Rochest Mad Women Attic

The real life attic that was the inspiration for a section of jane eyre where mentally ill character bertha mason is confined before she commits suicide is now open to the public.

Rochest mad women attic. In 1979 sandra gilbert and susan gubar made a breakthrough in feminist criticism with their work the madwoman in the attic. Victorian women were not expected to loiter just like men. In this novel rochester s first wife bertha mason has gone mad and is kept locked in an attic. Because bertha mason rochester was a wealthy creole woman from jamaica she represents a sort of.

Bertha mason full name bertha antoinetta mason is a fictional character in charlotte brontë s 1847 novel jane eyre she is described as the violently insane first wife of edward rochester who moved her to thornfield hall and locked her in a room on the third floor. The 1966 parallel novel wide sargasso sea by jean rhys serves as a prequel to brontë s novel. As she lived in a time when women were not encouraged to write charlotte bronte wrote under the pseudonym currer bell to avoid being ostracized by society and to avoid being badly received by the audience because the book was written by a woman. Gilbert and gubar draw their title from charlotte brontë s jane eyre in which rochester s wife née bertha mason is kept secretly locked in an attic apartment by her husband.

The madwoman in the attic the most well known and problematic character in jane eyre is rochester s first wife who is almost always referred to by her maiden name of bertha mason. Bertha s forwardness as a woman can be constituted as one of the reasons why rochester kept her locked in the attic. The mad women in the attic charlotte bronte published jane eyre in 1847 some 50 or so years before jean rhys was alive. Women were supposed to be the angels of the house and let men define their identity for them.

Jane eyre is a progressive book in many senses far ahead of its time it is even deemed feminist. The woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination in the 700 page text gilbert and gubar use the figure of bertha mason as the so called madwoman in the attic to make an argument about. Bertha mason rochester s first wife was a beautiful creole woman from jamaica who rochester married years ago before she had a mental breakdown and naturally had to be locked in the attic. The first and most important point to make about her is that within the time span of the novel she is unable to give an account of herself.

The madwoman in the attic.