Rereading Jane Eyre: Forced on Subversion, Resistance, Insanity of Others

Much has been written about Charlotte Bronte"s Jane Eyre from feminist perspectives since the 1970"s which marks the beginning of the feminist criticism. One of the distinctive features of these feminist approaches was to focus on an oppressed female character like Jane Eyre as a woman who overcame the sense of 'otherness' created by the male centered society. In the Victorian age, an ideal female before marriage meant a woman with a beautiful appearance and a submissive attitude to her parental authority. It can be said that in this novel the stereotype of female, suffering from the patriarchic culture, are Jane and Bertha. Bertha suffers another type of oppression from her own gender, represented by Jane Eyre; she is treated as a racial 'other'. Accordingly Bertha is presented as Jane"s double, as the inner dark aspect of Jane. Jane also participates in the process of creating such an image of Bertha in this novel. As a Creole and mad woman Bertha is more oppressed than Jane, and finds out a way to the world in the process of the strong oppression, while Jane overcomes her limitations as a underprivileged woman and finally becomes a privileged woman in her society.