Bertha Mason as a Human

          I drew what Bertha Antoinetta Mason might have looked like before she became the madwoman in the attic.  As a character Bertha Mason is seen more as a symbol and less of like a person. This time, I decided to investigate Bertha as a human. Mr Rochester describes her as "the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty" (352), before she went mad. So I drew her as a beautiful proud woman with glossy locks of black hair, instead of the "dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane," (338) Jane describes. Seeing Bertha dressed finely with comely features creates a stark comparison the monstrous creature she becomes. It points out that Bertha wasn't always mad. She was once a beautiful smart woman who had hopes, dreams, and aspiration like all of us.

Jane Eyre vs. Blanche Ingram

          The image above, made using a doll generator, highlights the physical differences between Jan Eyre on the left and Blanche Ingram on the right. I recreated the dinner party scene in which Blanche taunts Jane for her position and plainness. Herer the differences between the two women are most marketed. Jane describes herself as "a Governess, disconnected, poor, and plain" (187). While Blanche is mention as being "greatly admired not only for her beauty, but for her accomplishments" (185). However, Rochester prefers Jane over Blanche, because of Jane's mind and spirit. Jane is holding a book, to represent her intelligence and hunger for knowledge. Blanche is holding a handkerchief and a rose. The handkerchief is blank and shapeless, like Blanche's false and non-existent personality. And, while a rose may seem more appealing than a book, as Blanche seems more appealing than Jane, the book, like Jane, offers greater rewards in the long term.

Bertha Mason as a Symbol

         Let's take some time to analyze Bertha Mason, not as a person but as a symbol, since Charlotte Brontë just loves to hit you over the head with those.  Bertha Mason symbolizes the passionate and emotional side of Jane. The side English society has been telling her to suppress and deny for her whole life.  Mr. Brockleherst explaining to a young Jane that his "Mission [was] to... teach [the students' to clothe themselves in shamefacedness and sobriety" (76). To start Bertha and Jane are connected in various ways. They both are romantically involved with Rochester and they have both been locked up and imprisoned by members of their family. Rochester locked Bertha in an attic when she started to show signs of madness and passion. The Reeds locked up jane in the Red Room as a child when she also showed signs of anger and passion. Bessie warning Jane that "If [Jane] become[s] passionate and rude, [Mrs. Reed] will send [her] away" (16). Jane fears Bertha Mason the same way she fears her love for Rochester. Jane's passion and love is what throws her life into disarray and the existence of Bertha Mason ruins her relationship with Rochester. Bertha Mason and Jane's relationship to her might be Charlotte Brontë's way of critiquing the way women in 19th century England were told to suppress and deny their natural emotions, passion, and ability to love.

Chapter Twenty Three Haiku's

Two people, equal

A word connects them as One

Spirit to Spirit

She is poor and small

Smaller than him, she looks up

Before God: equals

The Chestnut Tree here

Lighting strikes its life in half

Like the love it saw

Jane and Rochester

Who could have thought that their fire

Quenched by rain so fast

Two stand in Eden

Like two who stood before them

Doomed to know the truth

My Fire and That of His: a Poem By Jane Eyre

My Fire and That of His

The fire
I feel it, burning through my chest
The embers of passions shine like a thousand stars
The forge of my being where new feelings are melted and remolded
My spirit dances with the wisps of smoke
The burning, I danced, bent to its whims, I felt sweet release of being alive
The they came with their ice and cold and fear in their eyes
They rages against the fire of my soul, forced dousing water upon its source
They tried to turn my raging sun into a barren arctic wasteland
They tried...
But like a the sun my spirit cannot be cowed
It may disappear like the day, but it has always been there
She comes to me at night a shows a rawer form of myself
She comes wreathed in fire, in liquid passion
I see her and understand
And against my will my spirit rises to join that of hers
To that of his
Were we dance, as one, wreathed in flame
Forever burning
Forever loving
At once, free...

Weather in Jane Eyre

      So I'm back at it with analyzing Charlotte Brontë symbolism; this time, weather. Brontë uses weather as a way to represent and highlight Janes current situation. While Jane was staying at Gateshead the weather was described as possessing "cold winter wind" (9) and "could so somber... that further outdoor exercise was... out of the question" (9). Gateshead was a terrible period for Jane fraught with pain, sorrow, and loneliness. The dreary weather emulates her internal condition. The winter weather follows Jane to her first semester at Lowood, where the cold and snow made it impossible to move about and function normally. The weather improved and blossomed into a warm beautiful spring once Jane learned to accept her situation and started doing well in her classes. The weather, described as "so serene, so warm... [and] promis[ing] [other] fine day[s]" (94)., reflects's Jane's change of heart once the cruel leadership of Mr. Brokleherst was lifted. Later at Thornfield, The weather overall is dreary but not terrible, representing Janes conflicting opinion about her emotions over Rochester. The most obvious use of weather as symbolism is the terrible rain and lighting that follows Mr. Rochesters proposal of marriage. The violent storm, causes the tree where Rochester and Jane become engaged to be "struck by lightning in the night, and half of it [spliting] away" (119). The splitting of the tree foreshadows the terrible events that follow Jane's engagement to Rochester.; and their eventual "split" Specifically, the discovery that Rochester is already married and to raving madwoman to boot. Charlotte Brontë uses weather as a literary tool to foreshadow and underscore the emotional high and low's Jane endures.