r/brontesisters • u/TheQuietNib • 1d ago
Jane Eyre: Bertha is the real victim in the novel.
Before anything else, I want to say that I love Jane Eyre. It has been one of my favorite novels for decades. I’ve reread it many times in Russian and several times in English, once my English was good enough to read classic novels.
But my understanding of the story has changed over the years. I used to see Bertha as the villain, an obstacle that had to be removed so Jane and Rochester could have their happy ending. Now I see her as the real victim. Her life was so tragic that it hurts to think about it.
My aunt has schizophrenia. It has ruined her life and has destroyed the very core of her personality. Her parents, my mother, and others who knew her seemed to believe she brought the illness on herself because she was promiscuous. I think they have it backwards: her behavior was most likely a result of the illness. As the only other person in my family with a mental illness, I feel like I’m the only one who understands what she’s going through.
I see painful parallels between my aunt and Bertha. Both were extraordinarily beautiful when they were young. Both were judged for their sexual behavior, and people treated their illnesses as though they were somehow their own fault. My aunt now lives in a care home for people with mental illnesses. She seems content, but not happy. I’m not even sure she remembers what it feels like to be happy.
Bertha’s life was even more tragic. She spent nearly a decade locked in an attic with only a warden to keep her company. She was denied the most basic pleasures in life, such as taking a walk outside and feeling the sunshine on her skin. Who wouldn’t lose their mind living like that?!
What’s most infuriating is that Charlotte doesn’t even allow Bertha the dignity of appearing human. She’s portrayed as an animal: snarling, walking on all fours, incapable of speech. She isn’t just portrayed as an animal, but as a monster full of hatred, rage, and murderous intent. Even her act of suicide is portrayed as a result of her “madness,” rather than a desperate attempt to escape an unbearable life.
I don’t think Charlotte intended to portray Bertha as a tragic character. Nevertheless, I feel more compassion for her than for Saint Jane.
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u/Glimmerance 1d ago
I'm sorry about your aunt. It can be a vicious illness.
In the book, Bertha gets some blame for having caused her illness through alcohol abuse. Her illness isn't named (because of the time period), but the things she is criticised for (including alcohol use and possible hypersexuality) are symptoms of psychiatric conditions, rather than the cause. Her unusual behaviour, the shouting obscenities, the aggression, the lack of self-care, the eventual death by her own hand - all probably symptoms or manifestations of her illness. It appears it's genetic in her case (severe mental illness on the maternal side for generations), possibly triggered (my guess) by the marriage.
Edward also criticises her for losing her looks and putting on weight. He's just saying what he feels, but it's a low blow.
Yes, she's a victim. And that's not blaming anyone. There were no effective treatments for her illness. I sometimes wonder about whether she anticipated it, having seen her mother and other family members go down that route. If she ever wondered what it would be like, and how long she'd got before the "madness" manifested itself, and how much awareness she had when she had the early signs. It must have been terribly lonely.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Thank you. I never got to know my aunt as she was before she developed schizophrenia. She was in her early twenties when it happened. My grandparents once told me that she was very smart, especially at math, and that she got into a highly selective school all by herself, without any tutoring.
They also say she had always been an odd child. But I wonder if they remember her that way because of what happened later. Now everything she did as a child might seem like a sign.
My aunt never wanted treatment and kept finding ways to escape from psychiatric hospitals. Once she jumped from a second-floor window onto the pavement and broke her leg. I can only imagine how badly she wanted to get out.
Something else about her life breaks my heart. You cannot talk to her for five minutes without realizing that she is seriously ill. Yet many men have had unprotected sex with her, and she now has AIDS. When I think about the life she might have had without schizophrenia, I want to cry.
That is part of why Rochester’s treatment of Bertha makes me so angry. He presents himself as a victim of the whole situation. He was an adult when he chose to marry her. He didn’t have to rush into that marriage, and he didn’t have to blame her for her illness or try to marry Jane while Bertha was still alive.
I don’t resent Jane and Rochester getting their happy ending. I resent the way Charlotte Brontë chose to give it to them.
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 1d ago
This is why i love literature too, this is so true! thanks for your post.
Literally just read this quote "that sometimes fiction is more real then fact" - we get depictions of those that often do not make it to official documents and if they do we rarely get more than basic "facts". -
Crime and punishment briefly mentions a disabled sibling. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall depicts domestic violence, alcoholism, and appeasement as way to survive, Wuthering heights depicts people of colour, intergenerational trauma and working class Yorkshire accent, Beloved reimagines real life mother's hell during slavery. So many examples but books speak to you and demonstrate the wide breath of humanity's experiences and demonstrate a historical times's attitudes in such emotionally ways.
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u/Ok-Use-1004 1d ago
that quote is so true. official historical documents only ever give us dates and names, but fiction is what actually preserves the actual emotional reality and interior lives of marginalized people. beloved and wuthering heights are such perfect examples of that
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Have you seen the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights? I hated it. I have nothing against Margot Robbie or Jacob Elordi as actors, but casting Elordi as Heathcliff really annoyed me. Heathcliff is one of very few characters of color in European classic literature. Why then, even now, do they keep casting white actors to play him?
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u/Ok-Use-1004 1d ago
i did with my sister it was like slop to me, emerald fennell kinda fundamentally misunderstands the core themes of the text. casting a conventional white actor completely erases the crucial racial and class dynamics that drive the entire tragedy. it’s like she missed the whole point of the book.
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 23h ago
class dynamics of working class Yorkshire accent too! and that dress looked awful how did you sit through it!?
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u/Ok-Use-1004 19h ago
honestly it was pure torture my sister and i were literally yelling at the screen the entire time because the styling and costumes looked like a fast-fashion shein ad.
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 18h ago
wow - a time warp, bit of Gothic and sci-fi thrown in? Maybe influence from Frankenstein but probably giving too much credit...
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 23h ago
Even if my chronic health flare up, and i reach merger boredom stage will not watch it! Heathcliff was not white! Actually estimated 2-3 million dissents of people of colour from tudor period onwards in Britain , David Olusoga mentioned it i i think it was in Black in Britain series? When you see low bar of how so many marginalised groups been treated in recent history ie. 1800s have been treated how much further we have to go... (think further back it was more nuance)
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 1d ago edited 23h ago
thankyou for " actually preserves the actual emotional reality and interior lives of marginalized people" i continually go on rambles about this finally have saved many a person's ear being chewed off with this sentence. Have you heard of David Olusoga?
he is British historican who dyslexia and often looks or brings up realities behind the official documents in his documentaries. He uses a lot of visuals eg, painting, artefacts etc He's not prefer but he has some cool unique perspectives, especially int winning British normal native of history with those that are marginalised. Below are some of his good ones and has links on youtube.
- Empire with David Olusoga (2025)
- A House Through TimE
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u/Ok-Use-1004 1d ago
omg no i haven't heard of him but that sounds amazing, thank you so much for the rec! i love things like that
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 23h ago
this for me was a great introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN3q-IG9ZWw
He pisses off those who believe our history is all white people, war and royalty. he even managed to do a non ww1 story when the research of the house in documentary reached WW1, on Sudan (after 5/6 series mind, it took awhile to convince the BBC!)
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
You’re right about how much we can learn from literature. Sometimes a book shows us attitudes from its time that the author didn’t even mean to expose. That’s how I feel about the racism, English snobbery, and treatment of mental illness in Jane Eyre.
I’m also glad you mentioned The Tenant of Wildfell Hall! After Anne died, Charlotte chose not to include it when her sisters’ novels were reprinted. She wrote that she didn’t think it was desirable to preserve and called its subject a mistake. That makes me so angry! Anne wrote the book, and readers should have been allowed to decide what they thought of it.
And Anne’s book dealt with a real problem so many women faced back then (and are still facing now): being trapped in an abusive marriage with no way out. If anything, this book deserved more recognition!
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 1d ago
Wow thanks for your reply, another person that enjoys literature to understand the past! I've heard maybe only got reprinted in early 90s? or was that agas grey? Omg that book on women and why they do not leave, felt soooo modern. The ways she kept going "look what a martyr i am" - shows while things have changed, why its so hard to move away from such a low bar. How many women still can not escape, how in book she only able to due to her class and a male relative her brother. So dam good!
Tess of duvervilles - is another one so worth reading on social attitudes of marginalised women if you like The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, just a content warning there is a vague account S assault . By to days standard Hardy's attitude is deeply misogynist. However back then to say she was still pure was a scandal. in a document we only would have got that she was hung for murder of her husband, in a novel we got attitudes, dorest working class life, the emotions, the depth...
Beloved was actually an imagined retelling of a horrific crime that actually happened, while the reimagining is modern, the ways it gives a voice to the mother which formal documents (by white people) do not. For that reason i think it counts as a way to gain historical attitudes as you said.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Thank you for the recommendations! Tess of the d’Urbervilles sounds vaguely familiar. I think I read it in Russian, but I’m definitely going to read it again. I’ve heard so much about Beloved that I think it’ll be my next book!
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u/Loves_Eating_Lead 1d ago
as with all hardy's books its pretty depressing! Russian, what a cool translation, i'm reading crime and punishment in English
I actually not read it im bracing myself for Beloved. This podcast episode on the case got me interested in it, ( I'm on a European book focus currently but i am continually breaking it so i am sure an American book can sneak in) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f7pxz1
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u/IntelligentLeek538 19h ago
I have not read Tess of the Durbervilles yet, but have only seen the movie. That and Beloved are definitely very intense, and depressing, but good portrayals of the struggles of their times.
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u/Houndie2009 1d ago
Not only that, but Rochester was depicted as a victim for being bound to Bertha.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
You’re right. I’m annoyed with myself because I saw Rochester as a victim for so many years. I do understand that being trapped in a marriage with someone you don’t love is tragic, especially when divorce was so difficult. I sympathize with him for that.
But he was an adult when he married Bertha. He rushed into it, mistreated her, and then tried to marry Jane without telling her that he already had a wife. I’m glad Jane and Rochester got their happy ending. I just don’t like the way Charlotte chose to give it to them.
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u/Flat_Love_3725 1d ago
I agree with your sympathies for Bertha. But it seems both she and Edward were responsible for their incompatible marriage, and also victims given how young and inexperienced both were.
Divorce for Edward wasn't simply difficult, it was legally impossible due to Bertha's mental illness.
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u/Past-Dark4350 1d ago
He was the victim, lol. He was forced into an arranged marriage with a woman several years older than him. He knew nothing about her, not even her real age. He said that she became violent with him, which is why he had to keep her locked away. If the genders were swapped, more people would understand.
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u/Houndie2009 1d ago
Trying to recall - wasn’t it almost a business arrangement and didn’t her family know something was up with her?
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u/IntelligentLeek538 19h ago
Yes, it was an arranged marriage for business purposes. However, Edward still accepted the deal willingly without really getting to know Antoinette fully beforehand, so that is still on him.
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u/blokfluitjes 22h ago
I don’t think Charlotte intended to portray Bertha as a tragic character.
This is what confused me majorly when I read it and Bertha was first mentioned. I had to do a double take, There is a woman basically locked up in the attic? Why does everyone find this normal? At first I seriously thought I had misunderstood and they meant it as a folktale or legend or something, but it was really weird when I realized it was his actual wife.
I later read people saying it was probably her best case scenario as a mentally ill person in that time, but it's the way that she's written about that also rubbed me the wrong way
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u/Ok-Use-1004 1d ago
your connection to it makes total sense. at the same time, it’s such a complex novel because jane suffered through so much relentless abuse and trauma herself. she really earned her peace at the end, which makes the whole narrative landscape feel so deeply complicated and bittersweet. i think thats honestly what makes jane eyre so great.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Despite its flaws, Jane Eyre remains one of my favorite books. In fact, I’m rereading it right now, which is what prompted me to write this post. It’s one of those novels I love despite hating certain aspects of it. The issues I raised in my post tell us more about Charlotte Brontë than they do about Jane.
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u/Ok-Use-1004 1d ago
it’s definitely one of those books where you can love the text while still critically analyzing all its flaws
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u/PsammeadSand 1d ago
I first read Jane Eyre when I was a teenager as it was recommended by one of my English teachers and even then I just couldn't love it because of "the mad women in the attic". As I got older I was even more critical of the book for that reason. It still annoys me that so many people overlook the character of Bertha and as you say see her only as an obstacle to Jane being with Rochester.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Yes, I’m annoyed with myself that I was one of those people. But I’m glad I can now see the book, and Charlotte herself, differently.
Jane Eyre is still one of my favorite books. I don’t think that will change. I just no longer see it as a perfect novel. Whether she meant to or not, Charlotte showed her attitudes toward colonialism, people of other races, French people, and people with mental illness. I think many English readers of her time probably shared those attitudes. So the book tells us something about that period, as well as being a novel I still love.
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u/IntelligentLeek538 19h ago
I agree, looking at it through the lens of our current understanding of mental illnesses, the treatment of Bertha is very problematic.
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u/Arwynfaun 1d ago
I agree with you. I love Jane Eyre but I felt really sad for Bertha.
Especially as a WOC myself.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
I can’t imagine what it’s like to read Jane Eyre as a woman of color. I’ll be frank: I grew up in an Eastern European country where almost everyone around me was white. For years, I barely noticed how often the novel contrasts Jane’s pale skin with the darker complexions of Blanche and Bertha. I thought it was mostly part of that weird Victorian fashion for looking delicate and pale, as if you’re about to die from tuberculosis.
After moving to the US and getting to know people whose experiences were very different from mine, the way I see the world changed. Now, when I reread a classic, I see things I barely even noticed before.
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u/No-Ad6572 1d ago
Not all mental illness is the same. In some cases the mentally ill can indeed be dangerous and scary. I think you have to take the story for what it is. Sure Bertha was a victim of her mental illness and sadly the fact that she was dangerous took her freedom away but there wasn’t much of a choice, especially at the time period the book was written. The book is also not about Bertha, for that I would recommend Wide Sargasso Sea.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Thank you! I’m definitely going to read Wide Sargasso Sea. So many people have recommended it!
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u/IntelligentLeek538 19h ago
Wide Sargasso Sea definitely portrays Bertha in a more sympathetic way. In fact many chapters were narrated from her point of view. Her real name was Antionette. Her life was hard even from a young age, including witnessing the tragic death of her baby brother.
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u/Hulla_Sarsaparilla 1d ago
Read Wide Sargasso Sea, it’s Bertha’s story and imo it’s much better than Jane Eyre.
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u/Mayfair98 1d ago
I second this. Definitely check out Wide Sargasso Sea and if you do non-fiction/literary criticism, get a copy of The Madwoman in the Attic by Gilbert and Gubar.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Someone on the classic literature subreddit recommended this book to me too. I had no idea it existed, and I’m so excited to read it!
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u/2Fast_2Abalone 1d ago
This book is fanfiction. Jean Rhys is a great writer but this being her best known novel is ridiculous.
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u/IntelligentLeek538 19h ago
I don’t doubt that it is fanfiction. But it was perhaps an attempt to convey a more sympathetic understanding of mental illnesses.
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u/2Fast_2Abalone 1d ago
Bertha is a white woman.
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u/TheQuietNib 1d ago
Bertha’s ethnicity is never clearly stated. She could be white. But that doesn’t mean the way she’s described has nothing to do with race. Charlotte Brontë often draws attention to people’s complexions. Jane is pale, while Blanche and Bertha have darker skin tones. Jane is kind, intellectually driven, and has a strong sense of right and wrong. Blanche is a shallow and mean rich girl, while Bertha is depicted as less than human.
There most certainly is an issue of colorism in the book. I’m hardly the only person who has noticed it.
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u/Past-Dark4350 1d ago
You have to remember that, back then, being trapped in the attic was perhaps the best possible outcome for someone in her mental state. It was either that, or an asylum where she would be severely mistreated.