Bertha in Bronte\'s Jane Eyre

¶ … Bertha in Bronte's Jane Eyre

The character of Bertha Mason is more than just another personality that adds drama to Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre. The character of Bertha becomes an outlet for Jane's suppressed emotions and an extension of her personality. Bertha becomes the women that Jane wishes she could be when things are out of control. When Jane cannot respond the way she would like, Bertha makes an appearance and expresses emotions that Jane cannot. Bronte strategically places Bertha near Jane so that she can be that extension and so that Jane can live vicariously through her. When Jane struggles over her feelings for Rochester, Bertha can react. Bertha also represents the side of Jane that longs to be free and independent of men. While she love Rochester, Jane lives in a man's world and she cannot always respond to it in the ways that Bertha can. Bertha becomes an extension of Jane's character in order for Jane's psyche to feel completed.

Bertha's character is an emotional outlet for the emotions that Jane does not allow herself to experience. Jane is accustomed to behaving in a prim and proper manner most of the time and we see this even when she discovers the truth about Bertha. She firmly decides to tell Rochester that she needs to leave and "begin a new existence amongst strange faces and strange scenes" (Bronte 333). She wants to leave him because her option is intolerable. She struggles, however, to get to this point. Earlier, she wavers even though she knows exactly what she should do. For example, she writes that she hears a "voice within in me averred that I could do it; and foretold that I should do it. I wrestle with my own resolution: I wanted to be weak and avoid the awful passage of further suffering I saw laid out for me" (326). Her struggle is too much for her at times because just a few lines later when Rochester wonders if Jane could ever forgive him she does so "on the spot" (326) without any regret or wavering. She does forgive him but it is only a matter of the heart. She still knows what she must do to carry on with her life but it does not make her any happier. Bertha is just the opposite of this prim and proper lady. She can do crazy things because she is unstable and she can be excused for that behavior. Jane never has that luxury. Bertha's appearance allows the conflict to surface.

In regard to Bertha's freedom of expression, she is rather lucky. She can exhibit weird behavior such as ripping Jane's veil and be forgiven because she is mad. However, this scene is placed strategically in the novel because it occurs after Jane has been forced to try on dresses. In this scene, she resents Rochester for treating her like a little doll and the ripped veil is a way that anger can be vented. While she does love the man, she does not want to lose her identity when she marries him. She even tells him that she has no intention of quitting her job after their marriage. Her mixed emotions need to be expressed and Bertha is the one through which she can live vicariously. Arnold Mackley agrees, noting how Bertha "acts out at least one of Jane's unconscious wishes when she comes into Jane's room on the night before Jane's wedding and rips up the wedding veil that Jane felt uncomfortable about wearing" (Makley). Jane is no doubt experiencing what every young woman in her day experienced - an internal conflict between love and a sense of identity. Bertha is unrefined enough to react without seeming unusual. Since Jane cannot react to Rochester's oppressive behavior, we see it in Bertha. Bertha is the raging voice that is heard railing against the discomfort. When the most Jane can do is tell Rochester that she will not be his, Bertha can react violently. When Jane tells him that it would be nothing short of wicked to obey him and decides to leave Thornfield, Bertha can burn the place down. Bertha has a slight advantage over Jane since she is crazy because she can get away with much more wild behavior. While her state of mind is nothing to be desired, it has a place in the novel and it drives the plot when Jane finds herself stuck in situations that require more than she can give.

Jane and Bertha also share other characteristics that emphasize Bertha's significance in the novel. As an adult, Jane comes to certain realizations about her life and the world in which she lives. First she realizes that men and women are basically the same in that "women feel just as men feel" (117) and 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"(117). Jane is aware of this fact but there is little outside her own mind that she can do about it. It should come as no surprise that Jane hears Bertha's outburst after conceiving such unconventional thoughts. Here we can see how the two women are living parallel lives in that they are both strong women that do not wish to be held back by the constraints of a male-dominated world. Nina Auerbach maintains this idea, noting how Thornfield and Rochester share many features that are a "reflection of Jane's inner world" (Auerbach 49). When a conflict arises with either of these subjects, one of these two characters will act. If these characters are indeed living in parallel universes, then Bertha's uninhibited fervor is the result of "Jane's own fire" (Auerbach 49). While a grown up Jane would never step out of line, a younger Jane in the red reacted differently. Here we can see how Bertha comes to reflect Jane's world early in her life. Jane even senses this when she sees her reflection in a mirror. She says of the one she sees:

All looked colder and darker in the visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit. I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp. (9)

Here we see that Bronte is preparing us (and Jane) for the turbulent events that will occur in her life. This also lets us know that Jane has this tumultuous side to her personality. In fact, we know that Jane is fiercely independent for her time. Jane retains her composure through most of the novel but it is important to note that the women are different in their ability to act independently. Jane can and does leave Rochester while Bertha cannot. Both women respond to their circumstances and environments in ways that suit them and in the only ways that they can. Jane has the will to leave and she does so. Bertha has the ability to exhibit erratic behavior and she does so when she feels so compelled. They are alike in more ways than one and their lives mirror each other more than either of them would like to admit.