2。 Literature Review

As one of the most famous novels in 19th century, Jane Eyre has attracted much attention since it was publication。 Two characters Jane and Rochester’s mad wife Bertha are brave resisters but they have different endings。 This thesis focuses on comparing Jane and Bertha rebellions and analyzing reasons of their different rebellions。

Readers often keep a watchful eye on main character Jane。 As a plain girl from humble origins, she is aggressive and independent rather than feeling inferior。 Joyce Carol Oats has pointed out that before the publication of Jane Eyre in 1847, there is no lack of rebellious image of women in British literature, but a woman image like Jane Eyre who is humble, ordinary but consciously revolts against strong patriarchal society, is unprecedented。

In the book, the image of Jane has become the symbol of female self-improvement, self-respect and tenacity。 When repeatedly praising Jane, we tend to ignore another strange woman, Bertha Mason。 The image of Bertha is always mysterious and obscure。 She is imprisoned on the top floor of Thornfield hall。 She burned her husband, ruined wedding veil, and burnt the house (Lan 2007)。 论文网

Female literary critic Zhu Hong believes that according to the logic of life itself, Jane Eyre and the mad woman are sisters oppressed by men together; But Jane is the combination of mainstream literature and popular novels in order to cater to the readers (Zhu 1988)。 So, the mad woman is sent to the top floor to play the role of a bad woman, and such an ugly and evil girl can only be seen as Jane's opposition in the novel。

Before 1979, scholars focused on Jane and Rochester, but studies about Bertha are often too simple, hasty and arbitrary, who is labeled as "the devil ", "vampire", "crazy woman ', and 'psychopath'。 In 1979, Gilbert and Gubar offered a new angle of view in The Mad Woman in the Attic, people gave many interpretation of Bertha especially from the perspective of feminism。 Bertha is interpreted as Jane's soul。 Literally, at Thornfield, the ghost showed up at night is Bertha (Gilbert and Gubar 2015)。 However, this creepy ghost is the embodiment of Jane's soul。 What Bertha had done was the very deep thought and hope of Jane。

Just as Fang Ping says, the mad woman is the dark side of the heroine's mind, the angry flame hidden in her body, and the other herself (Fang 1989)。 In other words, the mad woman, oppressed by Rochester, who is from the hidden world of Jane Eyre’ s mind, smashed the shackles resolutely and shook off the bonds bravely, As an image of a woman's accuser, she moved toward from the behind curtain to the front。 In short, the image of the crazy woman is a copy of the female author, and projection of the author's own anxiety, craziness, and mental stress。 

There are various opinions about the image of Bertha。 Some people hold that as a bad woman, Bertha is the opposition of Jane to serve as a foil to Jane’s merits。 And her each appearance promotes the development of plot of the text。 The other people think that Bertha is an imaginary figure。 She is embodiment of Jane’s spirit and doesn’t exist objectively。 Former interpretation of Bertha is too simple and superficial without profound meaning, while the latter is inconceivable untenable。

As victims of the patriarchal society, Jane and Bertha are brave resisters of that society, but few people make a contrast between Jane and Bertha’s rebellions。 This thesis mainly makes explorations between Jane and Bertha’s rebellions from the perspective of reasonable and unreasonable。

3。 Jane Eyre and Bertha Manson’s Rebellions 

Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason are two brave characters in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre。 They have enough courage to rebel against everything oppressed them。