Rochesters Mad Women In The Attic

The madwoman in the attic the madwoman in the attic struck one of the first blows for feminist literary criticism and a uniquely female literary tradition.

Rochesters mad women in the attic.

It s near and dear to my heart because it s the first extended lit crit i ve ever read and also because it s about my favorite bunch of novels. Gilbert and gubar draw their title from charlotte brontë s jane eyre in which rochester s wife née bertha mason is kept secretly locked in an attic apartment by her husband. The first and most important point to make about her is that within the time span of the novel she is unable to give an account of herself. Attic that inspired jane eyre s madwoman in the attic bertha open for public tours.

The madwoman in the attic the most well known and problematic character in jane eyre is rochester s first wife who is almost always referred to by her maiden name of bertha mason. In the 1847 novel jane eyre charlotte bronte creates one of the most controversial characters in all of english literature. The 1966 parallel novel wide sargasso sea by jean rhys serves as a prequel to brontë s novel. The madwoman in the attic bertha mason.

The madwoman in the attic takes its title from the iconic early victorian novel jane eyre in this novel rochester s first wife bertha mason has gone mad and is kept locked in an attic. Jane hates rochester dolling her up like a princess so. In the madwoman in the attic they cast bertha as a passionate untrammelled woman who acts out jane s darkest most secret desires. Victorian well 19th century women s fiction.

Charlotte brontë s fictional character the mentally ill bertha mason is locked in the attic for ten years. Originally read as the novel s. The tragedy of the rochesters reignited the ancient storyline of a madwoman secretly confined influencing works such as wilkie collins s the woman in white and the chilling novella the yellow. The madwoman in the attic.

As she lived in a time when women were not encouraged to write charlotte bronte wrote under the pseudonym currer bell to avoid being ostracized by society and to avoid being badly received by the audience because the book was written by a woman.