Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason Essay

“Jane’s relationship with Rochester in the early part of the novel is based not on love but control, manipulation and secrecy. She does well to escape”

We first see Jane; vulnerable and lonely at Gateshead, where the orphaned little girl resides with her bitter widowed aunt and her children. Jane is sent to the ‘Red Room’ for retaliating when her

We first encounter this relationship between Jane and Rochester during their first dramatic meeting. She encounters him when he falls off his horse and she is required to give him assistance. Jane’s first impression of his face is that ‘He had a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow’. This may portray the dimness in his face awaiting to be enlightened by a woman which, in this case Jane. Further on in this chapter, unaware of who he is, on her return home, Jane is amazed to discover that the gentleman she assisted in the road was her employer, Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane’s future relationship with Rochester is most clearly set out in their first meeting. Although without any money, reserved and socially dependent, Jane is not

In the early stages of Jane's life she was a very autonomous girl. She grew up in a hostile environment in the home of Mrs. Reed and her three children, John, Eliza, and Georgiana that is known as Gateshead. The Reed family showed no love or any sort of affection towards Jane in any way, shape, or form; for they all despised her. She spent most of her time out of contact of others. The most contact she had with someone was a

So, Rochester showed the brother (Richard), the priest, and Jane his wife. He explained how Bertha had lit his bed on fire, stabbed Richard, and destroyed Jane’s wedding veil's; she was more a monster than a wife. Heartbroken by learning of this marriage, Jane fled to her room where she stayed for hours upon hours. "Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent expectant woman - almost a bride - was a cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate (341)." When she finally emerged, Rochester tried to convince her to stay with him. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment (363).” This was not something she could not do; as Rochester said, "...[It would] strip you of honour and rob you of self-respect (346)..." The next morning, Jane left Thornfield Hall with some money and few possessions. She did not say goodbye to

There are not most indications that Mr. Rochester has romantic feelings towards Jane throughout the chapter although it in the end of the chapter on page 114 Mr. Rochester request that Jane participates in his social excursions in “ I expect you to appear in the drawing room every evening.”

When Jane enters Thornfield she thinks she is going to work for a woman named Mrs. Fairfax, but she does not. She works for a mysterious man name Mr. Rochester. This man is going to be an import aspect of Jane’s life. Jane works as a governess to a young girl named Adele. Jane encounters Mr. Rochester when she goes for a walk and runs into Rochester, whose horse is injured. After the encounter Jane and Rochester start to gain interest into each other. Mr. Rochester is a man with a large amount of money and Jane is a woman with very little money, the fact that she works for Mr. Rochester defies their unprofessional relationship. “Like governesses, these marriages between older men and younger women were viewed with great ambivalence during the Victorian period”(Godfrey). Both characters develop strong feelings for one another and become close to getting married but a discovery of a secret puts the marriage to a halt. After

Mr. Rochester has had a life full of struggle and is dissatisfied on the whole. After being tricked into a marriage with a madwoman, Mr. Rochester feels trapped. Then follows a life of dissipation and shallow affairs, which leads him to despise himself. It is after he has tried all attempts to find true love that Jane enters his life as the perfect woman for him.

In his quest for self-transformation into a man of purity and harmony, Rochester sets his sights on Jane as the key to his renewal. Wooing her is different from any of his past lovers, though he seems to do so easily, but Rochester struggles to see that as he seduces and nearly marries Jane in bigamy, he is sullying the purity he so greatly craves. He is so blinded by the happiness close at hand, that he fails to realize Jane’s unhappiness and eventual departure. The loss of his physical vision is atonement for his lack of observing the effects of his actions, and consequently, darkens his life permanently without Jane, his moral eyes.

Jane begins her life in isolation at Gateshead, abused and misunderstood by her Aunt Reed and cousins. She is constantly reminded of her worthlessness to them and the fact that they view her as a burden, and is literally

Although Bertha’s seclusion is a result of her insanity and unacceptable behaviour, Jane’s isolation seems to be the cause of some mental illness, throwing her into a panic attack in the red room where she believes her Uncle Reed’s ghost dwells. It must be noted, though, that Jane is a child at this point in the novel, with an active imagination. Bronte may be making a point then, that children should not be shunned for their inventiveness and imagination, as was so common in her day. However, there is a fine line, and socially acceptable age, that separates a healthy imagination from madness. There is a clear lack of this knowledge in Bertha, whom does not appear to have a firm grip on reality. Madness, however, does not merely deal with concepts of reality in “Jane Eyre.” Jane has bouts of uncontrollable speech, in which she must say what comes to her mind. Jane first loses control of her tongue in chapter IV, in which she accuses Mrs. Reed of wishing her dead, and later exclaims “I am not deceitful: if I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare, I do not love you: I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed,” and goes on to evaluate the terrible treatment Mrs. Reed has given her, and the lack of love and compassion she has been shown while at Gateshead. In this instance, madness works in Jane’s favour. This temporary bout of mania allows Jane to finally express the

Towards the end of the book, Rochester redeems himself to be made worthy for Jane. When Jane leaves Rochester, he is left with his mentally insane wife. Although, we have the impression that Rochester is a cold, harsh man, Charlotte soon portrays us that he is brave and is kind. We know this because, soon after Jane leaves, Bertha sets Thornfield Hall on fire, and then tries to jump off the roof. Rochester tries to stop her,

Made obvious by the title, Jane is the main character of the novel Jane Eyre. During the novel Jane meets people, in

In Graham’s Magazine, another anonymous reviewer suggested that Rochester’s character was dangerous and immoral, saying, “No woman who had ever truly loved could have mistaken so completely the Rochester type, or could have made her heroine love a man of proud, selfish, ungovernable appetites, which no sophistry can lift out of lust.” Thus, he intimated that any author who would contrive to have her heroine fall in love with such a total rake would be immoral herself and unknowing of what true love is. He went one step further to say, “We accordingly think that if the innocent young ladies of our land lay a premium on profligacy, by marrying dissolute rakes for the honor of reforming them, à la Jane Eyre, their benevolence will be of questionable utility to the world.” In this, he suggested that the depiction of Jane and Rochester’s relationship would cause young women of the time to emulate Jane’s “romantic wickedness.”

It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex." As a great friendship and affection grow for Jane and Mr. Rochester, Jane notices that Rochester wishes to shower her in jewels, buy her fancy dresses, raise her up to some impossible image of the bride or woman, which does not suit her at all. This new treatment feels unequal, as Rochester would pay for her completely, she feels too dependent on him, and not her own woman. Jane acknowledges that she makes Rochester promise to let her continue on as Adele?s governess and being paid for that so that they are equal, or as she puts it: ?By that I shall earn my board and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. I'll furnish my own wardrobe out of that money, and you shall give me nothing but your regard: and if I give you mine in return the debt will be quit." Jane's views on this affair are extremely feminist when taken out of past perspective. In actuality, she attempt to not change the power dynamics of her relationship with Rochester, to be paid for work, instead of becoming his object or property. But she admits later: "My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven.