In the novel we follow the life of bronte s heroine jane eyre and love for the proud and resilient edward rochester.
Rochest mad women attic.
The woman writer and the nineteenth century literary imagination by sandra gilbert and susan gubar was first published in 1979.
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 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.
One of the most fascinating characters in literature is the mysterious mad woman confined to an attic in jane eyre.
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 madwoman in the attic.
The book purports to tell antoinette s side of the story as well as rochester s and to account for how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of thornfield hall.
The mad women in the attic charlotte bronte published jane eyre in 1847 some 50 or so years before jean rhys was alive.
Gilbert and gubar draw their title from charlotte brontë s jane eyre in which rochester s wife is kept secretly locked in an attic apartment by her husband.
In 1979 sandra gilbert and susan gubar made a breakthrough in feminist criticism with their work the madwoman in the attic.
The madwoman in the attic.
According to the book antoinette s insanity and drunkenness are the result of rochester s misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly.
Even though jane eyre is a revolutionary book for its time and relevant even today it has some elements that are problematic like confining women into only two possible boxes.
However one obstacle remains in their odd relation rochester s first wife bertha mason.
It is considered a landmark of feminist.
One like jane curtailed over the years to fit into the conventional victorian angel of the house the other bertha suffering her confinement and being eventually pushed towards madness madwoman in the attic two terms used by sandra gilbert and susan gubar in a reading of jane eyre their very famous.
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.
