Mad mad world.

Bertha Mason on my first reading came off as a very one dimensional character; Mr. Rochester’s crazy wife, the obstacle to Jane’s and Rochester’s love, an arsonist.  However, Bertha Mason, who we should be calling Mrs. Rochester but we don’t, represents something far more than that. Bertha Mason represents the non-European threat to English-ness. Bertha is a Creole, her father is English but Bertha isn’t identified as white and/or English. It’s her mother’s genes that are constantly emphasized. Three generations of her mother’s family were mad and Bertha took after them. 

“Bertha Mason is mad, and she came of a mad family; idiots and maniacs through three generations!”
Not only does it hint at the uncivilized existence of the non- English but also implies that if Mr. Rochester had had a child with Bertha i.e. if he had mixed his pure English roots with her Creole roots, the offspring would also take after the crazy lady and would be almost animalistic.

“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 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”

The fact that Jane refers to Bertha as “it” rather than her further dehumanizes the character of Creole. Moreover, this animalistic nature is constantly reemphasized by Mr. Rochester when he refers to Bertha as “a demon” and Jane as “something at least human”.

Bertha can be seen as an antithesis of Jane Eyre. The “Portrait of a governess” should have been juxtaposed against “The madwoman in the attic” instead of “Blanche, an accomplished lady of rank”. Unlike Blanche, both Jane and Bertha are reduced to a certain characteristic: that of governess and madwoman, Jane rises above her label. Jane represents English values and sensibility; she is not a stunning woman but she makes up for it in her manner. Bertha: exotically beautiful who is admired by many is, well, completely cuckoo. Mr. Rochester makes this comparison obvious when he asks Woods and Briggs to “look at the difference! Compare these clear eyes with the red eyes yonder”.

Bertha represents the impurification of the English by the Spanish.  Bertha Mason is what Jane Eyre is not; she represents an alien invasion of sorts into the civilized household causing only disturbance and despair. The despair that Mr. Rochester wanted to end by marrying Jane, who would set order back to the house.