The Mad Woman In The Attic And Jane Eyre

One of the most fascinating characters in literature is the mysterious mad woman confined to an attic in jane eyre.

The mad woman in the attic and jane eyre.

The madwoman in the attic the most well known and problematic character in jane eyre is rochester s first wife who is almost always referred to by her maiden name of bertha mason. She is described as the violently insane first wife of edward rochester who moved her to thornfield hall and locked her in a room on the third floor. It is the story of mason from the time of her youth in the caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to england. In jane eyre bertha eventually burns down thornfield and dies by suicide.

Jane eyre revolves around the life of a simple plain yet intelligent orphaned girl who struggles with internal and external battles before she comes to accept that she loves her employer mr rochester who is double her age and from an upper class background. One the one hand brontë s madwoman is a tragic figure a literary manifestation of jane s own feelings of oppression. Rhys s novel re imagines brontë s devilish. I have read and re read jane eyre many times and i m embarrassed to admit that i had never paid much attention to this spectre of a woman lurking in the shadows until much later in life.

Her life turns upside down when she discovers right before her wedding that her lover has an ex wife a madwoman hidden in the attic and flees narrowly escaping from committing to a sinful relationship. A nuisance and an impediment to this beautiful love story between jane eyre and mr. The first and most important point to make about her is that within the time span of the novel she is unable to give an account of herself. The 1966 parallel novel wide sargasso sea by jean rhys serves as a prequel to brontë s novel.