Jane Eyre Mr Mason Quotes

When Mr Mason is explaining the attack, he states that after Bertha had bitten him, ‘she sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart.' By repeating her statement, Mr Mason not only reads her as inhuman, a vampire figure, but he also takes language away from Bertha. During the novel, Bertha has no language, she is silenced by those around her.

Bertha is not only silenced by the males; moreover, the females also speak for her. The account given by Jane Eyre at the aborted wedding shows evidence of this claim.

A figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it groveled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing; and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.

This is the first encounter between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason; inasmuch, Jane is observing Bertha and no longer needs to speculate on the figure behind these noises and actions that have been taunting her. Jane is standing in front of Bertha,

though it is indeterminate what Bertha really is. Jane sees the human marker of clothing on Bertha, yet the animalistic markers outnumber this one human item. This brings Jane to calling Bertha "it" instead of "she", revealing a dominant social view on hysteria and how it dehumanised the patients.
What makes this passage even more significant is that it is Jane herself constructing these observations. These were not the comments of a man; they were those of a woman who could not understand what was happening to someone who should be just like her. By degrading Bertha to an “it”, Jane made herself the ideal woman, which is something she has never been. This episode allows Jane to show that she is the antithesis of the hysteric by embodying the correct attributes of domestic ideology. Not only does Jane make herself the more standard woman by observing Bertha as animal, Mr Rochester does too. He says, ‘Look at the difference! Compare these clear eyes with the red balls yonder – this face with that mask – this form with that bulk.’ This line instructs the reader to make the comparison between Jane and Bertha and see how opposite they are. During this wedding scene, Jane remains calm and restrained, performing her role correctly, while Bertha is the wild, hysterical woman refusing her role.
Although it is easy to contrast Jane and Bertha, their relationship is not that simple. The complexity that surrounds these two women is
‘Bertha, in other words, is Jane’s truest and darkest double: she is the angry aspect of the orphan child, the ferocious secret self Jane has been trying to repress ever since her days at Gateshead.’
‘Bertha has functioned as Jane’s dark double throughout the governess’s stay at Thornfield. Specifically, every one of Bertha’s apperances – or, more accurately, her manifestations – has been associated with an experience (or repression) of anger on Jane’s part.’
Jane is a potential hysteric, but not allowed to be. Therefore, Bertha does it as proxy.
The affinity between Jane and Bertha is first hinted at with the laugh. Jane finds herself constantly pulled back to the attics and whenever she is experiencing anger, she hears that laugh.
Jane also describes the laugh as ‘tragic, [and] as preternatural a laugh as any’ she had heard. These descriptions produce a superstitious aura around the attics of Thornfield Hall. These were the laughs of Bertha Mason, and these descriptions reveal how hysteria was viewed in the nineteenth century. It was otherworldly, and it was a woman who had lost control of her body and mind. While Jane had not met Bertha or even knew she existed, these laughs of unknown origins ignited a sense of fear within her. When she first hears the laugh, she says it was a laugh that was lacking amusement. While the outburst was unexpected and ceased for a while, it then commences louder and fills the halls. However, Jane is still unable to pinpoint the source of the laughter. Her second description of the laugh is similar to the first, yet it ends with the "odd murmur". Her final description is one of sadness and superstition, representing the torturous effects of hysteria. The laugh is a cry for help from someone who knows there is something wrong, but they are unable to fix it themselves.
Women in the nineteenth century were expected to look and act certain ways. They were described as feeble and meek, which makes Jane's observation of Bertha important. When Bertha attacks Mr Rochester, Jane notices that she ‘was a big woman, in stature almost equaling her husband.’ To have a woman compare to a man in stature is a significant detail in the novel’s representations of hysteria. Brontë has created a female character that is beyond all female stereotypes. She is tall and stronger than most women, which explains why Jane was in shock when she sees Bertha in person. Compared to Jane, who is the average and everyday woman, Bertha is depicted as quite frightening, making her less of a standard female. Her large figure also relays to society's women that if they were ridden with hysteria, they would lose every bit of agency they had to their body.
When Mr Rochester is forced to admit that Bertha Mason is his wife, he declares that he was unaware of her psychotic state, and was 'cheated into espousing' this ‘sort of being'.

This opinion is a representation of the husbands who felt burdened by their wives who became inconvenient. They felt that they had been cheated out of a devoted spouse because when she is hysterical, she cannot be successful in completing her social responsibilities as a woman and a wife. After an examination by medical doctors, Mr Rochester decides to hide her in the attic and pretend she does not exist. Feeling that she tarnishes his name by being his “mad wife”, he believes locking her away is the only solution. The separation between Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason is evident in the fact that Brontë never refers to her as Bertha Rochester. She is stripped of her married name to extinguish any connection to her

husband.
In the nineteenth century, it was a common practice to commit a wife to the asylum if she was rebelling against the domesticity standards set by Victorian society. Once committed, they were unable to appeal against the imprisonment and were forced to undergo whatever treatment the physician deemed necessary for their condition.
Expulsion
This lack of control over their body is represented in Jane Eyre through Bertha’s final actions. She was unable to speak for herself and was forced to live out her days in the attic until she eventually set the attic on fire and jumped out the window. Valerie Beattie called this exit grander than her presence throughout the novel. She stated, ‘Her glorious conflagration relies heavily on myth and signifies her final condemnation of Rochester and her refusal to face life on his terms. Instead, she chooses death on her terms.' This action was Bertha's last attempt to gain control of her life; moreover, if she were unable to speak for herself, then she would not speak at all. After she attacks Mr Rochester, he binds her to a chair with rope because she is too out of control to leave in charge of her body. Binding was a common practice in Victorian psychiatry for those suffering hysterical fits. Conolly wrote about hysteric patients that were accustomed to the fits inasmuch they would willingly walk to their beds to be tied down until their episode passed.
Bertha Mason’s character has been analysed in many ways, however, for this chapter she was analysed as a representation for hysteria in women. Brontë depicted the symptoms of the illness while producing a social view through the eyes of Jane Eyre. Although hysteria affected both men and women, it was socially a woman's illness. The medical professionals of the nineteenth century wrote on the topic, and many stated that it appeared to affect women more than men. This was due to the belief that women were more susceptible to emotional turmoil and diseases that affected their nervous system, in part because they were viewed as fragile mentally and physically. However, the more sinister side to women’s hysteria is their husbands using the illness as an excuse to imprison her either behind asylum walls or within the rooms of their home. Women were caught between being unable to speak for themselves, or act in ways that their husbands viewed as unacceptable. Brontë channeled the public debates on hysteria through her characters in Jane Eyre expressing many viewpoints. From Jane’s fear of Bertha to Mr. Rochester’s loathing of Bertha, and ultimately to Bertha’s actions, the reader is given the full picture of hysteria and the fears that accompany the illness. Consequently, these representations exploited the mid-century social fears surrounding the hysteria manifestation of mental illness.