Post by laurendean on Nov 19, 2015 17:21:59 GMT
In "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte, Bertha Mason serves as a representation of uncontrollable madness and passion. Bertha's violence and dark sensuality contrast greatly with Jane's calm and innocent morality. Bertha's presence within Thornfield introduces Rochester as a stereotypical man of the Victorian era and in "Wide Sargasso Sea" it explains Rochester as being cold and cruel and unable to love Bertha, for he sees her as a possession. Thus, she becomes crazy and it is then when Rochester locks her up and looks for someone he can actually love- who is Jane. But men were not downgraded for this because they were not as harshly judged as women were back then.
There is a certain reason as to why Charlotte Bronte did not want Bertha's voice to be heard in the novel and that is because the idea of a intensely powerful, passionate, and talented woman who is portrayed as crazy and is in need of confinement represents the 19th century woman writer. A woman writer's abilities were seen as a threat to the dominance of men in literacy. Bertha can be seen as an alter-ego for Bronte as well as Jane. Bronte wanted to convey fear and awe and not limit her characterizations to the strict dichotomy between monster and angel, she wanted to merge the two identities into Jane and Bertha and this could possibly be because she wanted to show in a hidden way, conflict between passion and positivity in her own life.
Bronte wanted to show how woman writer's in that era who actually told the truth about the treatment and portrayal of women (aka Bertha as an example) were seen as monsters and were downgraded and not taken seriously, thus why she chose to have Bertha silenced because that is how she felt about herself, and other woman.
I also believe that Jane Eyre had the possibility of ending up like Bertha, as seen when she was in the red room and went crazy, but because she is more desirable by Rochester, but escapes the fate of Bertha because she is loved and gains autonomy. Unlike Bertha, who's future was ruined because of her forced marriage to Rochester.
Jane Eyre possesses many qualities of the so called angel: She is pure, moral, and controlled. Yet, she is extremely passionate, independent, and courage. She refuses to submit to the men in her life. Her childhood also demonstrates some of the "monster" characteristics. Bertha purposefully has Jane balanced and has angel and monster equal, while Bertha has a more difficult time balancing the two. We only see the monster part of Bertha because of the male-dominance society that forced her to become insane. But the similarities between Bertha's behavior in the attic and Jane's actions as a child in the red room suggest that both are neither full angel or full monster, but are a merge of the two.
