Feminism and Archetypal Character Symbolism in Jane Eyre: A Response to Sandra Gilbert

In the typical Gothic novel, a reader can detect parallels between certain characters in the story, a reflection that often facilitates a more advanced analysis of the text. An argument that naturally stems from author Charlotte Brontë’s writing of the Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre and the description and development of their role in the narrative is that Bertha represents Jane’s symbolic double, expressive of her inner emotions and irrational rage. More important than this point; however, is the critical assertion that Bertha Mason expresses the non-conformity and social rebellion of Jane. In a similar but qualifying response to the thesis of the essay entitled “A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress” by Sandra Gilbert, I believe that the expression of repressed emotion and behavior regards the forced politeness and performance etiquette of the Victorian period in British society.

Furthermore, as a necessary expansion and development of Gilbert’s astute argument, it is necessary to view Jane Eyre as a cultural artifact that speaks to a societal movement towards a more complex relationship between masculinity and femininity; a main result of the aforementioned etiquette was a consistently reinforced subjugation of females in comparison with their male counterparts. Therefore, Bertha Mason as this “truest and darkest double” should be viewed as representing more of an archetype than an “aspect” and more of a period-defined motif than a “secret self” (Gilbert 487). This revised argument becomes more universal and wholeheartedly timeless: speaking to an enduring revolution involving female behavior and social etiquette, with Jane Eyre as the central aesthetic object of this upheaval.

I am in full support of the successful and clear thesis that Sandra Gilbert presents in her essay, analyzing the relationship between the two characters to provide evidence for a reflective situation and a symbolic similarity between the two women. Gilbert states in her discourse: “[At the same time, throughout all of this] Bertha...is Jane’s truest and darkest double: she is the angry aspect of the orphan child, the ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to repress ever since her days at Gateshead…” (487-488) and provides substantial evidence for this assumption, citing the textual parallels between the two characters. The representative relationship is probable, given the circumstances: Jane grows up a miserable, repressed child with no expressive outlets and a strict Christian boarding school experience that lends itself to rage, guilt, and fear, while Bertha is a wildly uncontrolled, unhinged character (“What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not...tell: it grovelled...it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal…(Brontë 338)), a clear opposition to Jane’s timid demeanor and constant repression. This is evidenced as a young Jane is cruelly humiliated and punished at Lowood:

What my sensations were, no language can describe; but, just as they all rose, stifling my breath and constricting my throat, a girl came up and passed me...I mastered the rising hysteria, lifted up my head, and took a firm stand on the stool. (Brontë 80-81)

The resulting paralleled experience is emphasized during chapter fifteen: after Jane narrates an extensive soliloquy describing her hidden and suppressed feelings for Rochester, these feelings are expressed in the next scene. The chapter continues with Bertha laughing (“...a demoniac laugh – low, suppressed, and deep – uttered, as it seemed, at the very keyhole of my chamber-door…” (Brontë 173)) and lighting Rochester’s bed on fire (a symbolic gesture to the passion felt by Jane). This concept of the “secret self” of Jane and the continuation of her character by the “maniac” (338) Bertha is an advanced and multifaceted thesis; however, it contains plenty of room for further development.

Perhaps more important than Bertha’s expression of Jane’s “hunger, rebellion and rage” is the reflection of Jane’s repressed behavior and freedom after being silenced and subjugated by a society that rewards etiquette and careful behavior from females. Bertha Mason plays an undeniably critical role in expressing the non-conformity and social rebellion of Jane: the governess continually carries out the proper and accepted etiquette of a British woman throughout the text, as described by the author:

When dusk actually closed, and when Adéle left me to go and play in the nursery with Sophie, I did most keenly desire it. I listened for the bell to ring below; I listened for Leah coming up with a message… (Brontë 183)

Jane has anxiety about the status of her relationship with Rochester, but stays in her room and does not inquire about him, following the unspoken rules of etiquette. Throughout the text of the novel, our protagonist dines, dresses, and interacts properly, displaying the soft-spoken and subservient role of the Victorian woman (specifically, the Victorian governess). This being stated, the true character of Jane is outwardly rejecting of norms and rebellious. Brontë shows us this in her discussion with Mr. Rochester in chapter fourteen:

I don’t think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience. (Brontë 157)

While Jane often has these thoughts regarding the superiority of her male counterparts and her frustration with her social circumstances, she still maintains a sense of “Byronic pride and passion” (Gilbert 483) that she carries within herself. Therefore, Bertha Mason definitively carries out what social freedom cannot be experienced by Jane in her monstrous and unacceptable behavior, providing a much more important parallel to the audience: that which represents the expression of a repressed feminine sexuality and dominance, and the release of critical inhibitions by a subjugated female protagonist.

Thus, in order to further develop this addition to Gilbert’s argument, it is necessary to examine the attitudes of the novel towards the rising feminism and role of women during the 1800’s. Not only are Jane’s emotions and behaviors repressed, but her sexuality as a woman is also dampened by the norms of society, while she continues to express herself through Bertha as her double: Gilbert refers to this as the “rebellious feminism” of Jane Eyre. The repression of dominance and “sexuality” (romantic control) of Jane manifests itself in Bertha, a figure who is described as “...a big woman, in stature almost equalling her husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest…” (Brontë 338). Bertha Mason stands tall above her husband, an enraged and uncontrolled female, serving as a critical archetype in a product of oppressive Victorian culture that often depicts women as small, pale, and meek creatures of fragile character and hysterical tendencies. The character parallel between Jane and Bertha is an obvious gesture to Jane’s repressed rage and fear, but more importantly, the representation lends itself to a statement of social justice and feminine equality in a misogynistic society. This thesis presents itself again in Jane’s visits to the roof of Thornfield, providing the audience with clear symbols of her behavioral oppression and desire for sexual and generic expression:

...I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen...I valued what was good in Mrs Fairfax, and what was good in Adéle; but I believed in the existence of other and more vivid kinds of goodness, and what I believed in I wished to behold. (Brontë 129)

As stated by Gilbert, this coincides with mention of Grace Poole (a placeholder for Bertha), Brontë describes on the next page the “low, slow ha! ha!” and “eccentric murmurs” (130) of the spectre, to reinforce the representation and expression of Jane’s actions on the preceding pages: “...I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit...I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my kind…” (129). This gazing over the town and fields symbolizes a freedom that Jane longs to possess, both emotionally and physically, in her relationship with Rochester and otherwise. She longs to have liberty, and like many women early in the movement for their rights, is unwilling and unhappy to submit herself to the misogyny and subjugation of marriage. Brontë has impeccable timing in her writing by placing Bertha’s input directly after this: demonstrating her expression of this frustration and presenting herself as Jane’s emotional double for the umpteenth time in the text.

Thus, a more advanced and thorough argument than what was stated by Gilbert in “A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress” is necessary in order to fully understand the parallel relationship between Bertha Mason and Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s novel. Bertha is not only an mirror presented to the audience to express Jane’s rage, rebellion, and misery, but creates an archetype of the early social rebellion that was the Victorian feminist movement. Gilbert crafts an astute argument in her essay, but leaves out the universality of Bertha’s representation as a motif of gender relations and female sexuality and power, not to mention the absolutely pivotal role that this estranged wife plays in the action of the novel. In an increasingly sexist society during the twenty-first century, the aesthetic object of Jane Eyre presents itself for interpretation, allowing a modern audience to conduct a more successful and critically productive reading of the text.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. 1847. Reprint. Edited by Stevie Davies, Penguin Random House, 2006.

Gilbert, Sandra M. “A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane’s Progress.” The Madwoman in the Attic, Yale University, 1979, pp. 483-491.