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Essay on Bronte's Jane & Bertha
Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason are both oppressed by the British patriarchal classification were men are the makers, interpreters, and enforcers of social and political rules. However, these two women differ to the highest degree in the ways that they accept and cope with the reality of their place in society, and it is these differences that ultimately determine their fate.
Jane Eyre follows the set of laws. Although she initially revolts against what she believes to be unfair restrictions at Gateshead and Lowood, she soon discovers that rebellion carries a high price and, over time, she learns to modify her behavior to conform to socially accepted norms.
Bertha Mason, on the other hand, never accedes to society's restrictions on women's behavior. Bertha deliberately breaks all of the set of laws at Spanish Town and at Thornfield, but when Rochester punishes her for her unacceptable behavior, she only becomes less in control of herself. The novel's doubling of the female self into the good girl Jane and the criminally passionate Bertha be a sign of the experiences and corresponding psychic patterns of women living under patriarchy and true to their individual responses to patriarchal control Jane reasons out the causes and effects of women's domestic oppression, while Bertha “burns down the imprisoning house” (Bronte, 1990). Jane, for that reason, is successful in securing her desired place in society because she ultimately learns the value of conforming to the rules and operating within the context of their established structure. Bertha does not conform and therefore does not survive.
On the surface, two more opposite female characters could not be conceived. As an adult, Jane is an unadorned governess a quiet disciplined and subdued character who is given in allegiance to duty and order. By contrast, Bertha is a big woman, in stature almost equaling her husband, and corpulent besides with a virile force....
