Jane Eyre Character Analysis

Women who had no claim to wealth or beauty received the harshest of realities in America’s Victorian era. Author Charlotte Bronte – from America’s Victorian era – examines and follows the life of a girl born into these conditions in her gothic novel Jane Eyre (of which the main character’s name

When Jane was young she lost her parents, and thanks to her uncle Jane could live a fine life, but unfortunately her uncle died after a few years. Mrs. Sarah Reed, her aunt, regarded Jane as a curse and her three children neglected and abused Jane. They despised Jane’s simple looks and quiet yet passionate character. The only relatives of Jane Eyre never showed any sympathy or care to this distressing little girl, instead they consistently criticized and bullied her. Unsympathetic and disparaging, Mrs. Reed always treated Jane Eyre as an impediment inferior to a maid. Finally one day, little Jane had a quarrel with her cousin and was beaten. Jane became ill as she was locked in a room for an entire night and at that time, her early feminism was generated.

Jane is quiet and controlled, and her foil, Bertha, the wife of Jane’s love interest, is seen as a “lunatic,” but is also a metaphorical representation of Jane’s innermost thoughts and rage towards those who have ever dismissed her and/or controlled her. In the end, Jane is overcome by a burning desire to be free, and in claiming so, she describes herself as insane by saying “’I care for myself…the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself…Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be… I am insane — quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs. Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot,’” (Bronte, 408). In this selection, Jane explains how her self-suppression has led her to insanity. However, she mislabels her intuitive trust and desire to put

The novel in which Jane Eyre stars in can be seen criticizing many aspects of those times such as the role and nature of women, child negligence and social hardships for those in a lesser class. Jane Eyre’s alienation from society allows for a greater reveal of the story’s culture, values, and assumptions. It’s presented through the use of gender, class and character conflicts throughout the story. On multiple occasions, Jane is judged for the presented factors reflecting the type of society Jane lives in and what the times were like at that time.

Violence is the most recurrent gothic convention used in Jane Eyre, which is prominent in Charlotte Brontë's effective development of the novel and the character of Jane Eyre, who, throughout this novel, is searching for a home in which she would have a sense of belonging and love which would ultimately resolve this exact unfulfilled need she had as a child. The neglect she experienced in her childhood is manifested in the way she is treated by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, as in the first page of the novel Jane Eyre admits: ‘Me, she had dispensed from joining the group, saying, 'She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance’’. This opening shows how there is a clear line of separation drawn between Jane and her relatives due to her complicated family background which consequently results in their reluctance to accept her into their environment. These complications lead to her maltreatment, which also adds on to the violence she experiences acting as a catalyst for the development of the character and her subconscious quest.

While Bertha’s is most obviously apparent, Jane hides her wildness inside of her. However, both women face this unkempt part of them. For example, Jane says ‘‘They have a worth- so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane- quite insane; with my veins running fire and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs’’ (Brontë, 606). When leaving Thornfield, Jane feels as though she is crazy, just as Bertha is described simply a chapter ago. This wanton feeling pervades her body. Bertha is insane, and Jane feels just as uncontrolled. Jane also says that ‘‘I could not help it; the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain at times’’ (Brontë, 206). Jane’s need for adventure and change is reminiscent of young, beautiful Bertha who also wanted adventure with her new wealthy husband. Finally, ‘‘I lived with that woman upstairs four years, and before that time she had tried me indeed: her character ripened and developed with frightful rapidity; her vices sprang up fast and rank: they were so strong, only cruelty could check them, and I would not use cruelty’’ (Brontë, 584-5) . Bertha’s mental illness made her inhuman and society made her appear as a monster rather than a woman. Bertha’s disability is her wildness through and through, and though she cannot control it it will always be in her no matter what she does, just as Jane’s unrestrained

Throughout the novel of ‘Jane Eyre’ a colonialism and isolation are reflected throughout the novel, mainly through the treatment of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre as she is cruelly locked in the attic due to her husband, Mr Rochester deeming her as insane. Bertha is described in a demon like manner whereas Jane represents a rebellious young woman who can be closely linked to a modern woman with the values and independence the contemporary readers possess. Jane does not represent any of the desired values by Victorians as Jane stands up to Rochester and acts as his equal rather than his lesser half. The presentation of Bertha being demonic was also highlighted by Solomon as she ‘represent[s] the flames of hell fire’¹ showing the devilish manner Bertha is presented in and the mistreatment of her as an individual, however, it also shows the historical views towards the mentally ill as Bertha isn’t seen to have a sickness but rather she is possessed. Fire is also associated with heat like Bertha as she is aligned with the ‘hot’ West Indies. Bertha is seen as villain as she constantly jeopardises Jane and Rochester’s future, however she can be seem to catalyse Janes personal development and self-awareness due to the positions Jane is left in due to Berthas presence.

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, the title character’s journey is full of challenges that shape her development. These are constructed of times spent as four main places; Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, and Ferndean. At Gateshead Jane is too quick-tempered but only to lose her lively spirit at Lowood. At Thornfield she become overly passionate and guided by her emotions but balance is achieved at Ferndean. Jane Eyre becomes as complete character as she learns to find the balance between the intellect and the passions. In doing so, she touches the life of Edward Rochester and in fulling herself helps Rochester humble himself and achieve a perfect balance by example.

Charlotte Brontë’s classic literature novel Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman novel, which concentrates on the moral growth of the protagonist Jane. Brontë explores and extrapolates why Jane has difficulty complying to Victorian conventions whilst she is at Gateshead. Furthermore, Thornfield can be seen as a major learning curve, where Jane experiences both duty and desire. Through the use of this delicate balance of the binary opposites, readers are given insight into

“Jane Eyre” is a book centred around female duality. In a time when females were still expected to fulfill their “womanly duties,” Charlotte Bronte wrote a novel dealing with a woman’s view on morality & sexuality, passion & sensibility, and conformity & insanity, among other themes. This motif of duality plays a strong part in the dynamism that makes up the book, and is not limited to the themes, but is also used to relate many of the characters to the titular Jane. In “The Mystery at Thornfield,” Valerie Beattie makes claims that the character Bertha Mason’s insanity is a representation of rebellion toward the limitations of Victorian women. Not only is

In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Bertha serves as a primary obstacle in the novel, as her marriage to Rochester is a hindrance to Jane’s emotional fulfillment and happiness. Bertha is depicted as a violent and insane woman who is kept hidden in an attic throughout the novel. Bertha’s rage eventually leads her to burn Thornfield, in which Rochester loses an eye and severely injures himself. Despite the portrayal of Bertha as an inherently monstrous figure, it almost seems as though oppression by a male-dominated society has fueled the destructive rage she comes to embody in the novel. This rage in Bertha is a manifestation of Jane’s passion and independent nature, which seems to serve as a guiding force for Jane on her journey towards autonomy. Through the ominous characterization of Bertha coupled with the positive impact her actions have on Jane, Brontë explores gender inequality in an Victorian era and seems to suggest that passionate and independent women in male-dominated environments are deprived of their femininity and may even be dehumanized.

Both the scholarly community and the public alike recognize Jane Erye as a feminist classic, a bold social commentary penned by a daring woman intent on shedding light on the hypocrisy that riddled Victorian English society. Indeed, the rise of the character Jane Eyre from a suppressed and maltreated orphan to a woman capable of grasping at independence and whose husband needs her as much as, possibly even more, than she needs him, appears on the surface to be a tale meant to empower any female. However, there is a limit to how much light Charlotte Brontë deigns to shed, and its feeble rays fall short of a dank, gloomy, and locked room on the third floor of Thornfield Hall. In ““The Maniac Bellowed”: Queer Affect and Queer Temporality in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre”, Carolyn Marjorie Davis asserts that the arms of Brontë’s feminism do not embrace women who fail to fulfill certain standards of domesticity and femininity, namely, they do not embrace Bertha Mason, the mad and muscular, foreign and forgotten wife of Edward Rochester. Davis analyzes how the elements of queerness, in the form of gender nonconformity, in Bertha’s character, as well as her ethnic background, make her intolerably “other” in relation to the gender-conforming, Angelo-Saxon characters, and claims that the incarceration and eventual death of Bertha represent Charlotte Brontë’s own imperialistic and hegemonic prejudices. A careful reading of Bertha, her actions, and the reactions of the

With an attempt to distinguish between the old and the new, Charlotte Bronte creates the character of Bertha Mason as the exhibition of female repression and desire frequently found in the East. Bertha Rochester is the emblem of Eastern society, one which the British see as static and barbaric, and Jane Eyre is representative of the Western Civilization. In Reaches of Empire, Suvendrini Perera argues that "if the barely human prisoner caged in the Thornfield attic is the truest expression of women's anger and aspiration . . . [it is overlooked] that she is also the racial Other incarnate - a bestial, violent creature with an inordinate sexual appetite, caught in the colonized West Indies and confined 'for her own good' by a master who has appropriated both her body and her wealth" (82). If the reader only sees Bertha as the surrogate of Jane, one neglects to take note of the enriching importance of the text's suppression of Bertha. Charlotte Bronte presents Bertha as a sexually vigorous woman. This can be seen when Rochester indirectly describes

In Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, the character Bertha Mason is a manifestation of the feelings that Jane cannot express, and thus acts as an alter ego. Every time Bertha acts, it is predicated by a strong emotion or what should have been a strong emotion on Jane’s part. In the Victorian Era, women were expected to follow strict rules and isolate themselves from the outside world. In order to be the “angel in the house,” women were expected to obey and not question their fathers and husbands. Societal expectations dictate that Jane cannot show the full extent of her emotions, particularly when Mr. Rochester is involved. As a result, she does not do so, and they come out in the form of Bertha Mason. Throughout the novel, some sort of action by Bertha closely follows Jane’s musings on her frustrations, her discontent, or her anger. When Jane recognizes her emotions, Bertha’s expression is mild. However, Jane fails to recognize fully her emotions in multiple cases and Bertha responds violently. Because Bertha represents emotions that Jane possesses but represses in order to meet societal expectations, Bertha and these emotions must be removed before she can marry Mr. Rochester. Therefore, Bertha is a key character because she represents an important aspect of Jane and prevents Jane from fulfilling societal expectations.

Bertha Mason, although a minor character in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre , played a crucial role in the love story between Jane and Rochester and gives a deeper understanding of how mentally impaired people were treated at the time. She is necessary to Jane and Rochester’s imminent marriage and her actions lead the two to reconcile. Her motives and the causes for behavior are unclear, besides her obvious jealousy towards Jane and betrayal she felt from Rochester. Not only that, but Bertha also symbolizes everything Jane is not, mirroring her in a way as a polar opposite.