Eliza Williams and Bertha mason - female victims

CB about his feelings for Eliza

I couldn’t remember a time where I did not love Eliza

Eliza’s no.1 marriage (symbol how women are expendable property & marriage is a market in the era)

She was married against her inclination

Willoughby to Eliza 2

He had left the girl whos youth & innocence he had seduced

Eliza 1 story

• tried to elope with brandon, was discovered, married older brandon brother. had an affiar, got pregnant and got kicked out and went to the “sponging house”

Eliza x2 AO3

• No marriage = big big problem - no money;homeless, no estate, had to go to prostitution (sponging house). Became the fallen woman - social suicide

• Illegitimate children often not recognised in the eyes of the law

Eliza 1 occupation/what she was doing

“sinking deeper into a life of sin”

Bertha mason animalistic description

it grovelled, snatched and growelled like some strange wild animal

Wild hyena

Maniac
The lunatic sprang and grappled

Bertha mason backstory

“Creole” girl who was married to Rochester as her family had money - he didn’t realise her mental illness troubles & locked her in the attic

How is Bertha similar to Eliza

Victims of the marriage market and familial desires. In theory, both ‘fallen women’ - looked down upon society for (varying) reasons

What sets Bertha and Eliza apart

Bertha (in line w/ Gothic themes of JE) is violent, terrifying and beast-like. She is a caricature of madness and female malady. NOVELS DIFFER IN GENRE & JE MORE ADVENTEROUS (LATER & NOT SOCIAL SATIRE - EXPLAINS DIFFERING PORTRAYALS)

AO3 Bertha

• Female hysteria (lcoked up and hidden from the world, shameful). Depiction of mental illness

• Xenophobic Victorian society - making her a woman of colour - ostrasiation and judgement.

• Also victim of marriage market, allusions to slavery

• Bronte herself said that she took it too far and regrets her animalistic presentation of mental health in women.

AO5 Bertha

• Dinah Birch - Bertha represents the dark underbelly of everything Jane tries to ignore about Rochester

• Bertha is Jane’s darkest double (Gilbert & Gubar)

• Birch - Jane, being a bad animal & biting John Reed foreshadowes Bertha’s biting. LINK - National Theatre production where Bertha follows Jane on stage and is her true dark shadow - shows the alt. pathway for Jane, and the other choices she could’ve made