Topic > Understanding Jane Eyre through Bertha Mason

One of the reasons why Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, is a huge success is the intriguing narrator-reader dynamic. The narrator – Jane herself – develops a certain type of intimacy with readers over the course of the autobiography. Although readers may feel like they have a strong understanding of Jane, there are ambiguous moments in the text that leave readers doubting Jane's entire character. While it is true that readers know quite a bit about his thoughts, they know very little about his subconscious desires. Using Freud and Bertha Mason's notion of the subconscious as a key to understanding the narrator's deepest desires, readers can develop a complete characterization of the narrator. Thus, Jane Eyre is often acclaimed for its intimate characterization of its lead character, created through numerous digressions with readers, consequently developing a seemingly sophisticated understanding of the narrator. However, it seems that readers are only intimate with Jane's conscious angelic self and distant with her unconscious demonic half, thus asking readers to question whether they can ever truly understand all aspects of the narrator. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, if readers analyze Bertha Mason to reach a complete understanding of Jane's character, then they can form a hypothesis as to why she marries poor Mr. Rochester at the end of the novel. The intimacy between the angelic side of the narrator and the reader comes from the fact that Jane addresses the reader throughout her autobiography. In one case, the narrator prays for the readers' happiness. After suffering hardships, he says: “Dear reader, may you never feel what I felt then! May your eyes never shed such stormy, burning and heartbreaking tears as those shed by mine. May you never appeal to Heaven with prayers so desperate and so anguished as in that hour came from my lips” (Bronte 370). Readers have become like friends to Jane as she recognizes readers as more than just people following her story at this point in her story. She hopes that readers do not feel what she felt that day, demonstrating her awareness of her readers, further developing the intimate relationship she has built since the first time she addresses them. Next, readers can see the angelic aspect of Jane's character. It portrays the qualities of the Victorian house angel: loving and moral. Jane is not seen as filled with hatred for the world and blaming others for her misfortunes and suffering. Instead, she channels her sadness into kind prayers for readers, making readers see her as an honest and lovable character. So, Jane turns to the reader to develop an intimate bond between her sympathetic self and the reader. It would be wrong to say that readers have a sophisticated understanding of Jane just by analyzing her angelic personality, as there is also her demonic personality to consider. Many readers may not even consider his sinister side because the narrator does not intentionally create intimacy with readers through his antithetical personality. Therefore, readers are left in the dark and lost when trying to understand his inner thoughts during the ambiguous moments of the text. If, however, readers consider Bertha Mason's analysis alongside Jane Eyre, then they may have a fuller understanding of the entire narrator. Bertha can be interpreted as Jane's double because she can be seen embodying all of Jane's subconscious desires and also turning those desires into concrete actions. Therefore, the momentsambiguous in the text can be explained by using Bertha as the key to understanding Jane's true inner thoughts. For example, when Jane slowly wakes up from her dreams, she sees ghost-like Bertha trying on Jane's wedding veil. Then he takes it off his head and tears it into two parts, trampling it afterwards (327). Bertha taking off her wedding veil and tearing it to pieces reflects Jane's inner thoughts. His doubts about this sudden marriage materialize in the form of Bertha Mason. Jane is hesitant to marry Mr. Rochester at that moment because deep down she knows she isn't mature enough in this coming-of-age story. He doesn't know “where yesterday's Jane Eyre was. . . [and] where his prospects were most” (341). She later tells Mr. Rochester that "[she] must change" and "there's no question about that" (346). Since he has not yet found his fully mature self, nor knows his prospects in life, his subconscious manifests itself in the form of Bertha to destroy the wedding veil, thus metamorphically interrupting the marriage. Her departure from Thornfield further supports the claim that Jane is not yet ready to settle down and marry, but instead must continue to mature. Only when she has discovered herself will her subconscious allow her to marry Mr. Rochester. Therefore, by using Bertha Mason as an outlet for Jane's subconscious thoughts, readers can better grasp the narrator's entire character to decipher ambiguous moments in the text. Furthermore, Bertha can also be used to explain Jane's strange dreams, providing readers with a way to interpret her subconscious desires. For example, Jane has a nightmare about Thornfield Hall in ruins the night before her wedding. He describes it as a "bleak ruin" where nothing remained but "a shell-shaped wall [which is] very high and very fragile looking" (325). Jane wakes up from her dreams after losing her balance climbing the crumbling wall trying to look for Mr. Rochester (326). Jane gives no possible reason why she had a horrible dream of Thornfield Hall in ruins, nor does she ever go back to offer an explanation. Therefore, it has been shown that readers are not intimate enough with Jane to understand all aspects of her character. However, Bertha's analysis may provide a possible interpretation of her dream. During Jane's return to Thornfield, readers can see Jane's dreams come true. He discovers that there was a large fire that destroyed Thornfield Hall. Bertha had slipped out of her prison while Grace Poole slept and set fire to the curtains of the room next to hers, and then to the room where Jane slept (492). During this unfortunate night, the house burns down with “an immense amount of valuable property destroyed [and] almost none of the furniture [is] saved,” leaving Mr. Rochester poor (491). On the other hand, Jane is rich because of her uncle who left her a fortune of “five thousand pounds” (501). He even offers to “build a house of his own near [Mr. Rochester's]” so that “he can come and sit in [his] parlor when [he] needs company [in] the evenings” (501). In addition to the destruction of Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester becomes "blind and crippled" as he damages both eyes and loses a hand in the house fire, leaving him dependent on those around him (494). Due to Bertha's embodiment of Jane's subconscious desires, she intentionally destroys all of Mr. Rochester's possessions and paralyzes him. Her actions can be interpreted as Jane's subconscious desire to be equal to Mr. Rochester. Since the night of the fire left him poor and her uncle left her rich, Jane is now on equal or better footing than.