Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Bertha Mason
Bertha Mason is a complex presence in Jane Eyre.
She impedes Jane’s happiness, but she also catalyses the growth
of Jane’s self-understanding. The mystery surrounding Bertha establishes
suspense and terror to the plot and the atmosphere. Further, Bertha serves
as a remnant and reminder of Rochester’s youthful libertinism.
Yet Bertha can also be interpreted as a symbol. Some critics
have read her as a statement about the way Britain feared and psychologically
“locked away” the other cultures it encountered at the height of
its imperialism. Others have seen her as a symbolic representation of
the “trapped” Victorian wife, who is expected never to travel or work
outside the house and becomes ever more frenzied as she finds no
outlet for her frustration and anxiety. Within the story, then,
Bertha’s insanity could serve as a warning to Jane of what complete
surrender to Rochester could bring about.
One could also see Bertha as a manifestation of Jane’s
subconscious feelings—specifically, of her rage against oppressive
social and gender norms. Jane declares her love for Rochester, but
she also secretly fears marriage to him and feels the need to rage
against the imprisonment it could become for her. Jane never manifests
this fear or anger, but Bertha does. Thus Bertha tears up the bridal
veil, and it is Bertha’s existence that indeed stops the wedding
from going forth. And, when Thornfield comes to represent a state
of servitude and submission for Jane, Bertha burns it to the ground.
Throughout the novel, Jane describes her inner spirit as fiery,
her inner landscape as a “ridge of lighted heath” (Chapter 4).
Bertha seems to be the outward manifestation of Jane’s interior
fire. Bertha expresses the feelings that Jane must keep in check.
The Red-Room
The red-room can be viewed as a symbol of what Jane must
overcome in her struggles to find freedom, happiness, and a sense
of belonging. In the red-room, Jane’s position of exile and imprisonment
first becomes clear. Although Jane is eventually freed from the room,
she continues to be socially ostracized, financially trapped, and
excluded from love; her sense of independence and her freedom of
self-expression are constantly threatened.
The red-room’s importance as a symbol continues throughout the
novel. It reappears as a memory whenever Jane makes a connection
between her current situation and that first feeling of being ridiculed.
Thus she recalls the room when she is humiliated at Lowood. She
also thinks of the room on the night that she decides to leave Thornfield
after Rochester has tried to convince her to become an undignified
mistress. Her destitute condition upon her departure from Thornfield
also threatens emotional and intellectual imprisonment, as does
St. John’s marriage proposal. Only after Jane has asserted herself,
gained financial independence, and found a spiritual family—which
turns out to be her real family—can she wed Rochester and find freedom
in and through marriage.
