A woman set aflame: what role did Bertha Mason play in the Jane Eyre novel?

In the novel, Bertha is the plot obstacle for Jane and Rochester’s romance. However, feminist readings have created meaningful analogies on what the tragic character of Bertha Mason could represent. “The Mad Woman in the Attic” is a novel that has served as a groundbreaking feminist literary piece by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. It makes direct references to the character of Bertha Mason from the novel and uses her character as a central metaphor for how women have been silenced, repressed, and misrepresented in Victorian literature written by men. They argue that Bertha Mason is the dark suppressed double of Jane and is a symbol of the anger and frustration faced by her as she is trapped in a patriarchal system.

Critics have said that Bertha is “the monstrous embodiment of psychosexual conflicts which are intrinsic to the romantic predicament- paralleled and unconscious in both Jane and Rochester”. This suggests that Bertha is not just a madwoman in the novel but she is the physical embodiment of what is repressed or suppressed within Jane herself. Bertha is everything a woman is forbidden to be in Victorian England. In a society where women are expected to be composed, obedient, and rational, Bertha is the opposite. She is unhinged, chaotic, frantic, and untamable. She is described in animalistic and dehumanising terms and her mere existence showcases how men in a Victorian society locked away or silenced women who would not conform to the ideals they imposed upon them.

Bertha is not only mentally ill but she is the symbolic consequence of a world that suffocates female agency. It can be hypothesised that Jane sees in her a dangerous image of self expression through chaos and anger. Jane too embodies this somewhere in her unconscious however she cannot safely express it within the constraints of Victorian respectability. Marriage in the 19^th century often meant loss of agency and autonomy for women and Bertha's actions manifest in a way that Janes's unconscious mind was feeling. For example, the act of Bertha tearing Jane's wedding veil with her haunting presence at night can be read as a symbolic enactment of Jane dreading to marry Rochester because she fears dependency and the loss of her autonomy.

While using symbolism and metaphors to understand Bertha Mason can add depth and abstraction to the Jane Eyre novel, it is important to also assess the situation for its stark reality. The truth is that Rochester uses Bertha as a means to an end both emotionally and socially. He marries her not out of love, but due to family pressure and the lure of wealth. His family imposes the marriage upon him to secure a large dowry while deliberately hiding from him the reality of Bertha's family history of mental illness. After marriage when Rochester discovers the truth about her behaviour and illness, he chooses to hide her away in the attic, stripping her of basic needs and humanity. He speaks of her as a burden and a shadow over his own happiness, and he uses her condition as a justification for his own emotional suffering and moral compromise. Yet he is deceptive and pursues relationships with other women including Jane all while being legally married.

The truth is that Bertha is in fact a real woman within the book and is denied a voice, locked away like an inconvenience, and made out to be a monster. She is used as a scapegoat for Rochester to receive sympathy from Jane and ultimately Bertha becomes a mere obstacle that needs to be removed before he can “earn” a new life with Jane. The interpretations must not understate the undeniable existence of a woman who was ultimately destroyed to serve as an instrument to Rochester's redemption and “happy” ending. Her fate reflects the darkest underside of what many mentally ill or unstable women faced in Victorian society, where nonconforming was met with dehumanisation and being locked away both metaphorically and literally.