Bertha Mason ‘The Mad Woman in the Attic’: A Subaltern Voice

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the mediums and effects of voice and silence in the life of a female character in the famous Victorian novel, Jane Eyre. This minor characterthat has been termed ‘mad’, ‘crazy’, and ‘violent’, and even though is absolutely essential to the plot, has no representation of her own. Bertha Mason, otherwise known as the ‘Mad woman’ is a typical representation of a woman as a victim of both patriarchy and colonialism. By analyzing the character of Bertha as a victim of social standards, followed byJean Rhys’ portrayal of her in her postcolonial work Wide Sargasso Sea, we are able to discover the subaltern voice of Bertha Mason. This research attempts to explore the inequitable portrayal of Bertha through re-thinking of her not as a madwoman but as a victim and ultimately comprehending the entirety of her madness. The method of investigation for this research is analytical and descriptive.