Female Characters in Jane Eyre and Rebecca - Essay Example

Female characters in Jane Eyre and Rebecca By + Introduction Rebecca shares many aspects of the plot used in Jane Erye structure. She also offers multiple characters that are parallel to the original work that was done. Redemption of the Bertha character demonstrates the enormous strides that were made between 1847 and 1966 in the depiction of women who were marginalised (Peel, 2013). Writing of Bertha as a character received more attention given to Victorian Cliché as a mad woman. Comparison and contrast The first wife of Rochester brings out the contemporary attitudes towards insanity of female. This depiction that she has on Bertha acts as a negative illustration of dangerous female excessively against which the plain and devout Jane may define herself so that she succeeds in her own narrative (Peel, 2013). On the other side, Rebecca has not suspected any insanity which is never implied as homosexuality and perversity. The bond that Danvers has with the late De Winter is seen as not just that of a servant and mistress relationship but is also brought out to be stronger than just a normal companionship. The love is portrayed in the characters used in the novels. In both novels, there is retelling the stories from a known future with emphasis given to rationality rather than relating events as they unfold in the story. Publication of Jane Erye was as a faux autobiography which would need revision for an eventual audience. The heroin of Rebecca also tells her story from a future perspective of boredom. This is illustrated by boredom experienced by Rebecca and Maxim. She took her exciting moment in her life retelling and dwelling on Rebecca case (Peel, 2013). Jane represented the female desires. Meaning that if a female is not satisfied, then the society is not ready for presentation. The intention of feminist in the novel cannot be doubted as she insists on the issues that women just feel as men. It also explains their faculty for expressing their feelings that are supressed. There is realistic expression of the boundaries and limitations that Victorian women have in marriage. The limitation in feminist agenda is intended for the white woman (Peel, 2013). Bronte brings out a women writer’s quest for her story as Gilbert and Gubar write through giving her the agency of expression by the use of female gothic by using it as the language of her ambitions as a female. This is different in other situations such as in Bertha Mason having served the purpose of bringing out Jane. Jane is characterised as having a controlled passion of limited space in the Victorian society. The climactic death jump of Bertha in Jane Eyre and of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea, present a drastic contrasts to the quiet, pious brush surrounding the death of Jane Eyre on the moors. It also represents the narrow escape of an unidentified heroine and also sexually charged inspection of suicide during a convincing chat with Mrs. Danvers. Different from the two earlier narrators, Antoinette continually trifle with her own death, enjoyable suicidal propensities since the burning of her childhood home where she was brought up (Peel, 2013). Neither Jane nor the heroine really yield to their potential untimely deaths, but the death of a young woman trope establishes itself even more strongly in Rebecca than in either of the other two novels. Rebecca, herself a beautiful and seemingly beloved young woman, has been dead a year at the novel’s beginning. The cult interest involved in propagating Rebecca’s memory at Manderley hearkens back to the nineteenth century fixation with female death. There are differences that occur in the characters in the novel. The parallels that occur between Jane and Bertha bring out the fact that if John seeks love, identity and equality, she has to repress the passionate side of her. The novel brings out a situation that if Bertha was crawling on all the four legs like an animal, Jane was like a mad cat. This brings about a picture of passion in the Red Room and then brings out a suggestion that Jane, similar to Bertha was punished for expression passion. From comparison with the ‘mad cat’ to the ghostly hateful elf, like a “linnet” she has to structure herself as being unfilled of sexuality. Rochester links Jane’s vibrant eyes to the red balls yonder craving to observe in Jane what is referred to by Helen Moglen as the angelic woman removed of all sensuality and sexuality. Jane’s own outsider position in Victorian society as a governess, and her state where she is brought out as an unloved, poor orphan for the majority part of the novel reveal inducement for Jane’s climb up the social ladder, and her potential motivation to alter the facts of her experiences (Peel, 2013). The heroine of Rebecca that is unnamed unlike that of Jane is completely dismissive of the importance that herself she has. This is much that she never discloses her name to the audience, instead focusing on schoolgirls daydream and little jealousness through the novel. She is obsessed with collecting information from friends, servants and family and comes into contact with the hopes of constructing a portrait of Rebecca against which she can compete for the love of Maxim. The same way Jane defines herself against the Victorian madwoman in the depiction of an animal that she gives to Bertha, so does Mrs. De Winter have the hopes of differentiating herself from the sexual and dysfunctions of Rebecca’s private life through relaying her own dreams of a companionate, sexless and a marriage that is scandal free. There is symbolic function that is used to bring the importance of dreams and the paintings used in Jane Erye. There are voices of anxiety that are due to being trapped as the angels that are left in the house. The trap is due to marriage and is prophetic on how ambition of Jane as a female is achieved within the gothic framework of the novel. Jane in the novel is aware of the troubles that their marriage. The “tensions of the engagement period” (Gordon) are voiced through dreams, so is the prophetic escape of Jane from this unequal marriage. When Jane comes to the “dreary ruin” of Thorn field on a moonlit night in her dream, it is an indication that that patriarchal authority will give way to accept Jane as an equal. Mrs De Winter is much intrigued by Rebecca than the way Jane is intrigued by Bertha. The heroin through the reason continues to collect evidence of her predecessor’s lifestyle, manners, and appearance, in order that she might soon concurrently please Maxim and compliment her own pride by picking and selecting some impossible similarities and alterations between herself and the two contradictory versions of Rebecca The representation that was used in bringing out the entrapped female bodies in the novel leads to the issue of suppression of sexuality of female. Bertha is used as a symbol of Gothic which female passion and sexuality is represented. Bertha in the novel is described as being Foul German vampire who is displaying virile force and is almost equal to the stature of her husband (Peel, 2013). The intention of the representation is that it was intended typo show that when a woman is not trapped and enclosed within the limits of domesticity that is socially approved, she would be shut behind the small back door in Bluebeards castle. As noted by Elaine, the precocity that was in Bertha’s attack shows that there was a connection to the menstrual cycle. This is a critique to the society which was bent on controlling sexuality of female, the expression that was considered to be madness. In the old days, there was believe by physicians that menstrual cycle in female would cause inanity in women, making them attack people and even destroy property that she came across. This is shown in Bertha when she bites her brother Mason and Jane is called. This is to ensure that the event is recorded in her memory. There is acknowledgement of female anxiety in the novels but there is lack of acknowledgement of the voices in Victorian women. The plot also in its resolution does not suggest the reason that though Jane cannot fall in love with Rochester, she has to be able to get economic independence and a family that will enable uniting with him and him too has to change. The [punishment of Rochester is a symbol showing lack of any other ,means that would make him Jane’s equal in an overtly patriarchal world. In the situation in which Jane cannot be able to marry Rochester due to the fear that she has of losing her identity by his overpowering her and giving to her material gift, Bertha rents the veil used by the bride to show that there was failure of their marriage (Peel, 2013). Bertha then tries to burn Rochester after he has confides in Jane. In this aspect, Bertha acts as the agency that Jane could have, having repressed the socially improper shades of passion in her, having attained the stable behaviour of Miss Temple, if not the extreme limit of Helen Burns. When the child in Jane’s dreams deceases, rolling from the knees of Jane, representative of Bertha’s death, so symbolic of the demise of younger Jane’s desire, gothic interference takes Jane to Rochester. Jane Eyre use threshold in representing women in the novel. In different instances of Jane’s narration, and association with the unexpected appearance of Bertha, Jane describes herself as standing on a threshold. This is during the first time Bertha laughs and wakes her up from her sleep. There is argument that Jane berth acts as a projection of the dark desires of Jane and repressed anger due to her liminal position in the society. In this, there is revelation of the most serious betrayal of Jane to the expectation of the reader of her narrative. The threshold slips of narrative reliability are also present in Jane Eyre’s plot. On the other hand, the heroine discomfort with Manderley and the frequent hesitations that she has over doorways and in passageways throughout Rebecca are not only representation of Gothic Genre that is subscribed by du Maurer but also demonstrates chances when heroin second guesses herself with the wish that she could become the madwoman (Peel, 2013). There is fear of threshold and passageways by de Winter, beginning with her assertion that she together with Maxim are not able to go back and through this, she begins the second chapter of the novel. The common similarity that is brought out in the two novels is gendering setting. In Jane Erye, there is bringing out of masculine seat of the power that Rochester have, the feminized Fern dean, where in the situation, Jane and him are reunited and live happily ever after. Manderley from its aggressively sexualized azaleas to its influential sea theme is from start to end Rebecca’s domain, and at the very instant the unnamed heroine has an opportunity to finest her influential precursor, Mrs. Danvers burns Manderley to the ground, destroying the future wealth and family hopes of the couple, and dooming them to listless, childless wandering for the remainder of their lives. The comparison of female and male species and the association that they have with the madwomen in the novel brings about powerful physical loci to the intrinsically female madness. This is shown in the acts of burning homes in order to conquer a male even in the cost of committing suicide. In Jane Erye, Bertha destroys Thornfield which leads to castration of Rochester and the reunion that he had with Jane but he is no longer the dominant force that is in their relationship (Peel, 2013). In Rebecca, Danvers burns Manderley so that she could see Maxim and the heroine happy without Rebecca. The mental instability of Antoinette can be linked to the destruction that she made to the home of her beloved family. She is then later driven from her mother’s honeymoon home by the force of will that is brought by Rochester and gets a concurrent revenge and release from the captivity in her plans to destroy Thornfield. Conclusion There is use of imagery of enclosed space of the houses used to explore the constrictions that are placed on the female body and the fear that the narration have of female incarceration within domestic spaces. The similarities in the novels are more that the differences. The plots used and traits of the characters are also similar with minimal differences. The narrations bring out the female characters in the socio-cultural context. Reference Peel, K. (2013). Jane Eyre. Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, a division of EBSCO Information Services. Read More