely insignificant and easy to stereotype. Bronte had a large role in helping to evolve society's views on women. What's especially interesting is Jane's complexity as a main character who is struggling with issues that were rarely thought of for women at the time. However, since Bertha plays a less important part in the story, her background is less elaborated upon, and the reader can't know for sure Bertha's background that led her to becoming a "demonic madwoman". It is evident that she was not being treated well by Mr. Rochester in any case, because of his willingness to marry another woman and keep Bertha's existence a secret. From this, the reader can make assumptions that Bertha was helpless and trapped by the man who had brought her from Jamaica for marriage. As you said, women were considered whores for not being self-sacrificing or passionless, and the novel challenged this idea through Bertha by leaving open the discussion about what brought her to a mentally unstable state. Readers are meant to wonder if it was it for her secularism and sexual desire or if factors other than her personality led to her poor condition. Do you think Jane was entirely blind to the influence Mr. Rochester had over Bertha's sanity? Or did she just assume he was doing his best to care for an ill-mannered wife?
In contrast to Owen, I think that Jane was completely blind to the influence that Mr. Rochester had over Bertha's sanity since she was so entangled within her own feelings. I think Bronte is saying something past the way that society and men viewed women in that time period but also the way that women saw themselves. Jane was so encompassed in her own problems and confusion that in my opinion, she was more appalled at Mr. Rochester being married to someone else, a madwoman. Jane, a woman herself, saw Bertha as a madwoman, and did not really care how she got to that point. This might be saying how women during the 19th century just accepted themselves as "madwomen", just how Jane accepted Bertha as a madwoman. |
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