A paper on jane eyre and beth book

1. Name: Hiranmay Roy
Roll no: 002100402026
Class: PG-II
Course: Nineteenth Century Women Novelists
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT-I
2. In what ways are Jamaica and Jamaicans depicted in Jane Eyre? Corroborate your answer with suitable
references to Charlotte Brontë’s novel.
Answer
One of the most important regions of the globe that was a part of Britain’s territorial expansion was the
Caribbean. The Caribbean region in the Central Americas comprises the modern-day nations of Jamaica,
Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname in the main. Among these, Jamaica plays an especially important
role within the context of Jane Eyre. The eponymous protagonist of the novel, Jane Eyre, is a lowly orphan
who takes up a position as a governess for Adele Varens, the daughter of Mr Edward Rochester at Thornfield
Hall. However, during her stay at the ancient manor of Thornfield, Jane is constantly made to be subjected to
uneasiness due to an inexplicable presence, the symptoms of which she chronicles, in chapter 11, “While I
paced softly on, the last sound I expected to hear in so still a region, a laugh, struck my ear. It was a curious
laugh; distinct, formal, mirthless. I stopped: the sound ceased, only for an instant; it began again, louder: for at
first, though distinct, it was very low. It passed off in a clamorous peal that seemed to wake an echo in every
lonely chamber; though it originated but in one, and I could have pointed out the door whence the accents
issued.” The laughter that Jane hears is eventually revealed to be that of Bertha Mason, who is a woman of
creole ancestry from Jamaica whom Mr Rochester had married a number of years prior to his to-be marriage
with Jane. In chapter 27 of the novel, Rochester recounts how he was sent to Jamaica to marry Bertha by his
father, “I was sent out to Jamaica, to espouse a bride already courted for me. My father said nothing about her
money; but he told me Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty: and this was no lie. I found
her a fine woman, in the style of Blanche Ingram: tall, dark, and majestic. Her family wished to secure me
because I was of a good race; and so did she. They showed her to me in parties, splendidly dressed. I seldom
saw her alone, and had very little private conversation with her. She flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my
pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy me. I was
dazzled, stimulated: my senses were excited; and being ignorant, raw, and inexperienced, I thought I loved her.”
Jamaica in the Victorian age was a British colony, and its importance as a region of sugar plantations is
a motif in the novel. In chapter 25, Bertha Mason’s appearance is narrated to be demonic by Jane in her
encounter with Bertha, on the night before the wedding ceremony between Jane and Rochester is to take place,
“Fearful and ghastly to me – oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face – it was a savage
face...the lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed: the black eyebrows widely raised over the bloodshot
eyes. Shall I tell you of what it reminded me?...Of the foul German spectre – the Vampyre.” The novel’s
portrayal of Bertha Mason, the Jamaican woman of creole racial origin, is that of a mad woman, almost infernal,
in character, that Rochester keeps locked up in his attic. Bertha’s violently subjugated existence at Thornfield is
an allegory of Britain’s treatment of its colonies, which at his height was also characterized by violence and
subjugation. Bertha’s madness can be argued to be the result of her subjugation.
According to the twentieth-century Postcolonial theorist Edward W. Said, the culture of the imperialists
regards itself as possessing supremacy over the culture of the colonized subjects. Said argues that the colonized
native population in the context of the imperialist project is seen as being alien to the colonizer’s culture. As a
result, there is an idealization whereby the colonized culture is seen as an outsider to the colonizer’s culture.
Thereby, Said argues that if the culture of the colonizer is considered by the colonizer to be a constituent of the
“Self”, the culture of the colonized is thus, designated as an “Other”, and the act creating such a binary is
therefore known as “Othering”. The theory and the practice of “Othering” is a result of the dehumanization and
subordination of the colonized culture. In the binary of the Self and the Other, therefore, lies a complete matrix

2. of ideals that make the binary of the Self and the Other possible, such as race, culture, ethnicity and so on. In the
context of Bertha Mason, it can be argued that it is her race and her ethnicity that allow for the practice of
“Othering” to take place. Although one may argue that there exists an element of ambivalence with regard to
Bertha’s “Othering” since she is racially of creole origin, that is, of a mixed racial origin, what can be asserted
is that since she is a woman of Jamaican origin, her identity as a Jamaican is seen as barbaric, savage,
subhuman vis-a-vis the English.
If one chooses to argue on the lines of the French Historian Michel Foucault, who wrote extensively on
the politicization of medical conditions, especially Madness, in what he termed “Biopolitics”, one may argue
that Bertha’s characterization as a madwoman suffering from syphilis is, in essence, a result of the
medicalization of the clinical conditions, madness and syphilis, in the form of a bio-political discourse, of
hegemony and dehumanization. Since Bertha is a woman of Jamaican origin, in the colonizer’s gaze she is a
being of severely deficient intellectual and cognitive abilities, because of her uncivilized and savage-like
cultural origins. Moreover, what can also be stated is that within the matrices of Jamaican culture, there exist
practices that the colonizer(in the case of Jane Eyre, the British), would perceive with great skepticism and fear
owing to their violent and diabolic undercurrents. Practices such as the Obeah, which is similar to the practice
of Voodoo in African societies, are practised in Jamaica, and that is perhaps why the portrayal of Bertha is
violent as well as insane, yet again a result of her Jamaican origins. She incinerates the tapestries in Mr
Rochester’s chamber and later incinerates the manor house in its entirety, self-immolating herself. Furthermore,
the fact that she is syphilitic may be explained by the perception of white colonizers of the natives being
uncontrollably libidinal and lascivious in nature, which, according to the colonizers is the root of diseases such
as syphilis. Moreover, in Victorian England, there existed a medical notion that associated venereal diseases
exclusively with women.
However, it may also be argued that Charlotte Brontë is not entirely unsympathetic towards Bertha
Mason. Bertha appears in Jane’s chamber and mutilates Jane’s wedding veil, which explains that despite the
inhumane treatment meted out to her by Rochester, perhaps there is an undying love within her for Rochester, a
love that shall be contaminated should the wedding between Jane and Rochester be consummated. Thus, Brontë
portrays Bertha as not merely an insane feminine character, it can be argued that Bertha’s portrayal explains her
unfathomable love towards Rochester, thereby making her a mad woman who is madly in love with Rochester.
Furthermore, if one is to consider the history of Jamaica, especially the history of colonial plantations in
Jamaica, one encounters a history that is highlighted by rebellions, rebellions which sought to usher in
independence from the colonial owners and administrators of the plantations. Therefore, it may be argued that
Brontë’s portrayal of Bertha is that of a ferocious rebellious force, a rebellious force that seeks to liberate itself
from the confines of her hideous fate. Bertha’s incineration of Thornfield and her self-immolation can therefore
be interpreted as an act of violent liberation, a liberation from all spheres of human ontology. The trope of
madness, therefore, can be understood as the expression of rage and an undying desire to break free from the
shackles of conformity.
Moreover, Brontë, being a woman novelist, is subverting the norms of traditional literary creation.
Therefore, the element of rebelliousness is present in the very act of Brontë creating the character of Bertha
Mason, a revolt against the notion of conforming to preexisting ideals. As Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar
argue in The Madwoman in the Attic, a figure like Bertha Mason permits the female author to, “come to terms
with their own uniquely female feelings of fragmentation, their own keen sense of the discrepancies, what they
are and what they are supposed to be”. Therefore, for Brontë, it is the Jamaican madwoman who becomes the
vehicle that allows her to assert her liberation from the preexisting norms of literary production.
In conclusion, therefore, it may be argued whereas certain analyses would deem the portrayal of Bertha
Mason and by extension, Jamaica, to be grotesquely racist and dehumanizing, which can be argued to be true in
certain aspects, Brontë’s portrayal of Jamaica and Jamaicans remains far from being an excessively racist or
dehumanizing portrayal. Thus, in the final analysis, one may argue that Brontë’s portrayal of Jamaica and
Jamaicans through the character of Bertha Mason remains ambivalent.

3. 3.What do you understand by the term New Woman? Why do you think Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book is
universally labelled as a New Woman novel?
Answer
The term “New Woman” is used to describe a feminine ideal in the twilight years of the nineteenth century. The
New Woman is described as a woman who typifies economic, sexual and social liberation for the female sex. In
other words, the term is used to describe women who strove to transcend the sociocultural norms imposed by
the overtly patriarchal social structure. Therefore, the archetype of the New Woman was underlined by a greater
degree of openness towards one’s sexuality and possible spinsterhood owing to the New Woman’s belief in
greater sexual and social equality and skepticism towards institutional marriage and its failure to reconcile
equality on the grounds of sex. Furthermore, the New Woman, owing to her strong belief towards economic and
intellectual amelioration was normally employed in a salaried occupation and was usually a voracious reader.
Moreover, the New Woman was also associated with outgoing behavioural characteristics and an increasingly
assertive physical constitution and vigour. Such radically changed characteristics also meant that the New
Woman engaged in outdoor activities and activities that were hitherto seen as exclusive to males. One of the
most important activities that involved physical vigour outdoors in the context of the New Woman was
bicycling. The act of bicycling also entailed that the New Woman had to wear garments that could facilitate
easier bicycling. This meant that a large number of women bicyclists wore garments that were masculine,
thereby pushing the stereotypical notions associated with the traditionally held conventional female ideal to the
absolute limit. The New Woman, therefore, was a paragon of feminine assertion and a symbol that advocated a
greater degree of equality between the two sexes.
Sarah Grand, the author of The Beth Book, was also a pioneer of the New Woman ideal. The Beth Book,
which narrates the life of Elizabeth Caldwell, is a bildungsroman, which is a narrative which chronicles the
coming-of-age of an individual. In The Beth Book, the reader encounters a bildungsroman with a female
protagonist at the centre of the narrative. This is in stark contrast to the conventional form of the bildungsroman
which was hitherto usually centred upon male protagonists. Beth, the protagonist of the novel, is portrayed as
navigating through her girlhood into adolescence and subsequently into her adulthood. From her childhood, the
reader sees that similar to a New Woman, Beth is subverting the traditional sociocultural norms that are
associated with a sexed binary. Therefore, one sees Beth dressing up in boys’ garments and engaging in outdoor
activities such as hunting. Beth is married to Dr Daniel Maclure, who works at a lock hospital, an institution in
nineteenth-century England that was dedicated to the treatment of Contagious diseases such as Gonorrhea and
Syphilis, diseases that were exclusively associated with women. Dan is portrayed as being cruel and cold, and
their marriage gradually disintegrates. Beth’s blossoming into a New Woman takes place when she finds a tiny
room in the attic which allows her to have a secluded niche of her own. It is here that Beth not only blossoms
into a New Woman but also an artistic genius. Beth, who is prolific in needlework, creates beautiful
embroideries and sells them in London, thereby gaining a degree of economic liberation, however infinitesimal.
Furthermore, similar to her creator Sarah Grand who was a vocal advocate of writing and creating for women,
Beth also decides to start writing for women, thereby transforming her into a full-fledged New Woman and an
artist, a life of an artistic genius. Beth subsequently transforms into a female individual who starts having an
active public life, becoming a public speaker on women’s issues, for her association with her husband who
works at a lock hospital allows her to be vocal about issues such as contagious diseases and the operation of
lock hospitals for women. Furthermore, Beth had found that her husband was a vivisectionist, and he conducted
zoological experiments on live animals without subjecting them to anaesthesia. The New Woman that Beth
transforms into is also vocal about such cruelties being meted out to animals in the name of scientific inquiry.
Her intellectual acumen in her attack against vivisection is reflected by the fact that she used the arguments
made by champions of anti-vivisection such as Dr Elizabeth Blackwell and Frances Cobbe.
In conclusion, the archetype of the New Woman is reflected in The Beth Book via its protagonist, who
undergoes a metamorphosis in her consciousness which allows her to transcend the barriers of preexisting
notions of sexed dynamics and to assert herself in the world. Beth is shown as maturing from a girl subverting
gender expectations to a woman with a public life who has “a room of her own”, a liberated economic stature
and a voice to be assertive. Beth is, therefore, similar to the other New Women of her age, is a “Brave New

4. Woman”, a class of empowered women who were indefatigable in their courage and conviction towards the
nascent Feminist ideals, which began to take shape at the same time when the idea of the New Woman was
popular. The character of Beth and the conception of the New Woman, in general, inspired a later generation of
female writers who would write on the issues pertaining to the lives of women and their aesthetic production,
such as Virginia Woolf, who in her book-length essay titled A Room of One’s Own, advocated economic
independence for women, and argued that economic independence was a necessity in allowing women to
fruitfully engage in intellectual and aesthetic production.