简爱

Another interesting aspect of the novel is the character Bertha Mason.Bronte herself,alluding to the latest developments in Victorian psychiatric theory,attributed Bertha’s behavior to “moral madness” (qtd.in Showalter 73).Women were thought to be more susceptible to such disorders.Sexual appetite was considered one of the chief symptoms of moral insanity in women; it was subject to severe sanctions and was regarded as abnormal or pathological.According to Showalter,the periodicity of Bertha’s attack suggests a connection to the menstrual cycle,which many Victorian physicians understood as a system for the control of female sexuality.Rochester’s complicity in the destruction of his wife’s spirit is indicated in Jane’s recognition of the third story’s resemblance to a corridor in “Blubeard’s castle” (Bronte 138).In trying to persuade her to become his mistress,Rochester asks,“If you were mad,do you think I should hate you?” “I do indeed,sir,” Jane replies,and she is surely right (Bronte 328).Bertha’s death,“the purging of the lusts of the flesh,” must precede any successful union between Rochester and Jane.When they finally marry,they become equals,“not only because Rochester,in losing his hand and his sight,has leaned how it feels to be helpless and how to accept help,but also because Jane,in destroying the dark passion of her own psyche,has become truly her ‘own mistress’” (Showalter 75).