One of the most startling scenes in Jane Eyre is when finally it is revealed that Mr. Rochester has been keeping his wife in his attic, in an attempt to keep her away from the eyes of society, and of course, his and Jane's. It is at once a tragic and horrifying scene as the woman comes into the view of the innocent love-struck heroine, who had no notion of Mr. Rochester's insane wife in the attic before the moment she is revealed. While Jane Eyre was a work of fiction, it is not such a far leap for a modern viewer to think that this would have been how Victorian families hid or dealt with their insane relatives, but was this sort of treatment of the mentally ill at home and under lock and key really the case? Or was Jane Eyre simply a work of fiction with little to none of it ground in reality at all? In this essay, the treatment of the mentally ill during the Victorian period both in the asylums and at home will be examined, as well as whether or not their actually was a mad woman in the attic.
In Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester explains that he could not lock away his poor wife in an institution due to the cruelty seen there, and instead chose to care for her at home to spare her the violence and cruelty of those places. This view was shared among his real life contemporary, one could not lock away his insane wife because when he visited it "Procter (who is a Lunacy Commissioner and knows them all) took me to his favourite place which makes me feel quite sick to think of even now. He shook his head about other places." This passage reveals that there were few good asylums, and those that did exist were often not seen as all that well to begin with. So, what was treatment like at these asylums? The mental institution of the Victo...
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...f fiction, it portrays madness as something which could be concealed and taken care of outside of the established institutions (though very poorly). Those that were kept at home as has been shown in this essay were kept there for a variety of reasons, and with likely varied results of success. Those who were locked away were done so not only out of pity as Mr. Rochester seems to have done in Jane Eyre, but also because there was a wish to treat and conceal the mad inside the home because of fear for their safety if they were to be in an
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asylum, or the family name. Was there a mad woman in the attic? There can be little doubt that some families may well have wanted to hide away their shameful family secrets by having them locked away in their house or in other properties. Was there a woman in the attic? It seems very likely that in some cases, yes there was.
Jane Eyre, written in 1847 by Charlotte Bronte, relates a tale of tragedy, mystery, and gothic romance. Covering the multiple issues of England in that time, Bronte writes of orphan treatment, social class, and Britain’s controversial law of prohibiting divorce in all circumstances. Orphaned at a young age and unwanted by her guardian Mrs. Reed, Jane searches for higher prospects in education at Lowood, eventually earning a position as a governess at Thornfield. Complications disrupt her life, when she becomes engaged to her employer, Mr. Rochester, and soon after discovers that he is already married to a lunatic. Leaving Thornfield, Jane finds a home with St. John and his two sisters. Eventually, she returns to her former employer, discovering Thornfield in ashes, Mrs. Rochester dead, and Mr. Rochester blind and free from wedlock. Flooded with motifs, Jane’s continual struggles between her passions and responsibility prevail as the main theme of Bronte’s entrancing narrative.
At that time, sick people were usually treated at home. A hospital was a place of last resort where the patient usually went to die. It was the same with mental patients. The asylum was a place of last resort where, if need be, the patient would spend the rest of their life (Getz 35). The doctor would use a system of incentives, rewards, and punishments to attempt to cure a patient. The patients would have to live their lives on a strict schedule. They were made to participate in various activities throughout the day including bathing, eating, taking medicine, exercising, and conversing with the physician. They were also allowed occupational, recreational, and educational activities (Luchins 471). By the 1870s, the funding for asylums all around the nation was nearly depleted. At that time the definition of insanity was very broad. More often than not, a lot of the mental patients in an asylum consisted of people with physical illnesses or foreigners who were misunderstood (Bernikow 1). This is very different from our society today. A forensic psychologist, Dr. Harry McClaren, has stated that the current legal definition of insanity is very hard to meet (Angier 1). At that time the conditions of ...
The three events that mark Jane as an evolving dynamic character are when she is locked in the red room, self reflecting on her time at Gateshead, her friendship with Helen Burns at LoWood, her relationship with Mr. Rochester, and her last moments with a sick Mrs. Reed. Brought up as an orphan by her widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed, Jane is accustomed to her aunts vindictive comments and selfish tendencies. Left out of family gatherings, shoved and hit by her cousin, John Reed, and teased by her other cousins, Georgina and Eliza Reed, the reader almost cringes at the unfairness of it all. But even at the young age of ten, Jane knows the consequences of her actions if she were to speak out against any of them. At one point she wonders why she endures in silence for the pleasure of others. Why she is oppressed. "Always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, forever condemned" (Bronte, 12). Jane’s life at Gateshead is not far from miserable. Not only is she bullied by her cousins and nagged by her aunt, but help from even Bessie, her nurse and sort of friend, seems out of her reach. In the red room scene Jane is drug by Ms. Ab...
Skultans, Vieda. English Madness: Ideas on Insanity 1580-1890. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1979.
This essay has recognised the way in which Bronte's romantic Gothic novel Jane Eyre portrays the supernatural, paranormal happenings and imagery throughout the story. It is important to recognise that her portrayal of Jane as a passionate woman with a strength of feeling which matched that of a man would have been seen as shocking and abnormal to Victorian sensitivity. Whilst Charles Dickens was able to paint a picture of blank facades which hid unsuspecting depths within, it would have been a revelation to Victorian readers to delve into the female psyche and its supernatural representations. (Branflinger and Thesing, 309) Thus Bronte created a masterpiece which has stood the test of time being relevant to the nature and supernatural of the modern world.
Chapter 23 of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre Jane Eyre begins by telling us about Jane's strict and unhappy upbringing with her upper class Aunt, Mrs. Reed. She is then sent to Lowood School where her only friend Helen falls ill and dies. When Jane is older she becomes a Governess working for Mr. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. Jane and Rochester fall in love but neither of them express their feelings to each other.
The main purpose of an insane asylum or mental hospital was to care for and provide treatment to the mentally ill. In the late 1800’s to early 1900’s this was not the case. Not only were the mentally ill forced to go into these institutions, but perfectly healthy people were admitted as well. Many of the perfectly healthy individuals, unfairly admitted, were women (Jean-Charles). These healthy women were placed in insane asylums simply because they were not an “obedient housewife and mother” (Jean-Charles). The divorce rates were very low during the late 1800’s partly because husbands could declare their wife as insane and abandon them in an insane asylum, instead of the taboo act of divorce (Jean-Charles). Though many of these women were in a healthy mental state going into these institutions, they soon lost their state of rationality (Jean-Charles). They became as insane as they were treated because of the harsh conditions in which they withstood. The victims in these institutions would
Jane Eyre is born into a world where she is left bereft of the love of parents, family, or friends, but instead surrounded by hateful relatives. She resolves to attend school to begin her quest for independence. This theme is seen through Jane’s behavior when she renounces her relation to her aunt Mrs. Reed, ignoring the nurse’s orders and leaving her room to see Helen again, and when she acquires the courage to speak her opinion to Mr. Rochester.
What comes to mind when you hear the words “insane asylum”? Do such terms as lunatic, crazy, scary, or even haunted come to mind? More than likely these are the terminology that most of us would use to describe our perception of insane asylums. However, those in history that had a heart’s desire to treat the mentally ill compassionately and humanely had a different viewpoint. Insane asylums were known for their horrendous treatment of the mentally ill, but the ultimate purpose in the reformation of insane asylums in the nineteenth century was to improve the treatment for the mentally ill by providing a humane and caring environment for them to reside.
In conclusion, Jane Eyre’s painstaking journey to find a sense of acceptance, affection, and family was finally completed, attaining the things she yearned. She eventually discovered everything she was searching for through Mr. Rochester, forgetting her agonizing past and looking to what was ahead. As Jane looked for many different alternatives to make her feel as if she was complete, she found that Mr. Rochester was the only one who could make her feel
Jane Eyre’s inner struggle over leaving an already married Rochester is the epitome of the new "lovemad" woman in nineteenth-century literature. Jane Eyre is the story of a lovemad woman who has two parts to her personality (herself and Bertha Mason) to accommodate this madness. Charlotte Bronte takes the already used character of the lovemad woman and uses her to be an outlet for the confinement that comes from being in a male-dominated society. Jane has to control this madness, whereas the other part of her personality, her counterpart, Bertha Mason, is able to express her rage at being caged up. As what it means to be insane was changing during Bronte’s time, Bronte changed insanity in literature so that it is made not to be a weakness but rather a form of rebellion. Jane ultimately is able to overcome her lovemadness through sheer force of her will.
Although written during both the Victorian and Gothic time period, Jane Eyre draws upon many revolutionary influences that ultimately enabled it to become one of the most successful books of all time. Jane Eyre is merely a hybrid of a Victorian and Gothic novel, infusing a share of dark allusions with overzealous romanticism. The primitive cultures of the Victorian period reflect high ethical standards, an extreme respect for family life, and devotional qualities to God, all in which the novel portrays. Yet, to merely label Jane Eyre as a Victorian novel would be misleading. While the characteristics of a Gothic no...
Madness is a common theme in literature from the Victorian Age and its relation to gender roles has a signification affect on society’s expectation and portrayal of women. The characters in Charlote Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret explore this theme of madness. Victorian society places rigid gender constructions of femininity and it is these novels that challenge the societal restraints designed to keep women constrained. When comparing the two novels, it is evident that there are different representations of madness as well as different fates of the characters that are accused of being mad, Lady Audley and Bertha. It was seen as though if one was unable to engage in a certain behavior expected of them, then
Murfin, Ross C. “Psychoanalytic Criticism and Jane Eyre.” Psychoalaytic Criticism: A Selected Bibliography. Easter Illinois University. NP. Web. 14 March 2014.
Women, in all classes, were still living in a world which was misogynistic and male-dominated. Their purpose in life was to produce male heirs and maintain the home by hiring and overseeing servants. It was also taboo for one to marry significantly below one’s social class. This is one reason that Jane is not a conventional heroine for the society of her time. Although, as a governess, she is not considered to be as low as a housemaid, she is still part of the hired help in the house. This is why it is unconventional for her and Mr Rochester to be in a relationship. Yet this is not as peculiar as how Jane Eyre ends their relationship due to her sense of betrayal. It would have been considered extremely foolish for a working-woman’s sense of betrayal to end and turn down a man of great wealth.