Jane Eyre- Analysis of the character 'Bertha Mason' and her importance in the novel 'Jane Eyre'

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Analysis of the character ‘Bertha Mason’ and her importance in the novel ‘Jane Eyre’

       Bertha Mason is quite possibly the biggest antagonist in ‘Jane Eyre’. Although Master Reed and Mrs Reed are emotionally and physically cruel to Jane, Bertha potentially does the most amount of damage to her, intentionally or indirectly. The scene in which Bertha is revealed is arguably the most important scene in the novel. Occasionally referred to as the 'madwoman in the attic', she is not only a huge part in Jane Eyre but a massive part of literature as well. Although Bertha only appears a few times in the novel, Charlotte Bronte has managed to invent a character that essentially creates the stories conclusion and all the unfolding drama surrounding it.

      Bertha is an unknown character throughout the beginning of the novel, yet even when Jane and the reader are finally introduced to her, we still know very little about her. Although Mr Rochester tells us the story behind his and Bertha’s marriage and how she ended up locked in the room on the third floor, there is still an air of mystery around her and when she is first described by Jane’s own eye, the reader cannot help but be fascinated and appalled at the same time. Jane describes her first experience of seeing Bertha as ‘…at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell…’, although a horrible, chilling description, the reader is left enthralled and yearns to know more. In this passage, Charlotte Brontë uses language that gives us a vivid picture of what it was like to behold this crazy woman. We know a little of Bertha’s history, for example, how her mother was mad and her brother a ‘mute idiot’, perhaps this knowledge made Rochester prejudice against Bertha, and he probably became a little wary of her. She may have then shown herself as the true mad woman she was, or Rochester, on the look out for signs of insanity, began to notice traits in her that weren’t there, or he exaggerated them greatly. He then declared Bertha crazy and proceeded to have her locked up. Of course Rochester is shown in the novel to be doing what was best for her yet also denying himself the embarrassment of having himself a mad wife. However, locking Bertha up for years of isolation would only have increased her insanity. She remains a mystery throughout the novel and although her acts are most likely to be construed as malicious, it is possible, especially when she jumps out of the window, to feel sorry for this disturbed woman who is finally free of her physical imprisonment in her room, and her mental imprisonment that her illness has caused.

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       ‘Jane Eyre’ is hard to categorize into a genre. It has been said that it is a strange hybrid of three genres: the Gothic novel; the romance novel; and the Bildungsroman. If it were not for Bertha Mason, it is possible that one of these genres would not be applied to ‘Jane Eyre’ at all. Bertha symbolizes all things Gothic in the story. She creates the tension that comes with the knowledge that something is going on at Thornfield Hall that is not quite right. This secret builds a crescendo that the reader greatly anpticipates as the ...

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